Wednesday I took the day off to spend time with the kids. We had tickets that I had purchased at a highly discounted rate for the Hawks game that evening from stubhub. I think the face value on the tickets were $37 and I got all 4 for $41.

So we headed down early to spend some time walking around Centennial Park and then we headed out for a bit of lunch and ended up at STATS sports bar for lunch. Pretty quiet lunch but I had the feeling that things were going to pick up there as it was a block away from where they were holding the NCAA Sweet 16 at the Georgia Dome.

We still had some time to kill so we headed back over to the CNN center where we decided to take one of the last few Inside CNN tours of the day. While waiting the Indian Hoosiers basketball team was there for a photo op and press conference in preparation for playing in the Sweet 16.

Tour was actually pretty lame as most people had packed up for the day or broadcasts were being done from other sites. I was hoping to inspire the kids for a career in broadcast journalism but I think I may have had the opposite effect. Valiant effort by Dad thwarted.

We got to the game about an hour and a half before tip off so we got to see all the warm ups. The funniest part of that was when the security arrived I told the Laila that the cops had arrived. She had never seen a player getting stretched out before and minutes later asked me why the cops had the player on the ground.

The game was fun as the Hawks fell behind early by 16 but came back to tie it at the half. Of course Laila had only been to a college game with halves and not a pro game with quarters, so there some confusion as to why we weren’t leaving and why people weren’t happier that the Hawks had won. She’s learning, just remind me not to take her to a hockey game so I don’t have to explain periods just yet. We left a bit early to beat the traffic as it had been a long day. The game went in to Overtime and the Hawks won.

We had a great time and I will post some pictures here when I get back from St. Louis tomorrow.

I have to take the kids back so I headed to priceline and got a great deal on a 4 Star hotel near downtown, the Union Station Marriott. Plus we get to eat dinner with cousin Diane, so other than the Hoosiers losing, it’s all good.