Atlanta 2023

Last week I had a week off between jobs, so we took advantage to go to Atlanta to visit family and friends, and to play tourist while there. We drove south on I-85 from Richmond to Atlanta on Superbowl Sunday. I can highly recommend Superbowl Sunday as a good day if you need to plan a road trip. It was pouring rain almost the entire trip, but since there were no cars on the road, there were no delays. It even seemed like the truckers all took the day off to eat, drink, and watch the big game. We got to my Mom’s right about the time the game started.

We mostly recovered from the all day drive on Monday, but we did get out to hit a couple of birding hot spots that afternoon. Hot spot is a relative term, as the data in e-bird suggests birding is not a popular pastime in the Cumming, GA area. We also met up with a friend we had not seen in a long time for dinner.

Tuesday was a tourist day, as we spent it in Atlanta at the MLK Historic Site. We tried to visit Centennial Park, but had to be happy with photos outside the fence, as the entire park was closed on Valentine’s Day for a movie shoot. The MLK historic site is very well done. We got a guided tour of the home he was born in, and we walked into Ebenezer Baptist Church. We learned that MLK’s favorite game as a kid was Monopoly. Unlike most, he actually understood the message of that game.

On Wednesday, we went out to lunch with Mom, and then headed into town to meet friends for the Atlanta United MLS match. It was my first MLS match, a sloppy but fun 4-3 for the visitors from Mexico.

On Thursday, we had lunch with another friend that we had not seen in person since in close to 20 years, and dinner with Mom.

On Friday, we went back into tourist mode, visiting the Carlos Museum at Emory, which has a nice collection of art and artifacts from Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Americas. We had planned to also hit the CDC museum, but I decided I didn’t feel like submitting to a full search of my car to visit a museum. Instead, we visited the DeKalb County museum, which is 4 rooms of static displays in the old courthouse building. It was interesting though, especially the history of Avondale Estates as a segregated community where people of color were welcome to work, but could not live there until the Civil Rights Act. Friday evening was a family dinner with mom and one of my brothers and his family.

The drive home on Saturday was thankfully unexciting. I had not spent a week in Atlanta since we left in 1998. Downtown to Cumming, and east to west from Acworth to Gainsville, is basically one huge suburb, with no breaks and horrendous traffic. Our old neighborhood that was “in the sticks” is solidly in the ‘burbs now, and the real estate prices reflect that. It was fun to visit, but I have no desire to live there again.