Atlanta--The Urban Jungle

We were sad to make the trip back to Atlanta to return our son, Blake, to the airport. We went to church on the way, then stopped in for lunch at Big Daddy's Dish in Atlanta. The line to get our soul food lunch was longer than we expected, so we had to eat fast to make it to the airport on time. We've been hearing about long security lines at big airports, and we were planning to get Blake there 2.5 hours before his flight. Denisa was eating fast, and our server noticed that her plate was almost empty. He worried that she didn't get enough food, so he brought her another big serving of both the entrees! We have never gotten service like that, and we highly recommend Big Daddy's now! 

It was a fast good-bye at the airport, and we already miss Blake! (Incidentally, it only took him 30 minutes to get through security, so we didn't have to rush after all.)

Since we were in Atlanta, we decided to do some sight-seeing before we headed home to the north Georgia mountains. Our destination was the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in downtown Atlanta--a well-done museum that is free to the public.

MLK was born and spent his first 12 years in this neighborhood on Auburn Street in Atlanta. There are tours of his boyhood home, but all the tickets were already reserved for this day. His grandparents lived on the bottom floor, and MLK's parents and their three children lived on the top floor.

Even if we couldn't go inside, we could still get a picture on the front porch.

Just down the street from the house is the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where MLK's Father was a pastor. MLK would also co-pastor here in the 1960's with his Father. It was also here that his Mother was shot and killed in 1974.

The Historical Ebenezer Church was replaced by a new, larger facility across the street in 1999.

The whole neighborhood was a great place to stroll on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. There is an interesting national park visitor center, complete with historic displays. There was also a rose garden in the neighborhood, and Denisa has a weakness for beautiful flowers.

Also in the Auburn neighborhood is The King Center, with a small museum and timelines of the lives of both Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. They are both buried in the middle of a reflecting pool in the courtyard of the King Center.

There were more pretty flowers here, and the pictures turned out too clear to not include them.

We have to say that Atlanta won't rank high on our list of favorite cities. We looked hard to find interesting things to do while we were in town. We found some--but few of them fit into our thrifty travel budget. We could list some of the things we didn't do: Coca-Cola World ($16/person), CNN Tour ($20/person), College Football Hall of Fame ($20/person), Stone Mountain ($15 parking plus cost of activities), Atlanta History Center ($16.50/person). Even the Chick-fil-a headquarter tour is $10/person or $20/person for the deluxe tour. Add in the terrible traffic and expensive parking, and we won't probably be visiting here again.

But we discovered the Freedom Trail outside the visitor center, and took a nice urban walk to enjoy the nice weather. The trail took us all the way to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum, but it was already closed for the day. We also walked through Inman Park, home of the "King of Pops" kitchen. This small company makes "handcrafted all natural" popsicles, and Denisa had read how good they are.

We had a hard time deciding between yummy flavors like "pomegranate lemonade" and "raspberry lime." But a regular customer convinced of us of the joys of "farm strawberry." It was a joyful snack! The package reads, "We started a farm a couple of years ago called King of Crops to grow the very best ingredients for our pops. We're proud to have planted, picked, mixed and frozen the strawberries in this pop just for you." That certainly made us feel special.

We walked on the Freedom Trail until it intercepted the Beltline Trail, where most of Atlanta was walking or biking this beautiful weather weekend. We watched as a group of street artists used spray paint cans to outline a new piece of graffiti on the underpass. We tried to figure out what they were spelling, or what was in the picture, but we were baffled. When Mark asked one of the spray painters, the answer was simply, "It's art."

At the same underpass was another piece of art that was big and interesting to look at.

If we looked closely, we saw that it was made up of trashed items like a bicycle helmet, a fan cover, wagon wheels, chair legs . . .

We found out that Morehouse College (where MLK went to school) was celebrating graduation this weekend. Some people thought we were also celebrating since Denisa was wearing their school colors. She was also wearing the same color as some of the shrubbery at the park.

We walked for miles along the urban trails, so we got some good exercise. It's definitely a change from all the forest hiking we have been doing! We have visited the state capitol in the last four states we have traveled in, so we wanted to also see Georgia's. It was closed on a Sunday afternoon, but we still got a picture of its glittering dome on this beautiful blue sky afternoon.

It was late by the time we made the two-hour trip home to the mountains. We'd make the trip to Atlanta to pick up Blake any day, but we must say we prefer our rural forest to the urban jungle any day.