HOTlanta

Just so many fun things to be had in Atlanta that I haven’t taken the time to post something (well, apart from my “mini-blogs” on Facebook as Tom likes to call them

 

I arrived on Saturday evening and we headed straight for what is known to be the best BBQ join in Atlanta: Fox Brother’s BBQ.

We started to stand in what appeared like a line when some nice folks (that’s right, I said folks) asked us if we had put our name in yet because what we were standing in was not a line, rather it was just a group of people gathered around drinking their cocktails/beers/sweet tea while waiting for a table! Well, we were sure glad they were willing to make sure these “northerner’s” knew what to do. We got our name on the list and grabbed some sweet tea and joined the crows for our 45 minutes wait. We laughed and chatted it up with some locals that filled us in on how the high school football teams are looking. Then, we enjoyed some pretty darn good BBQ. Ironically though, the menu says that the owners are actually from Texas and they moved here to start their BBQ joint, so perhaps we just had Texas BBQ? Either way, it was delicious.

 

 The next day Tom was still off of work so we went for a  walk around the neighborhood (forgot to take pictures) and then we were off to the Altanta Aquarium. We packed a PB&J and carrot sticks and were off for a day of fun.

 Even the view from the parking garage was interesting to me :)

 There were so may incredible exhibits. No sea turtles though-- this was the only turtles they had -- reminded me of back home in MT!

 Then, all things exotic were around. I am not entirely sure what this little guy really was (a seahorse of some variety) but he was really fun to watch swim around

 

 

 The tunnel was our favorite. We went through it twice. Thy had a moving sidewalk going through it so you didn't trip over yourself as you walked through the tunnel, you just stood in one place and it moved you along nice and slowly.

 The manta rays were HUGE!

 And this was the show-stealer-- the whale shark. There were three in the tank and they were gorgeous and giant. We got to see them swim over multiple times but the big viewing area at the end of the exhibit was by far the best view. See how big it is compared to the guy standing at the front?

 This jelly fish was my favorite of them all. I just loved the stripes and how gracefully it moved through the water.

 

 We also got a special treat because they were doing a bodies exhibit for the marine life. I've never seen the insides of a fish in quite so much detail before and it was fascinating!

 

 

 

 This one below was a dissected shark that was pregnant. If you look close near the stomach region there are 3 or 4 baby sharks in there, about ready to be born. Not sure what ended this mom's life, but it was really cool to see the babies and the individual placentas for each one.

 This looks small in the photo but this is a whale shark. What I loved most about this one is that you can see the heart in the center (which is tiny compared to the body) and then the main vessels coming up off of the heart and extending to the body. So incredible!

 

 Monday Tom had to work all day. I kept myself busy and after work we enjoyed dinner at home and then went out on the town for some dessert. As I posted on facebook, we went to the Brick Store Pub which was so cool inside!

 Grandma, we thought of you as we shared this crème brulee.

 

 Tuesday while Tom was at work I wandered around the neighborhood some more. Tom lives right next to this park that is also adjacent to a large cemetery that is open to the public and is actually a very popular walking/jogging area. I kind of liked that it wasn't just empty land that no one visited but that it was alive and well and full of people!

 

At the end of the cemetery I happened upon a little bamboo forest. I learned my lesson for going in though-- the mosquitos ate me up!

 Once I had lost nearly a pint of blood (just kidding) I emerged back into the cemetery and saw this adorable little bunny hopping around. so cute!

 I picked Tom up from work and we went straight to the Botanical gardens because they closed at 7.

It was 95+ degrees and very humid but nothing could stop me from enjoying myself! The exhibits were stunning and it was all kept up in such glory I was amazed.

 

 This was a hybrid hydrangea that I absolutely loved.

 This was the big monster in the children's garden.

 We took advantage of the fountain in the children's garden and cooled off our feet.

 

 I was astounded at how big this hibiscus was! Not only was the flower as big as my face...

 ...but the plant was 3 feet taller than us!

 We wandered through the edible garden and were somewhat bummed to hear that they were having a professional chef night in the gorgeous outdoor kitchen. I say bummed because we weren't able to join (apparently you have to register months in advance). But it sounded so great! they have chefs come in that pick from the garden and then demonstrate how to use everything in their recipes. So cool!

 So instead of joining the professional chef, we just continued to wander through the edible garden, tempted to pick a few things ourselves!

 This was a wall of spices that I thought was a good idea to plant back home. They had a bad frost not too long ago (hard to imagine that that happened) so a lot of the spices weren't doing too well.

 Then we came upon this which we thought was so funny! they were growing blackberries but look at how sad they look! There aren't any berries and the plants are not growing over each other in huge masses. Apparently blackberries don't like the heat!

 The orchid exhibit was so incredible. It smelled amazing in there even though orchids don't have a scent. Walls of orchids like this took my breath away.

 I loved how furry this one was

 

 Even Tom could soak in the beautiful atmosphere.

 

 Tom took a lot of the photos as we wandered through and I kept finding photos like this on the camera...I had no idea that I do things like this while viewing gardens, but apparently it's a regular habit of mine to "get in there" and really check out each plant.

 These beauties were in the "high elevation exhibit" apparently they are native to Venezuela in the mountains.

 

 

 Do you see the cacao pods?

 This was really neat to learn about too. This periwinkle plant is the source of some chemotherapy drugs I have learned about: Vincristine and Vinblastine. It would have been so much easier to remember them for the boards if I had known they came from a flower!

 Check out this adorable frog in the center of this leaf. His skin was blue/green and shiny.

 Much cooler than this frog--although, he was pretty cool too.

 We wandered by the unicorn

 And past some more frogs-this one was made out of succulents!

 These fish were particularly cool to see. They spun on their pedestal too.

 We though maybe this was Dave Chihuli from Seattle, but alas, it was another glass artist Isn't it pretty?

 I had a stand off with this cobra

 But as you can see...my view of him was pretty daunting with the sun behind him.

 

 

 We ended the evening with some bagel sandwiches and a great little spot in the shade in front of a bocce ball court. We only wished we had some bocce balls to play!

I did some more exploring today while Tom is at work. I ventured over to Piedmont Park. It reminds me of photos I've seen of Central Park. The city skyline is in the background and there are gorgeous rolling hills of grass.

 I even wandered a little outside the park and came upon this "Atlanta belt line" which, according to someone I asked, is an old railway that they are planning to pave over like the Burke Gilman trail in Seattle. I didn't walk 11.75 miles, but obviously, it's a decently long trail as I happened upon it at this point.

 I also came across a part of the trail that reminded me the most of home--doesn't it look like Point Defiance?

 There were tons of beautiful focal points n the park. They repeatedly have concerts and weddings, etc in the park. It's a shame I won't be here for an event like that though.

 

 

 Eventually the park goes around a small "lake" like green lake. But this lake seemed a little too grungy and grimy for me to call it a lake--the water was brown and not all that attractive.

 But, it made for a nice walk anyway.

We survived the first two nights without any AC (Tom's landlord came home from India and turned it off and the switch is in her room and her sleep schedule is all out of whack from the jet lag that there was never a good time to try to talk to her). I think it was close to 83 degrees in Tom's room the first few nights. I tried to sleep on the floor because I was too hot! Now, it's on again and fortunately it's only 78 degrees. I always said I wanted it warm and that I could never be too hot--that's not true! It turns out, I'm a pretty temperate kind of girl that likes it between 75-80 outside during the day but then cooling down to the mid-70's inside at the most. Who knew?

 

I have quite a few emails stacking up in my inbox about my upcoming rotation at harborview so I'm going to spend some time today going through those and bracing myself for the whirlwind that is to come on Monday morning.

 

Tonight when Tom gets off work I think we're headed to a Brave's game, but maybe not. Who knows what adventure awaits us :).