First Stop: Atlanta, Georgia
After a late night packing, I somehow managed to get up early to say goodbye to my dad and sister before my mom drove me to the airport for my flight to Atlanta, where I planned to stay with a couple of friends: my former co-worker Sean and his wife Jen.
Sean moved from Morrison Hershfield’s Toronto office down to our Atlanta office some four years ago now, and I’ve been promising him I’d visit soon ever since. At long last I got to keep my promise (albeit a bit late.)
The flight to Atlanta was uneventful, and arrival went smoothly. I collected my bag and got on the first of the many public transit systems that I’ll be using during my trip: Atlanta’s MARTA. Travelling from one end of the line to almost the other took about 45 minutes, at which point I called up a former schoolmate from McGill, Shylesh, to come pick me up and take me down to the MH office. (I was shocked to discover that calls from a payphone down here cost $0.50 [that’s 160% more than back home if you’re counting.])
Anyhow, I met up with Sean at the MH office and shortly thereafter found myself at his house, enjoying a barbecue with Sean, Jenn and Shylesh, along with several other guys from MH Atlanta: Chris, “Ronnie,” Billy, and Chris (yeah, another one.)
As the barbecue wrapped up, ideas for the rest of the evening started being kicked around, with a consensus being reached shortly: poker. I think it’s fair to say that Sean’s a poker fanatic, and we used to play regularly back in Toronto. It was a fun evening, though I did end up losing about $15. Thankfully, most of that was returned by the (incredibly) good graces of Ronnie, who’s considering a RTW trip of his own, and understood the plight of the impoverished traveler (even if that impoverishment is entirely his own fault.)
Much to my astonishment, the game went on until about 3:00am. (As I asked Jenn the next day, “you let him behave like this on school nights?!”) The next morning I had the good fortune of being able to sleep in until almost 13:00, but the poor working stiffs (i.e. everyone else) had to be up, about and at least semi-lucid by 8:30 or so. It’s a great credit to them that they put themselves through that pain solely in order to show me a good time on my first night in Atlanta.
After my late rise, I went out for a walk around Sean and Jenn’s, and discovered the Ford Island section of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. I whiled away a pleasant afternoon covering almost every inch of walking trails in the park, wandering through the forest and along the banks of the river. It was hard to believe that such a beautiful natural area was located a 5-minute walk from a residential subdivision.
Upon arriving home, Jenn informed me that Sean had been offered some tickets to see the musical Camelot, starring Robert Goulet (I hadn’t previously realized that he’d made his name playing Lancelot in the same show some 40 years ago) at the Fox Theatre. After a shower and a quick dinner, we hopped in the car and drove downtown. The theatre really is a stunning building. It was built in 1929, and seats over 4,000. The Fox has a vaguely Egyptian theme, with a few minarets on the outside and lots impressive ornamentation and prints indoors. As entertaining as the show was, I still think the building itself remained the highlight for me.
So. I’ve had a full couple of days already in Atlanta, thoroughly enjoying Sean and Jenn’s super hospitality, and this only promises to continue. Sean and the lads from MH and I are going camping in the Georgia hills starting this evening, and I’ve no doubt we’ll get the weekend off to an entertaining start.
As usual, thanks for reading along… Hopefully I’ll have a chance to make at least one more entry from Atlanta, while I still have easy internet access.
Tags: North America
Llew