Before my trip to Atl, I hounded monkhi girl to tell me places that I should go, see, eat. She's from there and I'm pretty sure she likes it there better than Houston. One of the places that she recommended was this sensory exhibit called Dialog In The Dark that she said her cousins enjoyed. It was such a NEAT experience! Basically what happens is that you are taken into different rooms that are all pitch black. Absolutely zero light. You are then given the opportunity to feel what it's like to be a blind person. The first thing that happens when you get there is everyone gets a walking stick of their own and they sorta go over the correct way to use them. Next, you are brought into a room with about ten white cube/blocks that are dimly lit, providing the only source of light in the room. Everyone takes a seat on a block and a voice recording gives an introduction. Gradually, the light from all the cubes begin to dim, until they're completely out, and we're left in the dark. I think this was also the time that my jokester cousin decided to poke people with his walking stick. Our tour guide, George, enters and introduces himself. He then takes us into the first room. Each room is set up to replicate common everyday areas. The first room we went into was a park. There was a dirt path and I found myself following an iron fence until I ran smack into a trash can. I eventually found a bench where a plopped down for a bit. It's kinda scary walking through a room and not having anything to hold onto. They had sound effects like birds chirping and an air current that was supposed to resemble the wind or breeze. The next room we walked into was the city. Right when I stepped into the room, I was met with the sound of a car screeching to a halt to my left. Even though I knew it was just speakers, my heart still some what jumped cos the mind plays games with you when you can't see. The significant things that I remember touching was this car in the middle of the room, some barriers with chains and some sort of railing. The whole time, most of us kept saying the same thing. We would run into somewhere and ask WHO IS THIS?!? Luckily, our group consisted of just our family so we didn't have to worry about some stranger putting their hands all over us. The third room that we entered was a grocery store. Everyone walked around touching and feeling things like produce items and canned food. Big poppa and I found this fridge which we opened and felt around. At first, I thought I had like a gallon of milk in my hands but then I realized it could also be water. How do you know?!? Big poppa kept searching around the fridge and asking out loud where the Coronas were. George told him to keep looking. The next stop was a boat. Lemme tell ya, it is not easy going up and down ramps and steps blindly. I don't know how blind people build the confidence to maneuver themselves as they do. I guess when you have no other choice, you do what you gotta do. We got into the boat and rocked back and forth. It was supposed to feel like we were taking an actual boat ride but I knew better. It really sucks though, to see nothing but darkness and not the beautiful ocean or lake or wherever you would normally take a boat ride. Our last stop was the Dark Bar. Here you will order a drink and have a seat in a booth while you enjoy your drink, yep, in the dark. We already had our money set aside so we knew what we were giving the bartender. When we all sat down, we got a chance to ask George all types of questions. It was here that he all informed us that he has been blind since he was three years old. I had already known this fact since I read up on it and I think a few others also knew since I had told them. The only person who seemed to not know was my sister who decided to ask him if he had been wearing night vision goggles or something. Haha! So funny. My favorite question that I asked him was who he trusted more, his wife or his seeing eye dog. George's answer? Of course my dog! Haha! The only negative thing would be the price. I think $25 is a bit steep for something like this. But you know, once in a life time. When I first suggested this to my cousin and told him the price, he said to just give him $25 and he would turn off the lights and guide us around the house. I know that's what a lot of nay-sayers will say. But it's a lot more than that. Anyways, thanks monkhi girl for recommending this to us!
I told everyone to be tasteful and look what my sister does. She's pretending her walking stick are ski poles.
That Body Worlds exhibition was next door and they had this little gimmicky photo souvenir that people could purchase. My cousin wanted to do one with his gf and our cousin that had this hologram thing that would show how they look normally and then when you tilt the photo, you see their skeleton. Our cousin is preggos so the dude added a baby skeleton in her skeletal belly.
A group foto with our tour guide George, who's in the middle.
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