I had to travel into downtown today to put a rush on a passport reprint due to my visa pages being full. When I was faced with a three hour waiting period, I realized today was going to be the day I finally made it over to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Museum an the CDC Headquarters next to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
The exhibits themselves were of very high quality, but the overall quantity of the exhibits was rather low. I’m cool with that as A) the CDC has many other important things to do than to have a kick-ass museum and B) admission was free! Most of the rest of this blog post is just of pictures that I took while wondering around.
This next one brought unpleasant memories from Army Basic Training when they just zapped everyone with a high-pressure injector like this! Don’t flinch when they are using this on you!!
Glad I finally visited this museum, but for visitors there are surely many other points of interest ahead of this one and I don’t feel it is a “day one” activity for any visitor beyond the virologists and epidemiologists among us. 
One of the benefits of my job is that when I’m not delivering training classes in front of my clients, I can work anywhere that I can get my laptop connected to a quality high-speed internet connection. Last week, I took advantage of that flexibility and went back to Waco to visit my mother in the evenings after work. While I had a great time visiting mom, this post is focused on all the other “extra” things I got to see and do while there.
First up, I had to get out to Texas. Waco is only about 100 miles south of DFW airport, but it seems the route from ATL to DFW had a little detour to Africa for some reason.
That glitch was there the whole flight and I was talking to some of the crew afterwards and none of them said they have ever seen anything like that before. Good news is the folks on the flight deck knew what they were doing and we got there is great time.
I like to take pictures of Airport Ceilings, but DFW is pretty lame on this front. Fortunately, the car rental center had some eye candy!
I’m a big fan of National’s pick-any-car model for rentals and when I saw this cool Lone Star edition of a RAM pickup with a Hemi engine, I had to pick this vehicle from the lineup.
I got into Waco way past midnight, but my older sister who offered up her guest bedroom to me for the week was waiting up for me. In the morning, the truck was still looking awesome and the daylight helped remind me that I was jealous of the property sizes in her neighborhood – as well as her husband’s HUGE workshop!
A found a cool coshare office space to work for the week, www.wacowork.com, but I had to get through downtown Waco before I could arrive. Maybe you don’t know who Joanna & Chip Gaines are, but they are continuing to bring focus to Waco, Texas. To my surprise, even first thing on Monday morning the lines are already forming at the Silos!!!
I got to see a bit more of downtown, too.
I finally made it down to WacoWork’s dirt parking lot and soaked in the view of the REAL downtown Waco as seen below.
I’m not picking on Waco, it simply is not a large metropolis like Dallas / Fort Worth to the north on I-35 or Austin and San Antonio to the south. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some unique architecture. The Grand Lodge of Texas was just across the street from where I parked.
Yes, I figured I’d better finally go on in to work and I received a super awesome welcome at WacoWork.
A great workspace to spread out, put your headphones on, turn up some Rage Against the Machine, and get some work done with a smile on your face.
The Dr Pepper Museum is only a few blocks away. I visited it years ago, but for this trip I settled on taking a few external photo of the home of my most favorite soda.
🎶 I'm a pepper he's a pepper she's a pepper we're a pepper wouldn't you like to be a pepper too? 🎶
source: https://www.lyricsondemand.com/g/garthbrookslyrics/drpeppercommerciallyrics.html
Speaking of Joanna & Chip, the local news reported they purchased the Cottanland Castle and it is expected they will renovate it and open it back up as a B&B.
I know… that doesn’t look all that much like Texas, so these next two pictures are here to get you back in the right mood!!
I did not grow up in Waco. I spent much of my youth in Ft Worth, but my family was living down in Waco when the David Koresh and the Branch Davidian raid at the Mount Carmel Center was underway. Most of us remember how that turned out. 😞 In all the years I’ve visited Waco I have never visited the site. This trip it was made abundantly clear to me by a friend that I needed to go. Probably not known by many, but there is a practicing religious group there today and they are very open to discussing their faith and the leading up to, and the aftermath of, the ATF raid.
As the sign on the gate says, if it is open then come on in!!
Just inside the gates and behind the welcome sign is a memorial to those who lost their lives that fateful day back on April 19, 1993.
The names of the children who died are highlighted in white.
A short drive takes to you to a church building that has been built at the center of where the original compound burned down.
This is the group’s actual chapel, but they have lined the walls with information about the event and staff an information booth with a knowledgeable person. I overheard the gentleman that was manning the booth say, “when I first met David…” as part of a conversation with some other visitors. I described the event and the gentleman to my sister who stated he was the person in charge of the church before Koresh.
You can see where the current chapel is by the call-out in the picture above. Today, there seems to be nothing remaining of the original compound except for the eerie swimming pool half full with rainwater.
Off in the distance behind the pool you can see the homes where the current church members live as well in the picture below taken at the edge of the ranch where No Trespassing signs are placed.
For the most part, you just see a peaceful and beautiful piece of Central Texas which makes it hard to visualize the events that unfolded so many years ago.
In many ways, this whole experience reminds me of how grateful I am to be an American. Our Constitution heavily emphasizes separation of church and state which coupled with so many freedoms allows a group like this to just keep on being who they want to be and to practice whatever religion that choose to. Let me be clear, I am not endorsing them as I simply do not now enough of their history and beliefs, but I am happy they have religious freedom. I also believe all groups do need to operate within the laws and to some part, norms, of the society they live in.
Speaking of these good old United States I am a proud veteran and citizen of, I have noticed on my last few visits a Confederate flag on the side of I-35 as you are heading southbound into Waco. This trip I decided I would pull over and check it out.
As before, please do not take this as an endorsement of anything in particular, but it is clearly a mark of the freedoms we have for a group to raise this. As you’ll notice, it is surrounded by a tall fence and you might not see the two video cameras inside. Clearly, this is something put in place due to the vandalism, and the call for many Confederate monuments to be removed, that have been in the news for several years now. I personally am not suggesting we take down the moments of the past, but I am also aware of the pain many of these cause for many in the black community.
Furthermore, I call BS on most of the “Heritage, Not Hate” crowd. Yes, there are many well thought out articles out there, but while I’m not a big gambler I would be willing to wager a large sum that the majority of folks out there regularly waving their Confederate flags don’t know jack shit about the history of the Civil War. Furthermore, if they took a few minutes to truly be empathetic about how that symbol is received by so many… they might actually be ashamed for making such a big deal about it. Again, it is our history and we should NOT throw it out and forget about it. But, there is that age old adage about learning from your past mistakes so you don’t repeat them again.
I know… not everyone agrees with me… Good News – this is America and we can PEACEFULLY disagree with each other AND we actually don’t even have to hate each other; just agree to respectively disagree.
Phew… let’s bring it back to something easy! Nothing unifies folks like ranch animals!!
I really enjoyed hanging out at my mom’s place this week. It is nice to be out in the wide open and the weather was great. The last night I grabbed some sunset photos. I love that my mom has this view every single day!!
After my week-long internal conference ended, I had the afternoon and evening available to spend in Seattle. First, up, the Pike Place Market.
I actually had my iPhone out when some of the fresh seafood vendors decided to do the obligatory fish toss, so I switched to movie mode and recorded this ritual. When they finished, I pushed the red button to stop the video and then watched the counter tick up to one second and then two. Yep… I missed the whole thing! Here’s what my video should have shown.
On the west side of the market there are great views of Puget Sound.
On the east side of the market you can see that you are on the edge of downtown.
From this exact spot you can also see the very first Starbucks. If you blink you just might miss it!!
The real highlight of the day was to go see, and to go up into, the Space Needle.
The night before while checking out the Marvel Superheroes at Seattle's MoPOP, I was able to take these same shots in the dark.
Here is what the MoPOP looks like from the outside.
Once you take the quick elevator ride up 520 feet, you are greeted with floor-to-(no)-ceiling glass walls on the upper deck of the Space Needle.
Incredible views from all around this circular platform.
You can then take the spiral staircase down to the lower deck and have fun on the glass floor if you dare.
A great place for a selfie and to just admire the view.
I love this one with Needle’s shadow casting over the city below.
I then took the hour-long ferry to Bremerton and was treated to some pretty city views from Puget Sound.
I witnessed a beautiful sunset on the way and enjoyed a nice seafood dinner at Anthony’s just feet from the landing once I arrived and then returned back on the ferry and dragged myself back to the hotel for my last night in town.
While out in Seattle, I was fortunate enough to visit the Museum of Pop Culture and thrilled to find out they had a very cool Marvel exhibit. Yes, Lester get happy… Lester get strong!
The Hulk and I weren’t the only bigguns; Ben was there, too!
Zoe’s favorite Marvel movie was represented with some cool superhero costumes.
And yep, the God of Thunder and his brother were well covered.
And every time I see these horns, I can’t stop hearing Immigrant Song in my head!!!
Mr. Stark’s world…
Cap!!!
Not to mention some G’s of the G.
There were plenty more favorite Marvel characters, but while they did not give him the special place he deserves in my heart, I was glad for at least some treatment for my favorite Marvel character of them all; Daredevil.
