I had a couple of business trips to Atlanta in the summer, so Madeline joined and we turned both into an extended weekend. We saw family and friends in both visits, and had a great time sharing a meal and laughter with them. On the second trip, we included some outdoor activities to go along with the family time.

07/11/17-07/15/17 & 8/23/17-08/27/17 Atlanta, GA

As we left Orlando, we got a good view of Epcot and Hollywood Studios out our window. We stayed at Elsie’s house and Madeline met up with Julie and Lillie. Michelle had an enchilada dinner with her kids, and we got to meet Kevin. We also had a fun meal with Felicia before walking through the Atlanta airport to return home.

On Wednesday, we got to our hotel late afternoon and had a nice meal before walking over to Centennial Olympic Park. We had a nice view of the park from our window.

On Thursday while I was at my convention, Madeline went to the Georgia Aquarium. She went basically at opening and saw a lot of things before the crowds came in.

She did a backstage tour and saw penguins, medical facilities, and stood above the biggest tank in the U.S. which includes a whale shark, a manta ray, and a sea turtle that has lived at Epcot.

After the tour, she continued to explore the fairly empty aquarium and saw (below, in order to the right) clown anemonefish with bubble-tip anemone, longsnout seahorses, red piranhas, in front of red piranhas, a diver feeling a little goofy, and beluga whales.

On Saturday, we just started driving north. Madeline suggested we go to Dahlonega, which is where we spent our honeymoon. We went into town and asked about where someone might go stay in cabins for a honeymoon and ride horses 31 years ago. They said “Forrest Hills”, so we went there to see if we could remember it. We talked to the owner and eventually showed her a picture from my website. She said, “Oh, that’s my old cat”, so we knew we were in the right place.

We continued on to Amicalola Falls and took the East Ridge Trail up. It was about a mile long and a bit strenuous, but we saw lots of forest. We went to the top of the falls and then took the staircase and Appalachian Approach Trail back down. From this trail, we got lots of good views of the 720’ tall cascading waterfall. We also saw a water snake and other things.

On Friday, we picked up a car and drove out to my old Comdisco building in Smyrna and the new Braves baseball stadium.

We continued on to Helen and walked a little before heading to Roswell and having a nice dinner with Mike and Michelle.

On Sunday, we went to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park with Felicia and Angela. We climbed over 600’ to the top by going through the woods, but then returned back via the drive. It was a fun day.