Tag: piedmont park

Two parks in Atlanta

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta3 Comments

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.

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Walking around Midtown Atlanta

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta2 Comments

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.

I found some baby ducks hanging out with some turtles as I walked across the bridge over the lake.

Walking by the soccer fields, it took me about an hour to get back.

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Sightseeing in Atlanta

On By dinajohnstonIn Atlanta, Vacation5 Comments

It was a little weird standing under Georgia 400 during our trip to Atlanta in early November. We found this small park that runs along the Chattahoochee River as we were heading north to have lunch with a friend. After lunch we stopped by the park and got out and walked around. It was loud standing under the major highway that is at least 4-5 lanes going each direction. I have driven on this highway a million times when I lived here but never thought to stand underneath it.

Most of the trees were in bright colored leaves with just a few still with green leaves. If you follow the trail that leads away from the highway it starts to get quieter. We didn’t go too far since we still had a lot to do that afternoon but it was a nice quick stop.

The next morning I headed out early for a walk around Piedmont Park before going to the Botanical Gardens. I love this spot on the lake in the middle of the park where the buildings reflect off the water. The park was busy and there was a movie being filmed in one corner of the park. I couldn’t get close enough to see what was going on though.

The trees here were just starting to turn colors.

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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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