We recently spent time in Atlanta visiting good friends and doing some sight-seeing. One of the first “sights” was Atlanta’s Friday evening traffic! It took us almost an hour to travel 10 miles. Certainly not recommended for the faint of heart.
Saturday we set out to see the Oakland Cemetery (previous known as the Atlanta Cemetery):
“Important Atlanta milestones are represented at Oakland, from early builders, to Civil War soldiers, to leaders of industry, to Civil Rights pioneers, no matter where you turn, history surrounds you. It is a shining example of the “rural garden” cemetery movement of the 19th century. The garden cemetery featured winding paths, large shade trees, flowers, and shrubs, and appealing vistas. The garden cemetery concept was a forerunner of public park development in America. Today, Oakland Cemetery is still used as a park for the community and is a valued green space in Atlanta.” ~~ Oakland Cemetery
The Cemetery is also used as a public park where people can walk, run and bring their dogs for some exercise while taking in the interesting history and beautiful views. The weather was warm while we were there and many of flowering trees and shrubs were already in bloom.
Next it was on to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta…a really, really nice aquarium. Our visit was on a weekend so there was a multitude of people enjoying the aquarium including a large population of kids. The crowds only got larger as the afternoon approached so we shortened our aquarium visit. But it’s an impressive place and I highly recommend visiting if you’re in the Atlanta area.
Interestingly, at least to me, the Aquarium has a public program for Scuba Divers to sign up and dive in the main Aquarium tank. They did mention that they were already booked up for about the next year but what a great experience that might be.
We had lunch at a bar in the food hall of Ponce City Market, a fully renovated Sears & Roebuck Company building, which was a vital landmark in Atlanta’s burgeoning Old Fourth Ward, linked directly to the Atlanta BeltLine, and situated across from Historic Fourth Ward Park. This former distribution center building is huge with over 2 million square feet of total space. Walking to Ponce City Market, we also passed an old repurposed Ford automobile assembly plant which is now serving as living space, Ford Factory Lofts. It’s wonderful to see these pieces of history being saved and now serving a useful function rather then being torn down for the land beneath them.
We also visited the “Your Dekalb Farmers Market” a world market in Decatur, Georgia. Wow, what an amazing place this is with fresh food offerings from all over the world…many I’d never seen before. The prices were good and we could have spent hours in this place.
If we lived near a market such as this I’d want to try something new at least once a week, learning how to prepare and fix it as I go. Sadly, no photography is allowed in the market so you’ll just have to take my word for it that this place is a must-see.
We had such a nice visit that it made me look upon Atlanta a little differently than I did before. It’s much more worldly then one might believe being located in central Georgia.
Interesting about the Ford factory, first I’ve heard of one being converted to a living space.
I wonder why no photography in the market? Perhaps it became abused by workshops / groups doing food photography?
Always had mixed feelings about large aquariums. We have the oldest one in the nation here in Detroit, nothing like the one there in Atlanta. No where near as big of tanks. I know many of them are engaged in conservation efforts, which I applaud. I just don’t like seeing an animal like a whale shark in one. My understanding is that don’t do well for long.
These converted buildings were old red brick and huge. I’m sure it must have been more costly to renovate them to current codes than it would have been to just build new buildings but the end product wouldn’t have been the same. There were a lot of young people that seemed to be living there or at least many were hanging out in the area and it had a lively active energy to it. Overall it seemed a very positive result that will return profit to the effort.
Not sure about the reasons for no photography at the market but the place was crowded and it was set up for moving a lot of customers through as efficiently as possible. Maybe photographers would tend to “clog the works”…I know if allowed I would have been taking a lot of photos. :-)
I share and understand some of your feelings about aquariums. However, I was impress with the Atlanta facilities and seeing the fascination and wonder on the kids faces as they watched these beautiful creatures off-set some of those feelings…many of these kids would never have a chance to observe these creatures in the wild. It did seem the aquarium was taking every opportunity to educate…especially the younger audience. Hopefully this is paying off with future generations…cause we’ve certainly screwed it up!
The main tank was so huge that even the whale sharks would disappear as they swam to the other end of the tank and then you’d see them slowly appear and become larger as they swam back around. There were four whale sharks in total and a couple of giant manta’s that had to be at least 10 feet across. I can only hope it’s about more then just the money.
Yeah, that’s why I a bit mixed about them. If there is a kid that can make a connection and makes them want to care more about the oceans, then that is certainly a great benefit.
I am fascinated by a tank that can be that large — with giant mantas also! The engineering and upkeep of something that large must be quite a feat. I have always wanted to see one in the wild (ie. manta).
The specs they shared on the tank were amazing…the giant viewing wall (in the third photo above, with the divers) was over 60ft wide made up of six panels of acrylic each over 2ft thick. They said they selected acrylic because it’s ten time stronger then glass, completely clear and doesn’t distort light the way glass does. So the fish and mammals appear exactly as they are. They also mentioned they had the pumping capacity to completely circulate the total of the water…I believe they said each hour.
The manta’s were performing 360º backflips in the bubbles of the divers. They mention they thought it was a feeding habit but then it could be it felt good or was fun. It looked like fun. :-)
It’s all amazing.