Hot-Lanta

This last week's Miles:
Bike Miles: 57.66
Walking Miles: 12
MARTA one way trips: 3


I decided to take it easy this weekend. This last week's miles are low, but they were unbelively slow, and hard. I was SO tired, but determined to not drive no matter how *tired* I am. Without driving it's nearly impossible to not ride a bike. If I don't ride a bike then I have to walk, so my legs are still not 100% recovered, but I feel better than I did in the middle of last week. Of course the mental blow of everything else didn't help much.

It's good to take in a FREE concert when you're feeling down. Luckily the Virgina Highland Summerfest was happening literally around the corner from my house. Lizzie and I walked over and caught a great set by Matt Costa and band. He was opening for Shaun Mullins. With the 97* weather and both of our low moods we didn't stay for Mr Mullins. But enjoyed the fest anyways...there were a LOT of people!!!

The boys have been dying to go for a good walk. It's been really hot all week, they want to go, but then the heat kills them. Sunday morning was dedicated to the boys. We left the house at 8:30 when it was 85* and felt pretty comfortable considering the last week. I've been really focusing on spending as much time outside as I can. The more time I spend AWAY from the A/C the more comfortable I am when I am in the hot-ness.


We headed out with two water bottles, planning to refill along the way at the local restaurants I was thinking. Being Sunday morning, nothing was open so I had to conserve a little more than I wanted. I was doing ok, so they drank mine too. Every 30 minutes I stopped us and let them drink while I took pictures.
Growing up in Alaska I learned to really love the tourist season. I was always proud to talk about and show off my homeland and hear the tourist be so impressed with the Last Frontier. Turns out Atlanta has a lot of tourists too! They are all out on Sunday morning!
My plan was to make it to Centennial Park with the boys, but I think we need to start about 7am to beat the heat to make it that far. We headed down Peachtree towards downtown. That stretch is so different on the weekend morning. The restaurants aren't open yet, the sun is bright, the pavement is still (relatively) cool from the night, the bums are still sleeping in the parks, the Church traffic cops are just getting to their stations so they are friendly.

There are very few cars and people out. It makes it feel like the city is all mine. It feels like home walking along with the dogs, saying hello, good morning to the tourists out cruising like we are. They inspired me to take pictures of the buildings too.

Each building trys to really stand out and have their own style. The Suntrust building (pictures above) has this thing around it at the bottom that looks like a steel roller coaster. When I first got to Atlanta every time I drove downtown I would end up at this building because I didn't understand all the one way streets. So this was my landmark where I would start over in my search for my destination.

This building is next to the Ritz-Carlton downtown, I think it's just an office building, but it has a pretty face.
This building has in BIG letters at the top CAPITOL STATES. Its really plain, but with the alley in the foreground it shows a bit of the underbelly of the fancy face along Peachtree. The poor boys were SO hot and tired at this point.....
This is another spot that is turning into quite the tourist location. It's the new Twelve Hotel/Condos, it's right next to the Civic Center MARTA station. It's also a good place to get a city shot. There were a bunch of tourists when we first arrived- they were all posing and taking pictures with the buildings behind them.
This (below) is my favorite building in Atlanta, the Bank of America. It's the tallest which makes it hard to get the whole thing in the frame, but I like the shape of it and how it shines in the sunlight. It's like the beacon of Midtown.
These are the steps that are the main entrance to the Bank of America Building. I liked how there was the reflection of the AT&T building in the glass.

At the Summerfest we saw lots of artist booths and all the photographers that were local had a shot of the FOX theater sign. Here's mine!
On the way home I stopped us at the only cafe that was open along Peachtree. I tied the boys up while I slipped inside for water refills. When I came out this nice family were cooing at the boys. After I watered them, they all came over and said hello and wanted to pet the boys. They had two LITTLE girls, about 3 and 5 maybe? They loved the boys. The little one was eye to eye with Blue. The boys were so good, as always. The little girls were getting kisses and the putting their hands on Blue's giant tongue. It was kind of funny.

This picture shows how tired they were. Blue looks terrible I know, he's lost so much weight. I think it's the warm weather? He's eating normal, maybe a little more even. Petey would lay down everytime we'd stop. he's so smart like that. Poor boys, I'm such a mean mom!

Sunday walk took us 2 hours and we only went 5.1 miles!!!!! It was 94* when we got home.