Atlanta Trip August 2017 - Day 4 Saturday 5th of August

Ok so are you ready for Day 4?  You may have thought the previous days were busy and jam-packed, but let me tell you, you ain't seen nothing yet..! 

This morning I got to meet with some of Bert's neighbours. Shannon and Amanda had the most lovely (and infectious) energy and enthusiasm  and it was really nice to go for breakfast with them.

 

We breakfasted in Grant Park in the cutest little café called Ria’s Bluebird Café, and pancakes featured heavily! I got pancakes, Shannon got pancakes and we got a portion of pancakes (with chocolate chips...nice!) for the table.  I was excited about going to Ria's because that is one of the first places Bert mentioned once it was confirmed I was visiting.  I had been following them on their instagram and it was everything I imagined it would be. Mmmm those pancakes!

Bert and I then headed in the car to Downtown where we stopped off at at some fantastic buildings.
The GA State Capitol Building  is the primary office building of Georgia's government housing the offices of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State. It has the most marvellous golden dome which I had seen from a distance many times while touring the city.  It was great to see it up close.

 

Circled around the building are many statues of notable Americans and Georgians.  Jimmy Carter is a favourite President of mine so I really liked seeing this.  I will say that we had a discussion about Carter as President, and Carter post Presidency, and some of what Bert said certainly did give me food for thought... He is still one of my favourites though.

This is a replica Statute of Liberty built by the Boy Scouts of America for the organization's fortieth anniversary celebration in 1950.  Approximately 200 BSA Statue of Liberty replicas were installed across the United States and this one is located across the road from the State Capitol.



We also passed the Atlanta City Hall which is the headquarters of the City of Atlanta government. It is neo-gothic in style and was constructed in 1930. And quite impressive as you can see from this pic!

Ok next up something which was major exciting for me!!  I enjoyed this so much!
We parked in the CNN building carpark.  I thought we were then walking over to the Center for Civil and Human Rights but instead we went into the CNN building where Bert signed me in as a guest and gave a me a tour of the building.  Seriously!! How mega great is that!

 

 These are some of the awards won by Bert and his colleagues

 

Ahem, I may or may not have held that Emmy.  ...ok I DID!  Eek! Excitement.

 



Where the news is made!  A replica news room :-)

We also saw the actual newsroom where all the news is coming in from around the world and being checked by the CNN fact checkers and being reported out.  It was a large area filled with a huge amount of pc screens and tv screens - and was a hive of activity, even for a Saturday. Unfortunately I don't have a photo - which is only right, the people were busy at their work after all.



It was cool seeing some of the stuff that Bert had worked on around the building.

From the CNN building we strolled across to Centennial Olympic Park heading to the Center for Civil and Human Rights. 



A quick stop off at "the vending machine with the coldest drinks ever" (again).  Bert got cherry coke, I had a diet coke.

The Center for Civil and Human Rights is phenomenal.  I thoroughly recommend this museum.  I learned so much more than I previously knew about the fight for human rights - about Martin Luther King and all else involved in the struggle, about the Freedom Riders (what an incredible feat carried out by student activists in 1961) and the Woolworths diner counter protest.
The museum is laid out extremely well and beyond interesting,,,and of course incredibly moving.  We ended up staying there for a long time - maybe 3 hours, maybe longer.

 

There were a lot of very moving pieces/stories but one piece stands out.  I will try describe it as best I can.  It was an exibit designed to simulate the Woolworths sit in protest where 4 students sat at a "whites only" counter and asked to be served.  You sat at a counter. placed your hands on the counter, earphones on your head, and it was suggested you closed your eyes (which I did). 
Immediately you faced an assault on your senses and nerves: You felt, and heard the vibrations of a BANG on the counter.  You heard shouting in your ears "gittt up...gittt UP... I saaaidd ..GITT UPPP" and you could hear the deep breathing and the aggression of the person shouting and it felt like they were circling around you as they shouted more and more obscenities and names at you. 

I don't think it can be accurately conveyed by words but let me tell you that I was quite shook after taking part in it.  Really makes you think...  And all in such recent history as well.  I am glad we live in a (somewhat) better world now.  There are other things to be struggled and fought against now, but I truly believe #WeShallOvercome
(well I HOPE anyway).

Oh one last thing about the museum, from my personal perspective it was quite amazing that I had seen some of the actual places (Day 1 and 2 of this blog) and then was reading about them in the centre.  Made it all so much more real.  
Oh and there were also some cool art installations - large videos of civil rights events from all over the world set to music with flashing images of struggles and  protests which was very thought provoking.
Again I'd definitely recommend a visit to this museum.

The day continued (can you believe how much we have done so far and it is not over yet!) and we got the Marta train to Midtown.



Here is Bert buying tickets for Marta.  I liked the train a lot.  It was very like the tube in London, the New York underground and the Paris Metro.  I do always like to see and use some public transport in a city so I was happy we got to go on the Marta train.  Lol, I won't lie I was happy to sit a little also :-)

 
Our first stop in Midtown was at the High Museum to see the Warhol prints exhibition.  We were going as part of a Turner day where entry to the museum is sponsored by CNN/Turner - which happens once a month and is pretty cool I think.  Bearing in mind the amount of time we had spent in the Centre for Human and Civil Rights we were later than we thought we would be and it was all a little confusing - the museum was closing in 5 minutes but was opening 30 minutes later for an event which Turner folk could attend. 



So we went in and got literally 2 minutes of Warhol and then said we'd go for a potter and return later to view in detail. 
We did get to see Roy Lichensteins installations outside on the lawn in front of the museum.  One of the houses was the most amazing creations ever - appearing to move as you walked around, which made you question yourself, the piece and reality (well that was my interpretation and I am sticking to it!)

We walked through Midtown to the Margaret Mitchell marker – which shows the location where she was hit by a car and died. At only 49 too :-(

Bert then called an Uber and we went to Mary Mac’s Tea Room for dinner.  I loooooved this place.  I loved the history (all those famous people who have visited - the walls are covered with photographs), the atmosphere (it is a bustling friendly place) and of course the FOOD:
Pimento Cheese with saltine crackers, pork, cornbread dressing, fried chicken, sweet potato soufflé, squash soufflé, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, cranberry sauce, sweet tea, corn muffins, yeast rolls, cinnamon rolls and other items.

This pork and cornbread dressing was DIVINE





This place is super popular!  This is the queue around the block when we were leaving!!

From there we went to the FABULOUS Fox Theater to watch a Movie that was showing as part of the Coca-Cola movie festival series.  The theatre is so Beautiful!  It was built around 1927 and is Middle Eastern/Arabian in theme with the most incredible ceiling covered in stars which looks just like the night sky.  Genuinely! I genuinely thought it was an outdoor theatre when we went up the upper tier.
Before the film started we partook in the traditional (and fun) Mighty Mo organ singalong,   I only knew the first song "You are my Sunshine" (which I love) but they also show the words on the big screen in front of you, so sure I gave it a good bash at singing the other songs too :-)

We watched a Harry Potter film - they are showing all 7 as part of the festival.  I enjoyed the film but I think it that was mainly because of the beautiful surroundings of the theatre. As for Bert, well I don't think I am revealing anything here that he wouldn't tell you himself...he enjoyed the Fox, but em, may have slept through a lot of the movie. Let's just leave it at that ;-)

Check out this Beautiful theatre here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Theatre_(Atlanta) and some of my photos below.

 

Aterwards we popped across the road and had a quick look around the Georgian Terrace Hotel.  This is where Clark Gable’s after party was held post the Gone With the Wind Atlanta premiere.   I liked seeing this piece of GWTW history.  I can only imagine the festivities that night!

 
 

From there we then got an Uber to the CNN carpark.  



Oh a quick photo at the CNN sign before picking up the car.  I LOVE THIS PHOTO!

Last sightsee of the day we took a quick drive through East Atlanta Village on the way home - which is a very cool neighbourhood with lots of nice bars and restaurants.

WHAT A DAY! I am tired just reading back over this, but funnily enough was not that tired on the actual day.  By the way, the observant amongst you may have noticed we never got back to the High Museum for Warhol.  Can't do it all I guess!  Can't be helped and we did see a snippet which I am glad about.

** And on to Day 5!**

 

 

 

 

Atlanta Trip August 2017 - Day 3 Friday 4th of August

Day 3 we woke to lovely sunny weather which continued to get brighter and warmer as the day went on.  It was Friday (a normal working day) which deserves a mention.  There is always something nice about doing fun things on holidays on a day that you would normally be in work.  It always feels a bit mischievous or something to me - like you are mitching from school :-)  Not that I ever mitched from school in my life!!

So first up it was breakfast!  By now I think you are seeing a trend around food yes?!  Bert assures me that he never usually eats like this.  I have to say God bless him for being so magnanimous and putting himself through all that food just for the sake of sharing the joy of Southern cuisine with poor ol' Irish me ;-) Fair play Bert! :-)

We drove to Reynoldstown where we ate in the fabulous "Home Grown".  I really liked this place!  I'm not sure how to describe the décor.  I guess you'd describe it as homely?  And as for the food!! I can taste that chicken now just thinking about it.   I had the Comfy Chicken Biscuit which was the most succulent southern fried chicken with biscuits and sausage gravy. Oh my gosh.  Heaven! Sigh, I do wish I could get this in Ireland. 

 

 

 

 A quirky little number counter of how many Comfy Chickens had been sold - as I had just had the chicken I was entitled to hit the green pad and move the counter up +1 :-)

 



We left Reynoldstown and just a short drive away we arrived  at Cabbagetown / Grant Park where the Historic Oakland Cemetery is located. This is a Victorian Cemetery and Civil War Fort and Bert showed me around drawing my attention to some interesting parts of it. Eg. the memorial for the unknown Confederate dead, the Jewish section of the cemetery, the Irish section, and the Potter's Field for the citizen's of Atlanta who are resting in unknown graves. The final stop in the cemetery was at Margaret Mitchell Marsh's gravesite which was very interesting for me.



A lovely surprise!
From there we drove to Midtown. I think in my head we were going to park in the CNN building carpark and head into Midtown.  Instead we pulled up at the Center For Puppetry Arts where we met Conservator Russ Vick who is a friend of Bert's from his hometown. 
Russ took us around the whole centre/museum and he really added to the experience.  Hey how often do you get a personal tour from someone who has his name on a whole Labyrinth exhibition!!

This is the costume worn by David Bowie - it's to scale, that was his exact physique!

I wish I took a photo of this: he told us great details about some of the puppetry in the film and how people/puppeteers were actually inside some of the puppets from a battle scene - creating the illusion of a smaller puppet riding on a horse type bird.  Ok I am not sure I have described that accurately or if it makes any sense at all! I will have to see if I can get a photo on the internet which shows what I am talking about!

He also took us through the Jim Henson/Sesame Street/The Muppets expo and again added so much additional detail from his own personal experience of preserving and restoring some of the pieces.

Jim Henson said this.

I really like it.

It really IS a good life. 

Delight in the present and all that - something I am trying to focus on these days...

And then! We got a tour of his workshop and he showed us what he was working on - a very intricate piece. And this is where the science happens: he was working on trying to rehydrate 20 year old latex to be replaced back on to a puppet hand.  How many people can say they have seen that?!  Thank you so much to Russ! I really really enjoyed our tour.

We also spotted another Tiny Door Atl!  It's a replica of the Centre for Puppetry Arts.  How adorable is this!  Above is Russ on the left, and Bert on the right. 

It was time for lunch. Yup more food!  Sure look it was a holiday wasn't it!





Russ, Bert and I strolled through midtown and had lunch in a pub/restaurant called The Nook. I had more tater tots :-) These ones were covered in pulled pork, smothered in a Coca-Cola bbq sauce!



C'mon! How great does that sound and these look!  Bert had a peanut butter hotdog with bacon on top.  Yes you read that right.  Peanut butter! He did say however, it was disappointing that it didn't taste as peanut buttery as he was expecting :-)

After lunch the tour continued. We were considering going to the Aquarium but when given an alternative option of going to the river, that is what I chose. 



Passing the Olympic rings and the Olympic flame (how cool is that!) we first drove to and through Buckhead where we saw the Governor's Mansion. It was exactly what I imagined a big old Southern house to look like.  It was very nice indeed!

We drove onwards to Vinings where we parked up and set off on the Chattahoochee River trail.  The river was beautiful! And there were some nice places where we stopped and admired the view.  And nice viewing spots where we sat down on the rocks and relaxed while contemplating life.  Well  that's what I was doing in my head anyway! :-)

 

The Chattahoochee was really stunning as you can see from these photos.

 
We scooted back to Bert's and after a quick shower and change of clothes we headed out on the town :-)

This is me before we headed out.  I do love this green maxi dress.

I was trying to take a selfie with one of Bert's dogs Millie but it didn't really work out lol.  I must remember to tell you about Bert's dogs - maybe I'll do a 6th kind of a wrap up blog post at the end after the Day 5 post and tell you about the (cute and funny!) dogs in that...

We took an Uber to West Midtown where we ate dinner in JCT Kitchen.  Where the food was sooooooo divine.

 

 

To start we shared Deviled Eggs and a Sweet Grass Dairy Cheese Plate (two of the cheeses were from Bert's home town!). And then I had the Shrimp and Grits and Bert had Fried Chicken. We also got Fried Corn and a dessert of Banana Pudding.  Lord! Those shrimp and grits were amazing.  The grits were rich, creamy, and opulent.  Hmmm.  I am thinking about them right now.  Good God they were incredible!

We finished the night off by going to Decatur, GA.  "Decatur" which I now know how to pronounce correctly.  My silly Irish tongue was making a right old mess of it before, but sure now I sound just like a local. Well.....maybe not :-)
We had some amazing cocktails in Kimball House.  Look this place up!  It's seriously unreal:  http://www.kimball-house.com/press/

And then the rain.  It came down suddenly and stormed hard. Whoa it was so heavy.  And lightning too. I was interested to see it (we do NOT get that type of rain in Ireland) but I was glad we were going home and that it did not rain once during the day during my time over there.

You still with me?!
 

**Click here to view Day 4**

 

 

Atlanta Trip August 2017 - Day 2 Thursday 3rd of August

Thursday, Day 2 started with a lovely stroll through O4W (Old Fourth Ward neighbourhood)
We walked down Freedom Park Path and had breakfast at the Highland Bakery.



I had turkey sausage patties, sweet potato biscuit and GRITS!

Grits! Something I never had ever before in my life but had read about them in my childhood books.  I always imagined them as a fried cake rather than a tapioca type consistency.  I liked them a lot and you will see from further posts this was not the only time I ate them on this trip!

From there we walked down the Beltline to Ponce City Market then on to Piedmont Park.  The Atlanta Beltline is a trail created where the train line used to be.  It was busy! The people of Atlanta use it a lot for walking, running, and cycling.  That is so great.



Ponce City Market: this is a beautiful industrial style old building (which was originally Sears and Roebuck regional office, warehouse and retail store) turned into nice shops, eateries and bars. 



I really liked Piedmont Park.  How beautiful is this view with the skyline of Midtown Atlanta  in the background. It was lovely just walking around and enjoying the warm weather (oh did I not mention the weather?! It was so beautiful the whole time I was there).

From there we walked to Midtown to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens which were soooooo beautiful.  I know, I'm using the word beautiful a lot...what can I say, a lot of Atlanta was beautiful! (or stunning, or amazing!).  Some more strolling around enjoying the gardens - and the lovely orchids in the glasshouse and the amazing Chihouly blown glass sculptures (pictured)

Bert then called an Uber for pick up to go to Candler Park where we went to the AMAZING Fox Bros BBQ for lunch.   

Um, where we ordered (and ate) a big load of food – tater tots, brisket, pulled pork, ribs, collards, mac n cheese. 



This is "Lopez" - tater tots covered in brisket and cheese. Hellooooo! So fab.

The tour of Atlanta continued and we headed Downtown where we visited the Atlanta Central Library.  This is an incredible Marcel Breuer (Bauhaus architect) designed building.  It is brutalist in style (eek, I think) and spectacular.

There we viewed the Margaret Mitchell & Gone with the Wind exhibit.  The showpiece being the typewriter that Margaret Mitchell wrote GWTW on.  How incredible is that!



Another super thing was passing by the barber where none other than world swimming champion Michael Phelps got his hair cut!

We walked to Centennial Olympic Park* which is a lovely park to sit and relax.  The Coca-Cola factory (museum), the Georgia Aquarium and the Centre for Civil and Human Rights are located here also.  Also located there are vending machines which supplied the coldest bottles of coca-colas ever :-) It was a hot day so it was lovely just to sit and relax and sip.  Admittedly we also were a bit done in from all that lovely food in Fox Bros!

*Centennial Olympic Park is also the site of the horrific bombing during the 1996 Olympic Games killing 1 person and injuring 11.  I am glad it is such a nice spot now and used by so many people - it kind of flies in the face of the hateful act that was carried out there and represents good overcoming evil. In my humble opinion,

It is also very near the CNN building where Bert works. 

We popped into the atrium for a quick look around when collecting the car (spoiler! I got a proper tour of the building on Day 4 - it was very exiting)

On the basis of being done in, that was enough driving for the day so next up was a nice drive through Midtown / Buckhead / Buford Highway.  Buford Highway is a very interesting place from a sociological perspective I thought.- famous for its ethnic diversity.  Have a read here for  more info.

Last stop of the day!

This is the view from a bridge about 30 seconds from Bert's house which is quite famous because it is used in the tv program The Walking Dead.  I don't watch that show so I was not aware of it, but I've since googled it and the view, and it's very cool to think that I've seen it in real life!

Again - I feel very lucky :-)

You may have noticed that there is no mention of food since lunch in Fox Bros. And that is because we ate so much there that we didn't need to eat again for the rest of the day/night. 

A good nights sleep and on to Day 3!

 

**For Day 3 click here**