Thu, Oct 12 2006, Fri, Oct 13 2006, Sat, Oct 14 2006, Sun, Oct 15 2006, Mon, Oct 16 2006, Tue, Oct 17 2006 - Trip to Atlanta - AOC (View Original Event Details)
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Rhonda:
Rollerblading, canoeing, hiking, sight-seeing, eating, shopping... this trip had it all!! Fencing, fighting, chases, escapes, revenge, true love... oh... oops, wait a minute, that's the Princess Bride I'm thinking of now.
We got really lucky with the weather on this brief but packed trip. It was nice for Friday, Saturday and Sunday while we did our outdoor stuff, and then started raining on Monday. We ended up skipping Amicalola Falls because of that and choosing alternates instead, but by then we were all getting pretty tired of long drives out of town anyway so it worked out fine.
On the first day, Lynda presented us with a great CD that she burned for us - every song about Atlanta and/or Georgia to set the mood. As they (Joel, Lynda, Steph and Christine) headed in to the CNN tour and Little Five Points, Marty, Kelli and I headed over to Smyrna where I was to take them rollerblading on the Silver Comet Rail Trail. But first... I took them on a detailed "circle" tour of Cobb County, including the Big Chicken and my old apartment. Then, we headed over to Little Five Points for dinner where we hooked up with Steph and Christine for dinner at the Vortex and then on over to the IMAX social event with AOC that Steven set up for us. It was great to meet a bunch of AOC'ers and to see Jess!!
On Saturday, we went canoeing on the Chestatee River. This was THE event that spawned the Calgary Outdoor Club back in 2003. After doing this trip on a visit in April, I decided that it was time for me to suck it up and start a club in Calgary because I enjoyed the Atlanta one so much. It was an important pilgrimmage for me to take my COC and TOC friends there, although, I have to say that the trip itself wasn't as momentous as I'd made it out to be in my mind. Keep in mind that the first time (in 2003) was actually my first time in a canoe. The river was higher then, so the class 1 rapids were actually class 1 rapids instead of some of the class 2s that we got this time because the river was so low. On the second half of the trip, Steph and I perfected the "bump and grind" canoeing technique of getting our canoe un-stuck from some of the rocks that we got stuck on. It was a fantastic trip, though, and Steven was a fantastic trip leader. Many of the AOCers who joined us were new, and it was a lot of fun meeting them. On Sunday evening, Kelli had to leave us to go join her brain-geek-brigade downtown for the neuroscientist convention.
On Sunday, we hiked Blood Mountain, which we decided was the winner in the debate about whether to do that with our one remaining nice day, or do Amicalola (per the original plans). It was a great decision, and a fantastic hike. Unfortunately we missed the really spectacular fall colours by about a week, but the trees were starting to turn and the drive up into the mountains was really beautiful. We did the long circuit, with the 5.5mile ascent and 2.5mile descent which I think was a lot easier than the route that Dick and David remembered (they did it the other way around a few years ago).
We drove through Dahlonega on the way back, but it was late enough that everything was closing down. At the highway, Joel's car stopped for gas, and Lynda found us some boiled peanuts!!! YUM!! I love boiled peanuts, but I'm a boiled peanut snob. I gotta have the ones from out in the country that are locally grown (3-4 nuts per shell rather than the normal 2) and boiled for two days in salty water. You can get "city" boiled peanuts which are regular double-decker nuts and which for some reason (perhaps pre-roasting? perhaps not being boiled as long?) just don't taste the same. Steph and I enjoyed some anyway, but Marty had a hard time not gagging when he politely choked one down. Ha! More for me. Heading back to town later than expected, we had a few false starts at dinner when Dawn called and suggested meeting over at Poona for Indian food. Yum!!!
On Monday, our last day there, we all had breakfast at Waffle House (on the corner of Peachtree) before setting out for the day's activities. In Calgary we say "if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes". In Atlanta, you say "to get to blahblahblah, go down Peachtree and take a left at the Waffle House". After breakfast, Joel and Lynda decided they'd rather go to the aquarium and do other appropriate vacation things (go figure) rather than join the rest of us for our shopping-fest. Christine, Steph, Marty and I hit REI (the American MEC), then "My Favorite Place" (a fabulous used junk store) where I bought a large metal cricket boot-jack/door-jamb. Lastly, we went to Target, but we were pretty much shopped out by then, so we headed back for a nap before joining Dawn and David for dinner again over at the Thai restaurant. Yum!!!
We learned the proper (according to Dawn) use of "Y'all" vs "All Y'all". "Y'all" is to be used when addressing a group of people that you are with somewhere. "All Y'all" is to be used when you're in a larger group and want to specify that you're addressing everyone in the group.
Marty and I couldn't help but notice the "Walking Man" staying at our hotel. He's walking across America - 50 states, 4 countries, 3 years, 15,000 miles, in his war on "Diabesity" (the slogan on his web site, " The human body was designed to work; somewhere between sleeping and running there is a natural, sustainable, and natural compromise; it's called –Walking.") , but he has a WHEELCHAIR tag in his vehicle so he can park in the closest parking stall at the hotel.
It was great to get back to Atlanta again - for about my tenth time since I moved back from there in 2001. I took some friends with me (Marty, Joel, Lynda), hooked up with some friends who've moved out east (Steph, Kelli), made a new friend (Christine from TO), and saw my Atlanta friends (Dawn, Jess, David, Dick, Steven) - it's been too long (well, except for Steven since we just saw him in Calgary!). :)
Lynda:
Although Atlanta lies several hundred miles inland, water figured largely in some of the highlights of our trip to this beautiful, friendly, clean city.
Security checks got pretty familiar, too. We were given the once-over not only at airports but major tourist attractions like CNN and the Georgia Aquarium as well.
But back to the water, it rained during our last couple of days there, we had a great time canoeing the Chestatee River with the Atlanta Outdoor Club, the aquarium was phenomenal and the seafood, which I found myself eating more than anything, was terrific.
I’d heard about the Georgia rain before I’d ever contemplated going there, through songs like, well, Georgia Rain and Rainy Night in Georgia, so I sure didn’t mind experiencing some of what has made the state so very lush. Especially since the rain was preceded by warm, sunny, fall weather.
A couple of us got to know the water of the Chestatee River rather more intimately than planned on the canoe trip. Heck, it was probably the most exhilarating part of the whole trip!
We canoed the Chestatee, about an hour and a half north of Atlanta, via a bunch of outfitters and were loving the scenery – dense deciduous trees, overhanging branches, sunshine, clear water and the occasional spotting of turtles sunning themselves or poking their curious noses out of the water at us. Surprisingly few birds…
Sitting in the bow, I could see that the best spot to avoid a large rock sitting high out of the water was to its left, whereas my canoeing partner, Joel, in the stern, figured the right-hand side was our best bet. Only problem was we each thought our assumptions were obvious so we didn’t communicate them. We paddled onward and soon found ourselves precisely atop that very rock!
Not for long, though! We immediately listed to the port side, took on water and got very wet, very quickly indeed. After about 10 or 15 minutes of good-natured jostling in the warm, rushing water we got the canoe unstuck and carried on, being nearly at our destination anyway. Luckily, just before the spill I had put my pack back on and had sealed my digital camera in a Baggie in my pocket so my photos and belongings were safe. What did we ever do without sealable Baggies?!!!
(We’re still waiting to see if Joel’s photos, from the little digital he was not-so-secretly hoping to have an excuse to replace anyway, can be salvaged…)
On another watery note, don’t even think about going to Atlanta without experiencing the Georgia Aquarium, which is right downtown near the Olympic park (remember 1996?) and CNN headquarters (more about that later).
The aquarium is the (self-proclaimed) world’s largest, with about eight million gallons of fresh and marine water and more than 120,000 animals representing 500 species. http://www.georgiaaquarium.org/ Wow! Definitely worth the price of admission ($24 U.S.). Colourful, diaphanous jellyfish (technically not fish so they’re called jellies), piranas, South African penguins, sea otters, sea lions, rays you can actually touch (they’re exquisite, by the way) and mind-boggling sea horses come to mind.
The piece de resistance, to me, was a tunnel through a gigantic aquarium containing huge sharks, gigantic groupers and a great big school of rays that appear overhead periodically, among about a zillion other fish. It’s followed by a viewing theatre that’s like looking at an IMAX screen only the action is live and is filled with gorgeous, glorious fish! Truly awesome!
After the aquarium Joel and I ventured on to the nearly-5,000-seat Fox Theatre (www.foxtheatre.org/history.htm#history) -- as in the 20th Century Fox studio -- built in 1929 in the glory days of movie palaces, just hoping our timing was right for a tour. Well, luckily a church choir from Florida was more organized than we were and had arranged just such a thing. A very accommodating theatre employee interrupted the just-begun tour and asked if we could join them. She came back to us and repeated the tour guide’s words.
“We LOVE Canadians!!! Yes, they can join us!”
So we promised to be our usual quiet Canadian selves and took in a fascinating peek of Americana. The theatre was big, brash, bold, expensive and tacky, with Egyptian and Moorish themes throughout. It was fabulous!!! And the Floridians were extremely curious about Joel and I, constantly approaching us and asking where we were from, what we were doing in Atlanta and what we’d done there so far. We were blown away when a Black couple said upon hearing our response of Calgary, that they had lived for a time in Weyburn, Saskatchewan!! We didn’t get the chance to ask them why.
We were getting pretty hungry after that. More luck (and our adventurous spirits) found us at a restaurant that’s been an Atlanta landmark since 1945. The security guard where we originally wanted to eat said it’s where President Clinton’s wife likes to eat when she’s in Atlanta. We reckoned if it’s good enough for Hillary it’s good enough for us! Mary Mac’s (www.marymacs.com) serves classic Southern food amidst framed B&W photos of the local, national and international celebs that have been there.
I had my first (and second, it was so good!!) mint julep at Mary Mac’s. I LOVE to try local specialties, so I had the blackened catfish (remember the water theme?) with fried green tomatoes and black-eyed peas. Oh, and all first-timers get free corn bread and pot likker, which is the liquid from boiled collard greens, as an appetizer.
Joel had the fried chicken, mashed potatoes (covered with cheese as is just about every other food item in Atlanta, including side salads, for example. Sheesh!) and butter peas. We finished our very late lunch by sharing an oozing pecan pie topped with whipped cream accompanied by coffee in thick white mugs. Scrumptious. Bring forth the treadmill.
Forsaking continuity here (and departing from the water theme), it has to be mentioned: the Toronto contingent (Stephanie Lyons and Christine Kong) and half the Calgary contingent (Joel and I) started the whole Atlanta trip with a tour of CNN on a sunny Friday morning while Rhonda, Kelli and Marty rollerbladed.
CNN was fascinating, the only complaint being that the tour was all too brief at only 50 minutes. The intermittently placed photos on the walls, of the past few decades’ news being covered, were absorbing, and we wished we could have paused longer to contemplate them.
Some of us took advantage of the offer to have our pictures taken in front of a newsroom backdrop, making it look like we’re anchoring the news. Fun stuff!
I, personally, could have pulled up a chair and watched the journalists at work from a bird’s eye view for HOURS. We looked out over about 100 of them peering at their computer screens and conducting phone interviews as they surrounded Tony Harris and some other anchor announcing the day’s events – North Korea claiming nuclear testing, four bodies found in Florida, blah, blah, blah.
From there we went on to a midtown neighbourhood called Five Points (not to be confused with Little Five Points, mind you) to another Atlanta landmark, the opulent City Grill restaurant. Absolutely gorgeous and astonishingly cheap! I paid about $12 (US) for fresh Atlantic shrimp and grits, with various vegetables. Delish. Everyone else seemed quite happy with their pasta, crab soup and other dishes. Really beautiful, classical architecture with impeccable service. Highly recommended, by me and award-givers!
On our last day we went to the Atlanta History Centre http://www.atlhist.org/ in the upscale neighbourhood of Buckhead. We could have spent the day there but only had time for a tour of a 1920s mansion and a Civil War exhibit.
From there we headed to the airport for a 12-hour trip back home to Calgary. Our flight to TO was delayed so we were eight minutes late for our connecting flight and had to wait another hour and a half for the next one. Air Canada. Don’t get me started…
It was but one low point on an otherwise fantastic trip.
Steven
It was great hosting the group the from Canada, a few AOC veterans and the many newcomers who hopefully will become AOC regulars. It is always a good sign when a large majority of the group wants to eat after the trip.Unless we have some great actors I think everybody had a great time.
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.