Tag: downtown atlanta

Downtown Atlanta

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta7 Comments

On our last day in Atlanta in June we walked a few blocks to the Marta station and rode the train downtown to walk around in the morning. I always forget about the long high escalader ride up at the Peachtree Station. It’s not so bad going up but a little creepy going down. Years ago this station was probably much busier with people heading downtown to work but this Friday morning there was hardly anyone around.

We headed a few blocks away to Centennial Park, formally know as Olympic Park (the summer Olympics were here in 1996).

We had not been down here since 2012 and it mostly looks the same except for the ferris wheel.

We walked through the CNN center and it was deserted. It was around 9:30 and there should have been more people here for a Friday. There’s a small food court and a hotel attached as well. I’m sure CNN doesn’t do their tours anymore.

 

Above is a church that was built in 1911. It became the House of Blues concert hall for the 1996 Olympics and at some point it changed names to the Tabernacle.

The Hard Rock Cafe opened right before the Olympics and is still open.

Some of the artwork on the way back to our condo.

Heading back to Tampa the next morning.

Being down at the park reminded me of when the Olympics were in Atlanta. My sister and I went down to the Olympic village several nights and above are some of the pictures I had taken. There were free concerts on the main stage and Olympic athletes would come out and talk including Mary Lou Retton (pictured above) who won the gold in gymnastics in 1984. It was the place to be and was packed every night until the bombing happened close to the end of the Olympics. We were there that night in that spot but had left a half hour earlier. You can read about it here. There was no social media or cell phones back then and I didn’t learn about it until turning on the news the next morning while getting ready for work.

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Ghosts of Atlanta Christmas Pasts

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta, bird photography1 Comment

For years Brett and I made the trip to Atlanta over Christmas to visit his family. We had lived there for years and it was like going home. The first pictures I could find from those trips was in 2009. We were heading into the city and I noticed the Peachtree Plaza Hotel (round building on the left) was missing a lot of windows. A tornado had come through in 2008 and it took 2 years for them to order and replace the windows.

The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree on the top of Macy’s at Lenox Mall.

My sister Debbie and I went to Atlantic Station and walked around. They had a huge Christmas tree that you could see from the interstate (Debbie was standing under it). The 2nd shot is from the Station. I’m sure the view has changed a lot with more buildings going up every year.

We had a cold trip in 2010. Above is me in sweats taking a picture of the tree at Brett’s parents.

The forecast called for snow but we really just got frozen rain. It didn’t stay long.

I found a chipmunk in Brett’s parents backyard. I think he thought I was going to try and steal the acorns in his cheeks. We don’t have them here in the Tampa bay area and I missed seeing them.

I saw my first cedar waxwings down the street. I went for walk before dark on Christmas eve and saw them in the trees. I ran back to the house and got my camera and they were still there.

Heading back to Atlanta for Christmas in 2011.

I had heard there were good birds at the Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta so I bundled up and headed out with my camera. I saw my first nuthatch there.

I found Margaret Mitchell’s grave. She wrote Gone With The Wind in Atlanta.

Me being a tourist in my old town. My sister and I went to the Christmas Village in Stone Mountain Park. I had my old Nikon bag with my Nikon D90 in it back then.

 

Buddy always made the trip with us. This was Christmas 2012.

I went back to Oakland Cemetery for a cold walk on Christmas Eve, You can see the gold top of the Georgia capital from here.

I saw my first dark eyed junco on this trip. There were several here and they were very accommodating.

It wouldn’t be a Christmas blog without a cardinal in it even if the snow is fake and there were plenty at the cemetery.  Brett’s family eventually moved down to Florida so we don’t get up to Atlanta as much as we used to and not for Christmas anymore.

Have a Merry Christmas and stay warm if you are up north!

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Fun Atlanta shots with my phone

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta4 Comments

A shot of downtown Atlanta from the Ponce City Market.

Street art.

Two old favorite hangouts in Little Five Points. Old vintage store, Junkman’s Daughter  and the best burgers in the Point at the Vortex.

We always stop at Doc Chey’s Noodle house for lunch when we visit Atlanta. Brett and I use to go there when we first started dating. We’ve been married over 24 years so it’s been open a long time.

A view of Buckhead from Lenox Mall. There’s a lot more buildings since we moved.

We went to a Braves game at the new stadium with Cobb.

I climbed all the way up to the top row. Nice breeze up there but the players looked like little ants. I didn’t stay up there long. A little creepy going back down the stairs.

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“I’m heading down the Atlanta highway”

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta3 Comments

Atlanta, as seen in the first episode of the tv series “Walking Dead”. Except in the scene, the roads were lined with abandoned cars that were photo-shopped into the scene. I took this the first night of our long weekend to visit friends. It was dark and cloudy and had just stopped drizzling. My husband thought I was going to look silly being the only person standing on the Jackson Street bridge taking this picture. No, there were several other people there taking pictures as well. I found out later that there are “Walking Dead” tours that take you to some of the places that scenes were filmed at. This is one of the stops.

Another Atlanta downtown scene, taken as we were leaving to head back home.

One morning while Brett was riding his bike with some friends, I took a walk around Piedmont Park. They used to have great art festivals and other events here. I’m sure they still do but it was quiet the morning I walked around the lake.

A few of the critters and an interesting mushroom or fungi around the lake. After my walk around the park, I headed over to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, more on that later.

We stopped at a shopping center to get something and this hawk was in the parking deck. At first I thought he was hurt but I think he had just finished a meal. He took off as I got closer to him but he let me get pretty close. He left behind a few scraps of his lunch.

Almost 25 years ago, Brett and I got married here in the gardens behind the Swan House. We were passing by and I made Brett stop for a few minutes.

I was feeling really nostalgic for Atlanta. I had lived here for 17 years before Brett and I moved to Tampa for work. Since his family moved to the Tampa bay area years ago, we hadn’t really spent any time here in over 3 years so we came back for a long weekend in August. We packed a lot of sight-seeing in the 2 and a half days we were here. We happened to be staying in a hotel next to this mural. The mural is on the side of the building where the old Limelight disco was back in the 70’s and 80’s. I spend many weekends there dancing with my sister and our friends back in the mid 80’s.

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