March 29th, 2014              

    After our visit to the Georgia Aquarium we decided to head to The Varsity diner for lunch. The particular Varsity we visited (there are now several locations, but this one is the "original") is the largest drive-in fast food restaurant in the world. It is also the single location responsible for having more retail sales of Coca-Cola than any other location in the world. The Varsity has been visited by Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama while they were in office. It also appeared in the movie "We Are Marshall" as coaches were recruiting players. When ordering the staff greets you with a friendly "What'll ya have?"

    For us this was a "once in a lifetime" experience, and I must say that it was very interesting. From the front, the building looks like an old time diner, which is what I had expected. There are parking spots along the side for the car-hop experience, but those were all taken. We wound driving up onto a small parking structure where Tara & I dropped off Gail and the kids so that they could go inside to find a table. We wound up parking way in the back of the lot, which amounted to the opposite side of the block that the front of the building was on. We headed inside and met up with the rest of our group. They had managed to find a small table, but there was no way we would all fit at it. Thankfully a larger table opened up nearby, and our hovering paid off as we were able to claim it. We reviewed the menu and Tara & I headed off to get in the gigantic line to wait to place our order. We wound up jumping to another spot in line after waiting 15 minutes and barely moving where we were, but all told it took us over an hour just to place our order. Ordering was interesting, as the staff seemed less than friendly. We were in the middle of placing our order when the cashier walked away to give the kitchen staff some special direction about our order. No warning, no "just a moment", just literally walked away while we were speaking to her. My experiences with other employees was better, and I can see why the cashiers would get overwhelmed, but it was a bit jarring nonetheless. Once we finally completed our order, we had to figure out how to get the food back to the table. Navigating through the crowd was a bit of a chore in itself, as we had to wade through the crowd with a tray full of food and hope that nothing spilled or fell to the floor. We finally managed to sit down and eat, and while the food was OK it certainly wasn't worth the hour long wait. In fact, in some ways, the whole experience reminded me of dining at a fast service restaurant at Disney... Needless to say I won't be rushing back. At least we can all say we've been!

The Varsity
	A look at the top of a skyscraper near The Varsity as it was emerging from the fog.
	A closer look at the top of the skyscraper.
	The Varsity sign located at the front of the restaurant.
	The front of the restaurant.
	A look at just part of the crowd in line to order.
	Another side of the restaurant.
	Samantha, Jayden, and Drew were exhausted after visiting the Georgia Aquarium and The Varsity.
	Tyler wasn't an more awake than Sam, Jay, or Drew.
	Tyler took this photo of I-75 before we arrived at The Varsity.
	Tyler also took this photo of the car-hop area of The Varsity along with the "flame" from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
	Tyler took a picture of this "cool" pink Mary Kay Cadillac.