Atlanta, Georgia – January 2020

This year with the help of the Southwest credit card and some business travel Andrew managed to snag us the Southwest Companion Pass (buy 1 get 1 free flights). We decided to make the most of it, so for 2020 we will be doing several “microcations” checking out various locations that we may not have otherwise gone to. First up on the list was Atlanta, Georgia. Both Andrew’s brother and sister had lived in Atlanta for a few years, so they were able to give us a few recommendations. Andrew had been to Atlanta before, but this was my first time outside their airport so I was excited to see the city.

Day 1

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Our flight landed at 9am Saturday morning leaving us the whole day ahead of us. We were able to check-in to our hotel in the Midtown neighborhood early, so after dropping of our bags we made our way over to the Flying Biscuit for breakfast (recommended by Andrew’s sister). It was the perfect first meal in Atlanta, and of course I was able to enjoy some southern style grits with my biscuit and eggs. We did have to wait a little bit to get seated, but it was well worth it. After fueling up we decided to wander over to Piedmont Park and just explore. The Park is basically Atlanta’s Central Park. Complete with an awesome sculpture playground that we of course tested the slides at. We continued meandering through the park for a little bit, but as soon as we felt a few raindrops we made a bee line to the nearest shelter, the Park Tavern, in hopes of staying dry and enjoying a beer. Instead of relaxing in a restaurant bar like we were expecting, we stumbled upon a temporary ice skating ring. It was really weird – and I guess it wasn’t normal for the locals either because people were really excited, and really bad at skating. We each drank a local beer snuggled up on the only empty chair/couch we could find watching people cling to the wall as they made their way in a circle around the tiny ice rink.

Not wanting to get caught out in the rain again, as soon as there was a break in the storm we rode some scooters to the nearest MARTA station, and then took the subway downtown so we could spend the afternoon inside the famous Georgia Aquarium. It would have been cheaper to just Uber/Lyft there, but this was more fun. The Aquarium was a little pricey (as most aquariums are) but it was really cool and really big. Unluckily for us, it seemed like everyone else had made the same decision to stay out of the rain, because the Aquarium was packed with people. Because it was so crowded we didn’t really have a chance to watch any of the shows (because neither of us wanted to sit around for an hour saving seats), but we were able to check out all the areas. They have a massive aquarium with 4 whale sharks that were rescued from a Taiwan fish market. There was even a tunnel where you can watch the fish, sharks, rays, and sea turtle swim all around you. I also thought it was neat when we later got to see the top of the tank through a window. It looked like a regular, albeit large swimming pool, but every once in a while a fin would be sticking out of the water.

By the time we left the aquarium we were pretty hungry, so we rode the MARTA back to Midtown and enjoyed some tacos at Rreal Tacos (it was the name that sold us).

Day 2

Sunday, January 19, 2020

After that hefty aquarium fee, we were wanting to do some free activities so the next morning we made our way over to the Oakland Cemetery. We had gotten there around 8:30am, and essentially had the whole place to ourselves. It was interesting to wander around the cemetery looking at all the rich people’s fancy gravestones compared to the gravestones for soldiers and regular folk. Since it was Martin Luther King Jr Weekend, and we were in his hometown, we decided to go check out the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Park as well. (And the whole free thing was also nice). We were too late arriving to book a tour of the house, but the museum was both informative and inspirational. From the MLK site we walked down Auburn Street and then up to the Krog Street tunnel – basically a graffiti encouraged tunnel. The graffiti int the tunnel was mostly just text and bubble letters- I had been hoping for more art work like we see in an alley near my office in KC, but it was still cool. The area outside the tunnel was reserved for commissioned murals which were more ornate. The tunnel was right next to the Atlanta Beltline, a pedestrian / bike trail around the city, so we took that to the Krog Street Market for lunch. There were so many options in the food hall, but in the end we decided on vegetable dumplings and a pastry to split for dessert. After filling up on food we decided we had time to just walk back to Midtown instead of catching the train, so we meandered our way back along the Beltline, stopping at the occasional shop on our way. Once back, we went to the Laughing Skull Lounge where we saw a “brunch special” comedy show featuring a “best of Atlanta” showcase. We spent the afternoon resting our feet in the hotel (and watching the end of the Kansas City Chief’s game). For dinner we decided to check out Soul Vegetarian Restaurant serving exactly what you expect it to. The area (West End) was less than ideal for us to wander into blindly late in the day and we felt a little out of place in this community centered cafeteria style restaurant, but the food was really good so we were happy we had made it out there.

Day 3

Monday, January 20, 2020

We started our last day in Atlanta with a studio tour of the CNN Center. Apparently the building originally included an indoor amusement park, so the building itself was pretty cool. It was also neat to see the inner workings of a newsroom. After the studio tour, we walked through the Olympic Park over to the World of Coca-Cola. Neither of us are big soda drinkers, but we were excited to try some of their many flavors from around the world. The tour was very cheesey, and basically exactly what you would expect from a Coca-Cola museum, but it wasn’t too expensive, and we did get to try more than enough flavors, and get our fill of sugar for the next week.

We headed back to Midtown, getting off the MARTA a stop early so we could check out the Fox Theater and then made our way to Blue India for a late lunch (located on one of the many Peach oriented street names). We then meandered our way over Orpheus Brewing where we enjoyed several tastings of their various beers, including a lot of unique sours and one particularly funky wild ale. After getting our fill of beers, we walked back through Piedmont Park where we stumbled across a movie/tv set that was filming near the lake. (I have no idea what it was for, but there was a lot of crew blocking the path and they told us we would have to find another way around). And that was our trip. We flew home that night, being utterly unprepared for the 7 degree temperatures that were waiting for us back in KC, missing the 40 degree temperatures we had just been complaining about.