midtown – Dina's Wildlife Adventures

While Brett and I were in Atlanta in December we spent an early morning at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are attached to Piedmont Park and since we were there we decided to walk around the lake at the Park before leaving. I spent a lot of time in this park in the late 80’s through the 90’s. Art festivals, concerts, the Dogwood festival and just hanging out were many of the reasons to spend time here. It was beautiful the morning we were there. The weather was mild and many of the trees were still changing colors even though it was mid-December.

There’s usually a lot of ducks here but we also saw 2 Canadian geese swimming close to the edge.

The Midtown skyline and trees were reflecting on the lake.

Admiring the beautiful leaves as we walked around the lake.

We crossed the soccer fields to get back to our car at the Gardens.

More orange trees as we drove around the area.

We had an hour to kill before an early dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. I found a new (to us) small park to explore. Morningside Nature Preserve is an intown small park in between homes and a busy Cheshire Bridge Road. It starts off climbing down a lot of stairs through woods, then walking along a long boardwalk.

The trail then runs along South Fork Peachtree Creek. This park is popular on the weekends during the summer with dogs and their owners since this is an off leash park. The river was low when we were there but had record flooding when Hurricane Helene came through. We could see how high the water rose by the trash hanging high in the trees. It also changed the landscape of the river. The area along the water didn’t look nice since the trees were all damaged and stripped. It was still a nice quick walk and we did see one deer (which is strange to see in a heavily populated area of the city).

We walked over 20,000 steps this day so the next day we slept in and had lunch with friends before another walk that afternoon.

Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.

On the first morning we were in Atlanta I got out early for a long walk. I headed down to Colony Square near Piedmont Park. The big complex is a mixed use area with offices, condos, restaurants and shops. Many years ago we used to cut through here on our way to the park for the Dogwood Festival. It was weird being back after so many years. The park is just down the block but I was saving that walk for later.

On my way back I stopped and walked around the old IMB tower (now called One Atlantic Center). They have a pretty garden in the back and had lots of hydrangeas. Many years ago it was the tallest building in Midtown and you could see it from the interstate.

A lot of the streets in Midtown look like this, all lined with trees. Walking back around 8am I expected to see lots of people pouring into the office buildings but it felt like a Saturday morning instead of a Monday. I guess a lot of people still work from home even though all I hear is “back to the office”.

For lunch we went to one of our favorite local taco places and the parking lot was full of Canadian geese. The lot was next to a small river which might be why they hang out here (and hoping for a handout). People must be feeding them here because a few walked right up to us when we got out of the car.

We got our food and was sitting outside when more geese showed up. Of course I had to stop eating and take a quick video.

After lunch Brett had to head back to the condo to do some quick work so he dropped me off at the other side of Piedmont Park and I walked back through the park to get to our condo. This is my favorite spot to get shots of Midtown across the lake.