As usual, this is from the perspective of our travel companion, Sameer Hinduja. Thanks again, Pap!

Only took a few pictures on this trip...

This is a review of our trip to Atlanta for the 2001 American Society of Criminology conference. Justin decided to bring his wonderful wife Jill along with us, and so the three of us drove down to Detroit early Thursday morning, caught a shuttle from the parking lot to the airport, and proceeded to figure out the quickest way to get to our gate. Now, we had planned to allot a good amount of time, because we weren't sure as to what all security measures had been implemented following the September 11 tragedies, and we didn't know how long lines would be to get past checkpoints. Well, the Metro Detroit airport was an absolute zoo, even at a relatively early time of 7:00 am. Thankfully, many airport employees were on hand to bring some organization to the frenzied throngs of people, but we were quite concerned that we'd be waiting in a line to get through the metal detectors for a few hours - and thereby miss our flight. We had already checked in our bags curbside, and so we just had to get past one checkpoint, but the line for it seemed inordinately long. So, I figured I had better ask someone (and I am sure not hesitant to ask someone, as I am secure in my masculinity!) and so I found a Northwest employee and told him our situation, and he suggested we go back outside and down towards the adjoining hotel, and go through a security checkpoint over there that likely was less crowded. So, we jetted over there and still had to wait in line, but thankfully it only took about twenty minutes for us to get through it.

This, however, did not occur without an incident worth mentioning. Justin and Jill got through with no problems, but stupid me had forgotten that there was a small pocketknife and a small pair of scissors in my shaving kit (who ever takes the time to check the contents of their travel shaving kit?!?!), and my backpack got searched and the lady was like, uh, you can't have this, and so I responded, that's fine, take it, you can have it. Then she pointed to my bag of Skittles, and said, you're not allowed to have that on the plane - and so I sighed in resignation and said, fine, you can have it, I don't want it. And then she smiled and replied, "Just kidding!" And everyone around us started laughing, and I felt like such a doofus...but it just goes to show you that man you are on pins and needles when you are going through those security checkpoints. You don't want to cause any trouble to slow yourself down or slow down everyone behind you. You just want to get out of there as quickly as humanly possible.

Well, after that fiasco, we headed over to our gate while Justin poked fun at my moronic inclinations (deservedly so). Incidentally, I heard about it for the entire duration of my trip, as Justin had to inform everyone we met about my blunder. Ah, it made for a good laugh (and a great story) so it was worth it :) Our flight went flawlessly, and we arrived in Atlanta after only a couple of hours. Following the retrieval of our luggage, I wanted to figure out how to best get to our hotel - the Marriott Marquis in Downtown Atlanta. So I called up the hotel, and apparently there was a shuttle service that would take us out there. Well, as we started walking down a long corridor to the outside where the buses and taxis were located, one of the porters comes up alongside us and asks to carry our luggage for us...and so we politely refuse, not wanting to shell out more money for a tip at this point, but he insisted, and commented about how the bus people would pay him for carrying our luggage out to them (which made no sense to us). The kicker was when he asked us point blank, "why ya wanna deny a brother a dollar?" Well, I don't have any idea as to how to respond to that question, so we acquiesced and he threw our luggage on a cart and walked us out to the buses.

When we got outside, we were instructed to hop aboard a van - and so we asked, is this going to take us to the Marriott Marquis, and the driver said, yeah, sure, no problem...and so we started thinking that hmmmm… something seems a bit shady...and so I ask him how much it's going to cost us, and he said, get in get in...and I was like, uh, how much?...and he replied, $14 a person. Well, at this point, we hesitantly climbed in, not knowing why but wanting to get to our destination, wondering if we should get out and look for the hotel van, but then wondering if this actually was the hotel van...and - long story short - we were not assertive and just stayed silent and this fellow went over, gave the porter some money, and then hopped in the driver's seat, started up the engine, and off we were. Patch and I were stewing, and regretting our wimpiness in getting into (and then not immediately getting out of) the van, and just not questioning what the heck was going on. So, it cost $42 dollars for the three of us to get out to our hotel, which was about 10 miles away. Later we found out that the hotel van cost $10 a person, which made us feel slightly better, but then we discovered that we could have taken the subway system for a dollar and two quarters. So, that made us feel like crap. Patch and I have committed to finding out exactly what all our options are the next time we take a trip. The only good thing that came out of that fiasco was that we learned a serious lesson, and vowed never to let it happen again.

Our hotel was majestic. It had three promenades on which there were various services for guests, such as rooms filled with nautilus equipment and free weights, a few eateries, a handful of stores, various ballrooms, conference halls, meeting rooms, and an assortment of other useful places. There were 5-6 glass elevators which ascended and descended the sides of a middle structure that reached fifty floors up to the roof of the building, and these were flanked on the ground floors by potted plants and small still pools of water. We had a nice view from our bedroom, which was nicely equipped with the usual amenities. We got settled and unpacked, ordered some pizza, and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the hotel and getting some rest. Jill and I watched one of the greatest movies of all time, The Princess Bride, while Justin took a nap, and so that was a lot of fun :) When Justin woke up, he and I went for a nice run to continue our streak of exploring on foot the cities in which our annual conferences are held. The highlight of that excursion was running through the Olympic Centennial Park, memorialized from the Games in 1996. Later that evening, we got together with a group of friends - Mike, Kristy, Beth, Pete, Amanda, Cedrick, Summer, Brandon, Anna, and I - and headed over to a brewery restaurant called Gordon Biersch, where we enjoyed dinner and each other's company. Then, we headed home and called it a night early, as both Patch and I had to present on Friday morning.

On Friday, we woke up and prepared a bit for our presentations, and then I had my Identity Theft roundtable that went extremely well. Patch next had his presentation, but I instead went to a Computer Crime panel that really piqued my interest. The rest of the day went uneventfully, except that we had to figure out some way to make this trip memorable. So, we decided to find the stairway in the hotel, and ran up and down the fifty flights. It was pretty brutal, despite the fact that we're in decent shape, but we were so stoked to have completed it and to be able to say we did it. Yes, I know, it's not rational or even too interesting, but it was a challenge that presented itself and we conquered it. So there.

At night we all decided to go to the Pacific Rim Bistro where I enjoyed some wonderful red snapper, the very sight of which (even though it had its eyes gouged out for those with sensitive stomachs) grossed out Amanda. To note, it was a delicious fish which I'll be sure to order again. After inquiring about karaoke joints in the area and discovering that none existed, we decided to head over to a pool hall and play some billiards. I suck at it, but it's still a lot of fun. Justin and Cedrick were quite good, and had no mercy on their opponents. After pool, we thought about finding a dance club to get our groove on, but didn't want to spend $50 for a taxi just to get up town and then another $20 each to get into one of the high-falutin' popular joints in the area, so sensibility overruled and we went to the sports bar in the hotel and hung out with some of our colleagues. It actually turned out to be a productive evening as I made a few contacts who shared my research interests.

On Saturday, I knocked out my remaining presentation on Critical Theory and the MP3 phenomenon, and then Justin, Jill, and I decided to check out the city and do some touristy things. While we were walking, we saw some Hare-Krishnas trying to convert people on the side of the road, and so Justin yells out, "Praise Jesus!". It was really funny and quite appropriate. It was a gorgeous day, the sun was warm on our backs, and we were on vacation so any and all instances of silliness and revelry were completely warranted. We made our way over to Underground Atlanta, which is this popular six-block, twelve-acre entertainment complex consisting of specialty shops, restaurants, and activities for kids. It is centered on the Zero Milepost that marked the terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad in the 1800s, and it occupies an expansive area underneath the street system and railroad tracks.

On the other side of it was the World of Coca-Cola, a fascinating place that detailed the history and progress of that famous soft drink since its creation in Atlanta in 1886 by a pharmacist named John Pemberton. Did you know that Coca-Cola is available in over 200 countries, and served almost one billion times a day? Well, now you do. As a contrasting metric, they sold an average of nine glasses a day in their first year. Gee whiz. I think that is absolutely remarkable. We watched a medley of Coca-Cola commercials highlighting the changes in marketing techniques over the decades, and also saw a documentary on the details of its creation and explosion in popularity. Then, Justin and Jill tried out an assortment of Coca-Cola beverages and flavors from around the world - I couldn't, of course, because it wasn't worth breaking my streak of not a sip of soda for the last seven years. I heard that some flavors were actually bitter in taste, and some were more sweet than what we drink here in the United States. It's neat how different strains of the closely guarded formula are made to best and most pleasurably satiate the palates of drinkers from different countries. After learning a ton about the product and the company, we spent some quality time in the gift shop and then headed back to our hotel.

We called it a night early (either we are getting old, or we have sadly lost our mojo), woke up Sunday morning at a reasonable time, walked to McDonalds with our luggage in tow, and spent an hour in line trying to order breakfast while homeless people made eyes at Jill. After eating our cholesterol-laden egg-and-cheese biscuits, and me getting gypped out of an apple pie (it was actually a pumpkin pie mispackaged in an apple pie container!), we hopped on the subway to the airport. After going through the security checkpoints (man, they had a *ton* of personnel helping out at "the World's Busiest Airport"), we finally flew out of Atlanta at noon. We arrived in Detroit at about 2:30 p.m., got out to our car, and drove back to Lansing. All in all, it was an enjoyable four days spent away, and it definitely refreshed me as this semester has been particularly grueling. Interestingly, a few days later the entire Atlanta airport was shut down due to some loony running through a security checkpoint without being cleared. We were very thankful that it didn't happen on the days we were there. Our next conference is in Anaheim, California in March 2002. While this trip was not as fun-filled or as action-packed as our previous trips, we will do our best to make up for it next year. For example, do the words, "Come on down!" mean anything to you? (Stay tuned...)