Gary-Summer: March 29, 2025 - Atlanta, Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival

Saturday, March 29, 2025

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.