March 29, 2025 - Atlanta, Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival

 

Title: March 29, 2025 - Atlanta, Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival
Hike Info : Description :  Menu : Extra Photo's :  Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type:Touring

Description:

Apparently my diet is not sustainable as she heard my CGM alerting me to a low sugar condition. After having some Nutella, peanut butter and ice cream, I went back to sleep. And slept well until about 7. I cannot say I was too energetic as I just laid around and read. Sherri gets up around 8:30 and makes us a pancake breakfast. She must be feeling better.

We leave our AirBnB at 11 for the Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival. It is a two day festival at Blackburn Park, about 3 ½ miles away. We will go to the Brookhaven station where there should be a shuttle waiting for us. Actually it is behind the MARTA station on Apple Valley Road.

The bus is comfortable and is made more for traveling long distances. But this is only a couple miles. It still takes more than a few minutes to get there. Evidently this is a big thing for Brookhaven. The streets are packed, even though there is no parking for aways around it. We get let off at the northern end of the Park, where the children;s activities are. On the way over, we listened to a person behind us who said most of the music is from groups outside of Atlanta. Two of the groups for tomorrow I have heard of Switchfoot and Boys II Men.

 

We walk the length of the Park and see where the food vendors are. Then take a place on the grass to listen to the first act. I think I am getting old as the lady MC is a bit shrill and the sound system makes her seem even louder. The first act is a local by the name of Elijah Johnston

Listeners to the music

. I lay down with my eyes closed-Sherri thinks I am asleep. When I open my eyes she wants to move on. That is fine with me-this is more of her thing than mine.

We stop along the way when we see some cherry blossoms, dogwood flowers and redbud. Isn’t that why we are here? Both the cherry blossoms and the dogwoods seem to be a bit past their prime. After DC’s blossoms, these seem a bit sparse. My comment to Sherri is we will need to go to Yosemite in a month-the dogwoods should be out by then.

 

Sherri has her eyes on the Arts and Crafts tents which are lined up below us. I tag along with her as she browses the vendor stalls. Each of these are artist made, no commercial mass produced items. One stall of some photographers from Rome, GA Sherri talks with them for a while. The couple had been all over the place. She grew up in the small town of Crestline where another set of friends of ours live.

Vendor Alley

For once, Sherri loses me in a stall. There is a vendor who makes book bags. I guess some of them could hold books, but literally, the outside has an image of a book. I look through about thirty of them and no two bags have the same book cover. Sherri finally catches me and talks to the person about her sewing machine.

We then continue down the line, the long line of vendor stalls until it loops behind the music stage. This leads us into the food vendors. I am not hungry yet, but Sherri wants something. So I go and lay on a slope and read and wait for her. A new musician is on, Colton Bowlin. He sounds like a young Bruce Springstein, without the E St band. I enjoy the last ten minutes of his music.

The Park

When Sherri finishes up, we move on to the vendor section again as we came in about a quarter of the way through the line up. Sherri stops and looks at some more bags, this time with women authors and the bags you can color. I take the hint and find a comfortable tree to sit under. About 15 minutes later she comes up after making a purchase.

This is it for us and we meander towards the shuttle bus. We catch the same bus. Now the traffic is even more heavy than before. So it takes longer. But is OK, the bus seats are comfortable. When we get to the MARTA station, we walk back to the AirBnB without incident.

We get back about 3:30. Today is sort of like a NERO day when backpacking-a Nero day is a short hand for a near zero day, or a rest day with a limited amount of exertion. Even being a NERO, we are content with resting this afternoon. Sherri falls asleep and I just lay around playing games and reading. I have a sandwich for a late lunch.

About 7, we have dinner-Sherri has left overs from MaryMac’s. I had more of the store, Then we watched last Sunday’s church service from First Presbyterian Church Sunday. About time you might say since tomorrow is another Sunday. Then it is another hour before bed time.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Pancakes	Food trucks and sandwich	Left overs

Extra Photo's

The Park

Sherri and the Arts and Crafts

Gary looking for a perfect cherry blossom

Sherri and the Cherry

Cherry Tree

 
Flowers and Plants

White Cherry Blossoms

White Cherry Blossoms

Pink Cherry Blossoms

Pink Cherry Blossoms

Pink Cherry Blossoms

Pink Cherry Blossoms

Dogwoods

Dogwoods

Dogwoods

March 28, 2025 - Atlanta, Carter Presidential Library

 

Title: March 28, 2025 - Atlanta, Carter Presidential Library

Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type:Touring

Description:

I got up at 7 this morning. I guess I am getting used to this East Coast time. I spent most of the next hour conversing with Rachel. She had just landed a couple hours earlier in Chiang Mai. There was an earthquake next door in Myanmar, 7.7 with a 6.4 aftershock. The plane was about to land when the earthquake hit. The plane stayed in the air another half an hour to make sure it was safe to land. She is safe. But there is a lot of ambiguity about her stay there.

Sherri gets up at 8:45. We have oatmeal for breakfast. We are starting to ponder what meals will look like for the rest of our stay-that is for four breakfasts. Today’s destination, which will take most of the day, is the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library

. If we get out of it in time, we will go to MaryMac’s. We get ready to leave and are out the door at 11.

We walked to the Brookhaven Station-what’s new about this? And then take the Gold train to the North Ave Station. From here we pick up the #2 bus. This takes us east along North Ave until we get off at Highland. Now it is about ⅔ of a mile walk to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.

It is just $12 to get into the library-$10 for us old people. But in January Sherri and I went to the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and got a membership. So entrance is free for us.

The first thing we do is see a 15 minute movie on the life of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. It talks mostly about his time as President and beyond, but it gives background to his life as well. It has the well-known people from his Administration talking about the important events and the impact. This is the thrust of this Presidential Library over all.

Rosalyn Carter

Throughout the displays of his life, there are timelines to guide the visitor on what was happening in Carter’s life. There were three of them: his life before becoming President; the events of his Presidency; and what he did afterwards.

The two Presidential Libraries we have been to previously-Kennedy and Nixon-served as a vehicle to tell their own story how they wanted it told. The Carter Library is no different. Carter’s upbringing and his post-Presidency life is pretty well known and there is not too much new here. At least half of the exhibits are show the years he was President. And there is a positive spin put on events.

As a note: I think my book group has read three of his books: An Hour Before Daylight, Christmas in Plains, and Living Faith. So we already had a pretty good background of him before we went today.

Before seeing the Library, the two big negative lenses which I saw Carter’s Presidency was how inflation took off and the Iranian embassy hostage situation. Neither showed Carter being effective. While the Library did mention in a couple places that inflation was not under control during Carter’s time, it really did not talk too much about it. But there was spin on the hostage situation. There were behind the scene maneuvers to make sure things did not get worse-I did not know about these. Carter pretty much presented that he did not have options to bring home the hostages and negotiations were being non-productive. Whatever he did would have gotten the hostages killed. From his perspective, it was a no-win situation.

Speeches available:

• Democratic National Convention-July 15, 1976
• Inaugural Address-Jan 20, 1977
• Notre Dame Commencement-May 22, 1977
  

  

Hands in peace

There are also many things which the exhibits bring to mind which Carter did. He presided through a time when we were in flux about how we used energy which helped cause the inflation experienced. We got the Dept of Energy from him. Through Rosalynn Carter, Mental Health started to be considered a health condition rather than an abnormality. We lived in a time of relative peace while starting to rebuild the military. The Panama Canal accords paved the way for the return to land back to Panama while maintaining US interests-this is now in the news. Deregulation of various business sectors was all the rage.

Then diplomacy seemed to be an area which Carter excelled in. There was the SALT II talks were finished and only delayed by the Soviet aggression in Afghanistan. He normalized relations with China while maintaining Taiwan's security. And then getting Israel and Egypt to agree to talk, phasing in the Camp David Accords which lead to the treaty between the two nations. This is still in effect today. Maybe Carter was not as ineffective as I thought.

I think every Presidential Library must have what the Oval Office looks like. At least both the Kennedy and Nixon did and so does Carter. With Nixon, we were able to wander through the office and sit on the furniture. Here it is blocked off. But there was an interesting video display about what a day in the life of the President looks like. In about ten minutes they go through from when Carter got up at 5:30 or so till when he went to bed at 11.

There is a temporary exhibition from the art work of John L Cleveland Jr called The Nature of the Man. It is paintings from the area where Carter grew up and lived. I had imagined the area to be more dry and dusty. But the art shows an unexpected lushness and greenness of the area. Also the homes portrayed seem to fit the settings rather than flaunting their possessions.

Maybe one of the best things you can say about the Carter', because they seemed to be a team, is that the morality and concerns they expressed during the Presidency enabled them to be probably the most productive people the United States have known during their post-Presidency times. This is the idea behind the Carter Center which was created as a place to allow for the negotiations between factions with profound disagreements. I do not know how much it has been used for that, but it has now an international reputation for humanitarian work. Work such as being election observers, health providing, and creating basic infrastructure.

After his Presidency, Carter's income was from his books

It is good when you go to places like this, to think about what the place is saying and maybe go beyond the presentations. A question which I started pondering was Are there things which are morally right for a man to do and say, but which is not for a nation? Or maybe a different way to say it, is there a different set of morals for a person than for a nation? What is setting this off in my thinking is that the Carter's were very moral people and tried to bring that morality to our nation. But was the nation better off for it? Should a nation live by the code which Jesus set down: to do to others what you would want done to you.

We got out of the Library a little before closing time, after 4pm. We discussed what to do next. It looks like there is enough time to go to MaryMac’s-Finally! So we trot over to Highland and wait for the bus. About 20 minutes later #102 comes along and takes us within a block of MaryMac.

Georgian Terrace

Dinner at MaryMac’s, the last surviving diner in downtown Atlanta, was everything Sherri hoped for. To start with, while you wait, they give you sweet tea to quench whatever thirst you may have. I suspect it is to get you ready for everything else to come. Since we came in before 5, we got seated within five minutes-last Friday when we stopped by on our MidTown tour, the waiting room was full and the dining rooms were packed around noon. Anyway, their menu is straight out of a movie set where everything is what I imagine Southern cooking to be. Our server was fast and friendly. We ordered our meal: Sherri with baked chicken parts and sides of okra and whipped potatoes. I had a fried chicken breast with cornbread filling and gravy with sides of green beans and Mac&Cheese. All was good and all was served with good sized helpings. Sherri ordered a seasonal (apple) cobbler to go.

We walked back to the North Station, passing by the Georgian Terrace Hotel. This is the hotel across from the Fox Theater and caught the Gold train back to Brookhaven Station. We chose a different way to get back. This time going past the Community Golf Course which I walked by Monday. Then it is back to the AirBnB. After a while, I made a bread trip down to Krogers. Then we rested and got ready for the night. I took a shower and went to bed about 10:15.

Some quotes from the displays are:

• We fought fire with fire, never thinking that fire is better quenched with water. University of Notre Dame on May 22, 1977
• Gary’s note: Today a lot of fire is fought with fire, because if you burn up the fuel, then the original, uncontrolled fire goes out.
• The poor, the aged, the weak, the afflicted must be treated with respect and compassion and love. Democratic National Convention-July 15, 1976

Extra Photo's

Eating at Mary Mac's

Sherri from the Presidential podium

Gary from the Presidential podium

Another Cleveland painting-not Carter's home

March 27, 2025 - Atlanta, Atlanta History Center

 

Our AirBnB

Title: March 27, 2025 - Atlanta, Atlanta History Center
Hike Info : Description : Menu : Extra Photo's 

Hike Info:

Type:Touring

Description:

I slept well last night and judging by Sherri’s decrease in coughing, so did she.That medicine helped her. The time we spent going to Kaiser yesterday, well worth it. I get up at 7:45. Sherri is about half an hour behind me. For breakfast, I make pancakes-this time for real instead of oatmeal. I finished up on yesterday’s blog writeup. We finally left the AirBnB at 11.

We are to pick up the #110 southbound bus. This means crossing the busy Peachtree Street. We do that at the light. And this is where our morning gets a bit more interesting. A delivery driver, making a left turn, seems to be ignoring that there are people in the crosswalk, crossing with the walk sign. We yell and scream at him and try to get out of his way. About ten feet from us he finally sees us and stops suddenly. He looks very apologetic.

From WW I

Now if that is not enough excitement. When the 110 bus does come, we get on OK. But a man comes on after us and does not pay his fare. He ignores the driver, then argues with her. Then starts calling her ugly names, finally threatening her. I get a little bit under two minutes video and send it to MARTA. He does leave when a MARTA security person comes up to the bus.

We go down Peachtree on 110 until we get to W Paces Ferry Road where we get off. It is a couple block walk to the Atlanta History Center. This place is large, unlike some of the other “town” history places we have been to. These tend to be in a house which was scheduled to be demolished. This is a whole block long, multistory building with a garden on the backside as well. We paid our admission-I asked if a volunteer fire lookout in California qualifies as a first responder. He says no and then gives us a discount. Second time on this trip.

The first area we hit is the Stories of Atlanta area. It starts with a timeline of the city from when there were Native Americans in the city to the current day. It then weaves us through much of the culture of Atlanta. The clothing and factories and how African--Americans were treated. From what I can tell, the Center tells not only of the greatness of the city, but also the warts of its past. This is different from what I was expecting. In many cases a city’s history has been whitewashed to reflect and develop a sense of civic pride. It takes us close to an hour to go through this part.

Then onward to the Civil War. The Center takes us through year-by-year of the War, starting from Lincoln's election in 1860. As a note: Lincoln won only 40% of the popular vote, but won the Electoral College. They show us uniforms, packs, contents of the pack, guns, and ammunition. Each year we are shown what each side wanted to accomplish and then what was actually done. It became evident to me that this was more of a war of attrition and wishful thinking than strategic victories. We spent over an hour here. Very impressive.

It is about 2:40. There is a film which starts at 3 at the Cyclorama. What is that you might ask? It is a gigantic painting in the round. Turns out the film is more of a history of this particular Cyclorama than the contents. This one started by a group of German artists in Wisconsin to depict the North winning the Battle of Atlanta as a money making venture. It then traveled around, until it reached Atlanta. When it got there, the mayor decided that they could not have the North winning this battle, so the blue coasts were painted red and the red blue. Volia! The South won this battle! It was only when Maynard Jackson felt the need to get this into better housing that the deception was discovered. So it was repainted again when it was restored. Then in 2017 it was moved to the History Center.

As I was looking at this Cyclorama, I realized that I had seen another Cyclorama before when I was in high school in Gettysburg. But this is here and now. This is a whole different perspective than just a flat painting of a conflict. As I work my way around it, I am seeing different sides of the battle. Over there is a battle line, up on the hill is Sherman looking at the fighting, while cannons are being destroyed. And then the artists had great detail, including shadowing on faces. 

 

In the 1930’s when Clark Gable came to town for the Premier of Gone With The Wind, he saw the Cyclorama and said it was perfect, except he was not in it. So the mayor at the time, had a dummy made up with Gable's face, dead. Perfect.

Clark Gable, dead in the Civil Ware

Sherri and I were mesmerized by displays about how it was put together. We spent another 20 minutes looking at that until we were told the Center was closing. What so early? It closes at 4pm. Guess we should have gotten there earlier.

Now that it is after 4pm, we are wondering about dinner. We had thought of going over to MaryMac’s for an early dinner, but that is an hour away. Maybe tomorrow when we visit the Carter Library. So we wandered around Buckhead. At a stop light, we asked a young lady about good restaurants in the area. She gives us some tips. Turns out she is from Ukraine. She points us in a direction. So we go towards where she said. Sherri spots a security patrol and asks the same question and he gives us three names.

We came across Taverna first, an Italian restaurant. Apparently there is more than one of these in the South. Sherri has us get a Ceasar Salad which we split. Then she orders a Paglia e Fieno pasta while I have Risotto Saffron and Sausage. Both are good. We are content.

We leave and just miss the bus. So we walk about a third of a mile, passing a couple stops just to stretch our legs. Then we stop and wait for the 110 bus. We talked with another passenger while waiting. We want to be dropped off by Walgreens, but the driver either does not hear the stop requested or ignores it. We ended up at the Brookhaven MARTA station. So we get to walk back. That is OK. We stop at Walgreens and then head back to the AirBnB to lounge around until bedtime, about 10 tonight.

Menu

Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Pancakes		Taverna

Extra Photo's

Top of the Cyclorama

US Major John Blackjack Logan

Artillery Embankment