Fake turbulence, sugar and lots of walking
I was in Sunny Isles, Florida, visiting my grandfather Eddie (96yo) when a friend told me she was going to Atlanta for a work conference and asked if I had any interest in visiting the town. The home of Margaret Mitchell, the writer of my favourite book, Gone with the Wind! Was she kidding? Within an hour, I had my tickets.
The flight to Atlanta was one of the worst I have ever got. Minutes after taking off, the pilot said there was terrible weather around Atlanta. I understand all of the safety precautions but not sure was on the way the pilot spoke or something else it felt that we were gonna have lots of turbulence on the trip. Another few minutes into the flight and the pilot informed there would be no service and that the crew should take their seats.
Every other time the pilot talked more “terror” he put into, and after 1 hour, I was still waiting for lots of turbulence. As we approached Atlanta, I was again waiting for a bad landing, but as the whole flight, it was smooth. Don’t take me wrong I’m sure I prefer “Safe than sorry”, but the way the pilot delivered his information made it sound much worse, and I had one hour and a half of tension. For nothing.
When we landed in Atlanta, we could see the city had a storm but it was gone. And lots of rainbows formed around the runway. I was excited to land on the busiest passenger airport in the world!
Arriving in Atlanta at the end of the day, we decided to grab a bite. We looked for a Southern Style Kitchen restaurant and found one at walking distance from our place. I do gotta say their green fried tomatoes are to die for. But the food in general was really fantastic.
Early next morning, my friend went to the conference . My main objective was to visit the Margaret Mitchell House, that was really close to the hotel. But since it would not open until 10am, I had a few hours to kill.
I had my camera backpack, got myself a coffee and started walking to the Midtown neighbourhood. Based on my research I went to the Piedmont Park to get the shot of the Midtown Atlanta with the lake and green as your foreground.
As I walked into the park, I saw a squirrel! Squirrel! Squirrel! I took my camera the 70-200mm with my 2x teleconverter and started shooting. And the little squirrel got up a tree I thought I would have to find another one, but as I turned I saw this area of the park was full of squirrels! I was like a kid at the candy shop.
So excited! As I walked around a tree I saw a little chipmunk, the cutest one I have ever seen. I spent some time around them but made myself keep moving along.
Walking around the lake, I found the spot I got a beautiful view of midtown with the water as foreground. Changed the lens to my 14-24mm and took some shots.
By then it was time to visit Margaret Mitchell House. The house/museum was endearing. I was really enlightened with all the information we got during the tour. I have always been a fan of the movie. And in recent years I read the book. I definitely recommend it.
Once I got all my knowledge of Clark Gable and Mrs Mitchell, I decided to walk to the Olympic Park. Don’t know how they find themselves around this town: every other street is called Peachtree. In reality, there are 70 streets with the same name.
I also passed by the famous Fox Theater that over the years has had terrific artist performances and was the last place where Prince performed.
By the time I got to the Olympic Park, I was ready for lunch, and I could not pass the opportunity to get a Southern-style BBQ. Yummy!
Since I had only a day in town, I wanted to get a hop on hop off, but there was not one available. But there is the Peachtree Trolley. The trolley took us all around to the Martin Luther King Jr. area and civil rights story, the first place Coca-Cola was sold, and all the Universities. It was pretty cool to walk by Georgia Tech, the geek in me got all excited.
Once the tour finished, I walked to visit Coca-Cola World. The experience was enjoyable. As you get in, you go to a memorabilia room lots that reminded of my childhood. Then I went to take a photo with the Coca-Cola polar bear, like a 5yo I felt all silly. On the tasting room, I tried Coca-Cola products from all the different countries of the world. I loved the Tanzania Stoney Ginger Beer brand, it was light and gingerly.
After all the sugar, I decided to walk midtown again. On the
If you plan to take the iconic photo of Atlanta at night, the spot is just outside the Varsity. I did think on coming back but it was looking unlikely, by this point, I had already walked over 23km in a humid and hot Georgia day.
Finally, back to the hotel, I crashed. Next morning it was time to head back to my grandfather’s place.
But I think I covered all I could during my 36 hours in Atlanta.
I’m Mrs Mitchell and in the last few years, I have been blessed to be able to explore and photograph some interesting place. I thought I share my experience and some tips with editing etc.