Christina Dulude

Here’s the day-by-day rundown of my trip:

Thursday (Thanksgiving)

Drove all day; the trip took maybe 7 hrs or so, total. Arrived at my hotel, which was the most divey place I’ve ever stayed. It was a bit of an adventure, actually — I felt like I was in a gritty film noir movie — down to the neon “MOTEL” sign flashing in through my window all night long. I settled in and watched a little TV — it was dark when I got there, so I didn’t want to venture too far outside my dive hotel.

The next morning, I found that the dive hotel randomly had the best continental breakfast I have ever found. Who would have guessed?

Friday

Took the Atlanta subway (called the “MARTA,” which is an acronym for something) to the High Museum of Art. The museum was fairly small, so I got to see all the galleries. I saw their feature exhibition: “From Van Gogh to Mondrian,” which was a collection of late 19th century and early 20th century modern works — mostly post-impressionist.

After the art museum, I went to Piedmont Park, which seems to be Atlanta’s version of Boston’s Public Garden. There were some really strange ducks in the big lake in the middle of the park. They’re slightly larger than regular ducks, and their bodies are more black and white, and they have red parts around their beaks, almost like turkeys. I have no idea what they are. There were regular ducks too, but the red-faced ones were really funny.

And then after walking around the park, I went to the Botanical Garden. There was a Chihuly exhibit, in which glass sculptures were place in fountains and interspersed among plants (more here).

For dinner, I went to a downtown restaurant called “Pittypat’s Porch,” that was purported to specialize in southern food. Had some very delicious crab cakes and a lot of cornbread. One thing that was funny: At one point, the waiter said to me: “So what brings you to Atlanta?” And I said, “Oh, I’m just visiting.” Then I realized, “Hey, how does he know I don’t live here?” So I asked him, and he said, “Oh, most people in downtown Atlanta in the evening aren’t local. I can’t tell where you’re from, I just know you’re not from here.” Which I thought was rather interesting

After dinner, I went to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. It was a pops concert, so they played a lot of Christmasy things, and some pieces from Broadway musicals. A good performance.

Saturday

Started out with the CNN headquarters. I went on the official tour, which was fairly interesting. We got to see the newsrooms, like the desk parts where the news anchors sit, and actual live filming, and hordes of computers where copy editors sit, etc. Of course, they didn’t let people go in the actual news and broadcast rooms; we were separated by glassed-in areas, but it was still cool to see.

Actually, what I think I liked best about the CNN headquarters was the building. The main center part of it was this huge high tech looking 8-story atrium, and all the offices and broadcast studios were around the outside of the atrium, on the various levels. And one side of the atrium was part of a fancy hotel, so there were room balconies that looked out onto the atrium.

After the CNN tour, I went to the Atlanta History Center. Tons of Civil War stuff, as to be expected, but also sections on regional folk arts, etc. My favorite part was touring two historic houses on the grounds. One was a very fancy mansion, built around 1930. And the other was a restored farmhouse and grounds from the 1840s. The tour guide made a big point of saying that although the deep south is known for big plantations, most farms in Georgia were smaller “yeoman” type farms.

Also visited Underground Atlanta, which all my touristy books said to see. It’s basically just a big shopping mall, but has an interesting history. Apparently, the underground part of the mall was a marketplace back in the 1850s. But then the streets were elevated in the 1920s, so the stores moved their operations to the second level, and used the underground part for storage. Then in the 1970s and 80s, it was restored and reopened as an entertainment and shopping center. Which I think is kind of neat.

For the rest of the afternoon, I drove around some fancy residential areas in the outskirts of the city. In the evening, I went to see Atlanta Ballet’s Nutcracker, which was basically good. Very kitzchy and not enough actual dancing, as Nutcrackers are wont to be. But Atlanta Ballet is a very good company, and I wanted to see them while I was there.

Sunday

Woke up and drove back to Hoosierville.

I had two days off work for Thanksgiving and no T-Day plans to speak of. So I took a very random roadtrip to Atlanta, GA.

How I decided on Atlanta was a little haphazard. I went to MapQuest, and basically just plugged in a bunch of cities that seemed like they’d be not too close and not too far.
And for various reasons — the primary one being that I’ve never been to the hardcore deep south before — Atlanta was the winner.

To start, here are my general impressions of Atlanta:

1. It’s a lot colder than I had expected, although I think that was a fluke. The temperature was in the low 40s — only about 2 degrees warmer than Indianapolis, and 4 degrees warmer than Boston that day, according to the Weather Channel. What a drag!

2. Many more Dunkin’ Donuts in Atlanta than in Indianapolis (a good thing), but Atlanta Dunkin coffee was surprisingly bad, compared to Massachusetts Dunkin’ coffee.

3. There are over 40 streets with the word “Peachtree” in the name. The main north-south road is “Peachtree Street,” but then there is also: North Peachtree Avenue, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Battle Road, etc. Every tourist guidebook tells you this, but I still thought it was funny.

4. Overall, not as many people have accents as I had expected. Obviously, a fair number of them did, but not as many as I would have thought. I read on a website or tourist book somewhere that a fairly large percentage of people in Atlanta and suburbs are transplants from somewhere else, so maybe that’s why.

5. Little kids were quite fashionable and stylish. Not just that they were clean and well groomed — very young children were downright trendy.

6. My hotel was right in the downtown area of the city. But if I were to go back, I’d stay more in the midtown or northern part of the city. There were primarily business and government buildings downtown. So on the weekend, it was eerily devoid of people. I liked the midtown section best, where there were cultural activities and little neighborhoods.

7. The architecture and building detailing was interesting there. The downtown buildings were all sleek and tall and shiny and very modern looking. Which was an interesting contrast to the more cozy-looking residential areas the farther north you got, but somehow it all fit together well. Actually, what I thought was most interesting, is that residential architecture looked vaguely antebellum — not overly so, just a little. For example, columns on the fronts of houses seemed to be a big deal, but you probably wouldn’t notice it at first glance.

8. And the main architectural style I noticed: Atlanta is really big on balconies. Almost every apartment building had balconies for all the apartments. And many of the balconies themselves were somewhat unusual looking. Instead of just being rectangular, their sides and front would be curved a little, which was rather graceful looking. Balconies usually had wrought iron work with neat designs, often curly-cue type shapes. And if apartment or condos didn’t have full-fledged balconies, they had the fake kind — where it only extends out 4-6 inches, usually in front of double doors. Or else, houses often had mini versions of those fake balconies under regular old windows. And along with the balconies, they’re big on window planters.

9. There were quite a few bungalows — more than I would have expected. Also a fair amount of stucco-type houses, the kind with the red corrugated looking roofs.

I was in Boston last week — primarily for a conference, but then I stayed a few extra days to visit my parents. Here are a yard sign and a gravestone that caught my eye during the visit: