Adventures in Atlanta

My good ol' bff Karyn Virginia Apple Guido came to visit me last weekend. Not only was it enlightening to have some female companionship, we also got to spend a day in Atlanta.

To many people, Atlanta is simply the home of the Braves (not to be confused with America, the home of the brave [singular]), an essential hub of the Civil War, or the location of the busiest and most annoying airport in the world. But to me, Atlanta is the home of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind. So when Karyn (another lover of GWTW) and I began scheduling out our weekend adventure, the Margaret Mitchell House was chalked up as THEE must-see location.

Atlanta is about 2.5 hours from Augusta so we also checked out a few other things to do while in town. Although I'm sure there are many other important historical locations to visit, I couldn't get over the Sugar Coma tour I read about from Bakerella a few months ago. When I read about the tour whilst in Salem, it meant nothing to me, but since I would actually BE in Atlanta, I thought I would try just a few of the Sugar Coma stops. I mean, history...doughnuts...it's a toss-up. So we visited the very famous Sublime Doughnuts.

They have doughnuts like these:


But we only tried these:


And this one:


And Karyn made faces like this:


Because they were soo good:


But sugar is really bad for you so we only ate spinach for dinner.

Then we traveled a little farther down Peachtree street to the Margaret Mitchell Museum where blurry people like this were also waiting for the tour:


And this cutie:


And for some reason the museum sold books like this:

Scarlett would not be proud.

You weren't really allowed to take pictures of anything in the museum. That's what this tour guide lady in pink (magenta?) told us:


Now let me tell you, this woman's voice was a nasally boom of esoteric 20th century information. After she shuffled the elderly folks (and us) into the first room of the museum, the piercing flow of information began. One elderly woman immediately screeched and clutched her ear, trying to cover her hearing aid. I even found myself pretending to scratch my ears few times.

"MAWGWET MITCHELL WAS WAITING FOR HER INVITATION TO THE JUNIOR LEAGUE IN THE YEAR 1920...1. NO INVITATION EVER DID COME FOR PEGGY BECAUSE SHE HAD DANCED A MUCH TOO PROVOCATIVE DANCE THAT WAS THE SHUDDER OF MANY OF THE JUNIOR LEAGUE MOTHERS OF THAT DAY.

Then the tour guide woman would stop ever so briefly and the hearing aid lady would sigh and relax and tour guide lady would take a breath and begin again, "NOW PEGGY WAS QUITE AN ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMAN." And then hearing aid lady would say, "oh Loooord!" rather loudly and get shushed by her one of the retirement home volunteers...and the vicious cycle continued for a sweltering 45 minutes. I was on team hearing aid.

Again, you can't really take pictures of anything in the house. This is us on the front porch of the apartment:


And the hanging portrait of Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) that hung in Rhett's room in the movie:


After we left the museum, our last stop in Atlanta and of the Sugar Coma tour was the Bakeshop:


They had a bunch of mini desserts like these ones:

We ate, drank and were merry.

And then, after all the Southern drama of GWTW and good old (no pun intended) time spent with kind elderly folks fueled by an overdose of sugar, we trekked back over to Augusta.

Thanks for all the fun Atlanta. To feel less guilty about the time I spent with you, I shall read about your history through the eyes of Katie Scarlett. And only eat spinach for the next week.

P.S. Sorry about the photo party.
P.P.S. to myself: am I allowed to take pictures of random people and post them on my blog? Because...I just start imagining that crazy tour guide lady is somehow going to find my blog and be horribly offended I think she has a shrill voice and the museum will sue me. So far there are two votes from Karyn and Andrew for me getting sued. I say, give me my hearing in my left ear back, and I'll give you back the part of your soul forever captured on my camera.

Greene Street

"I just adore a penthouse view...darling I love you but give me Park Avenue" (name that jingle!).

I often find myself singing this theme song in order to deal with my ever-shrinking life inside this hotel room. So rather than face the reality of living in a hotel, I pretend I live in a penthouse. A penthouse! Yeah...that's it. This is super lux and 50 Cent is my neighbor and we chose this place because of the fabulous view.

But then (true story) I see Andrew (in his defense it was dark), slide a kiwi across the table (he thought it was his mouse) and attempt to use his computer and reality sets in: there's a lot of clutter, not a lot of natural light, we're living in a 200 square foot room and basically I can't wait to get out of here.

The good news is we finally rented a place downtown! I almost don't want to post these pictures because of the grainy nature of the photos. I don't know, it was my kit lense, I was in a hurry, there was no artistic intent involved...(ok KeriAnn...OK?). It's called the Levy House (pronounced Leevy) and as I said earlier, it's a historic location in Augusta that has been renovated into apartment units.



We live on the bottom floor and this is our living room. I love all the natural light, hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings etc.


Please note this is the smallest kitchen I've ever seen. Even in IKEA when they do those cool rooms that say, "What to do with 375 sq. ft?" -- I swear even those kitchens are bigger. At least they have real ovens. This one is about the length of my fingertips to my elbow. Rad.


Our little bedroom...


Our hobbit bathroom. Look at all that counter space!


But seriously, I really like this place. It's a far cry from Saddleclub and unlike any place I've ever lived in before. It's in the heart of downtown and within walking distance to everything. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. Please come visit me.

P.S. Andrew is really good with computers.