Atlanta

From New Orleans, our road trip took us across several of the Confederate states.  Louisiana to Mississippi to Alabama to Florida to Alabama to Georgia.

Wait – did you say Florida?  That’s not on the route.

Well, yes.  But I really wanted to be complete, to hit every Confederate state.  And we were going within five miles of the Florida border, so it was a quick detour, cross the state line, turn around and go back to the highway, and voila, we’ve hit every Confederate state.

Julie thought it was daft.  Ah well, not the first time I’ve done something she thought was daft.

Then, after a day’s driving, we hit Atlanta.  And had much fun, including our next road trip special guest star, Jen Bon.

Jen has been daughter Kate’s best friend since pretty much kindergarten.  She’s now in grad school for chemistry at Emory outside Atlanta, so we took the opportunity to take her out for sushi.  And a delightful meal it was – Jen’s good people.

For our full day in Atlanta, we did the following:

– Took the CNN tour, where I got a chance to play newscaster.

– Saw the Atlanta Cyclorama, a painting the size of a football field of the Battle of Atlanta.  Here’s a small piece of it, complete with tour guide to give a sense of scale:

– Visited Stone Mountain, gigantic carving of the heroes of the Confederacy.  (Atlanta is the city of Big Art.)

– Visited the High Museum of Art, a marvelously designed art museum with lots of good stuff.  (Julie called this her favorite of the many art museums we visited on this trip.)

– While we visited the High Museum, we found that it was in an arts center that included several theaters.  We took the opportunity to see “What I Learned in Paris,” a new play being put on there.  The play was a romantic comedy set against the election of Maynard Jackson, the first African American mayor of Atlanta.  The play had a real Shaw feel to it, being about an arrogant smart guy who is outdone by the life force of a dynamic woman.  Any resemblance to your author is entirely coincidental.  Great stuff.

– Enjoyed the view of the Atlanta skyline from our hotel room.

All in all, Atlanta was much fun.