Author: Andy

We met Kristen, Drew, and his parents at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens for Garden Nights, Holiday Lights. There were some indoor elements to it, but we stayed outside the whole time. At the garden, they had large sculptures for the characters from Alice in Wonderland. They were lit up for the display. Most everyone there was wearing masks and we were outside, so it felt pretty safe.

We saw the chess set from the movie. One of Annabelle’s favorites was the sculpture of the queen playing croquet. AB got a kick out of the flamingo that was used as a mallet. Drew’s dad, Scott, told us that the sculptures have little pockets on them that hold plants. Over time they learned which plants worked best in the pockets to grow into shapes for the sculptures. I don’t think there were any plants in the sculptures for this time of year though. We did see a grass sculpture that came from Montreal Canada. That one actually had grass growing on it that was probably dormant this time of year.

One section had holiday trains. It reminded me of the train display that I saw at The Milwaukee Domes. It seemed that about half of the tracks were empty though. We wanted around to see if trains would come but often they never did. I thought it would have been perfect if one of the model railroad buildings was a gingerbread house but it seems they didn’t think of that.

There was a tunnel that was lit up with bright yellowish white lights to walk under. The grand finale for the display was a large section that had rope lights coming down from the sky. The lights were programmed to coincide with music that was playing. When we walked into that section, they were playing a song that had something to do with fire. The rope lights were alternating yellow and red colors. Annabelle even thought it looked like fire. It was amazing. We lingered in that section, slowly going through it, until we heard the whole sound track play and loop back to the beginning.

We started the day out by going to a market at The Beacon Atlanta. We walked around the different vendors. Linda and I decided to split a Mexican crepe. I also grabbed a kombucha. Then we went to meet Kristen at Grant Park. Annabelle rode her balance bike through the park. We stopped at a small playground. It just had a couple swing sets. Then we moved on to a bigger play structure.

Once again there were all kinds of things to play on. They had a climbing wall. Annabelle climbed up the side of it, but didn’t want to scale it like a rock climber would. She also got to play with a bar to hold onto that slide in a track about ten yards. We also tried out a teeter totter that had the seats kitty corner from each other. There were a number of other things to play on but those are the ones that stand out in my mind.

We stopped back at Mom’s Basement, where we are staying, then left to The Lost Druid Brewery. We met Nate and Catie there for a few drinks. We sat outside at a table. They had picnic tables so we had some distance between us. We also used masks when we were in between sips. I had a black cherry soda and some tea. Linda tried a few of their beers. Annabelle rode her balance bike around the parking lot. We played “tag – you’re it” which must be AB’s favorite game. Then I was also throwing her up into the air and catching her. She was having a blast doing that. It gets tiring though so I had to take a few breaks in between tosses. We got rained on pretty good by the time we left.

We came home and I had a hankering for curry for dinner. Kristen suggested Aamar Indian Cuisine. I ordered delivery through their app at a discount. We had a lamb dhaanshaag, two orders of vegetable samosas and beef curry. The lamb was our favorite but it had some kick to it.

Today was Small Business Saturday. I am happy to report that we did, in fact, patronize a small business. We decided to go hiking on the Appalachian Trial. We drove to Habersham Winery in Helen, GA. Kristen and Linda sampled some wine. We bought a couple bottles. This was the riskiest place I’ve been to during COVID. It was fairly populated. Similar to most places, not everyone was wearing masks. We are maskers so we were wearing them of course. They drank the samples outside on a patio, socially distanced. Kristen and Drew even sat at a separate table from us while they drank.

We then drove to Dick’s Creek Gap to hike the Appalachian Trail. We had Buster with us. I had the kid carrier on my back for when Annabelle got tired. We were in the mountains. It was a beautiful drive to get there. We were hiking up a mountain. Kristen held Buster’s leash. She went ahead of us a ways, so that we didn’t always have to wear masks. Buster has this need where he has to be in front of the pack, so Kristen took him. Drew went off on his own to summit the mountain.

We saw a waterfall, it was fairly small. I think that was Annabelle’s first waterfall though. We also crossed paths with a couple bow hunters. I asked them if they saw anything but they said just squirrels. A while later we came across a guy hiking by himself with a pack. I asked him if he was camping on the trail. He said not now, but later he would. He hurried on his way. I can’t put my finger on why, but coming across these people really made the trail special to me. It just embodied all the type of people that can enjoy a natural resource like the AT. On our way down, an older woman and her son passed us. The kid must have been 18 or so. His mom told us that 15 years ago, he was the one in the kid carrier. That made me happy, too. Just to think about how families, young and old, can enjoy the outdoors together. I am not sure why, that is nothing new to me, my family still enjoys the outdoors together. Three generations are coming camping every year now.

We saw some interesting features on the trail. There was a section where vines grew into a canopy over the trail. It was very green. Reminded me of something out of a novel. Another part we saw where a large amount of water ran down the trail, causing erosion. Yet another section brought us a bit of apprehension. Annabelle and Kristen were wearing their masks as they hiked holding hands. Kristen had Buster. The trail had a very steep drop just off the side of the trail. It was a long drop, too. AB did pretty good though. I think she got a bit concerned, probably because I inadvertently said something to make her apprehensive about the situation.

We hiked further and debated whether we had time to summit the peak. We realized we were racing daylight to some extent. It was hard to tell when the sun would set. With the mountain obstructing the sun’s light, we would run out of daylight sooner than the sun would set outside the mountains. We decided to turn around.

I had AB in the kid carrier on my back for a good portion of the hike back down. Particularly for the section with the steep drop off. I was saying things in a deep, concerned voice. I didn’t realize what was happening at first. But Linda pointed out that Buster was distracted by my intonation. It was making it difficult for Kristen to hike. So I stood there as best I could momentarily. Just tried to be quiet so Buster would behave and Kristen could hike past the steep drop off. I readily admit that I did freak a bit. My only child on my back, trying not to look down that sudden drop over my shoulder. After things settled we started moving again and made it past that part.

We drove home and stopped at Kroger for some groceries. Kristen and Drew picked up some pizza for dinner. It was a flat bread style pizza, a bit more unique. It was good – had a chewy aspect to it due to the crust. Less sauce and cheese on it compared to other places. The pizza was from Varuni Napoli. Kristen told me that they had a brother company Antico. Back in Bay View where we grew up, there was a similar thing that happened with a family pizza joint called De Marinis, where two brothers split apart to run rival pizza joints.

I picked up a cookies and cream cake to share. I put a big slice on a plate to share with AB. We ate it together, taking turns. It was very endearing. After we ate, Annabelle was bouncing off the walls. At her request, we played “tag – you’re it”. We also tried to climb Kristen’s tree. Drew had some light up boccie balls from his sister in law that Kristen and AB were playing with too.

Today Drew had to work. Kristen worked earlier in the day too. So we took Buster to the dog park at Piedmont Park. Buster had a blast there. I noticed that there were a ton of Golden Retriever pups in Atlanta. After a while, Buster stopped playing around with other dogs. He laid down nearby in the shade. At that point Linda figured it was OK to continue walking without Buster wanting to pull us. So we went onward.

I wanted some more coffee. I stopped by Sean’s Heart of the Park. I noticed that they sold popsickles. So I bought three King of Pops for us. King of Pops was an Atlanta treat that Kristen always made sure we had when we visited. I picked up two sea salt caramel ones for Linda and I. I think I may have gotten Annabelle a watermelon lemonade one. We saw took a short walk to a bench to enjoy our snack. We walked around the park a bit. Then we headed back to our Airbnb. We met Kristen at her place and drove to Georgia Tech. We walked around the campus for a while. Annabelle rode her balance bike.

We saw a lot of cool structures. One of them was Einstein, although he didn’t have anything to do with Georgia Tech. He was just a famous physicist which is what the school is known for. We saw and talked for a while. It felt good to just visit. I don’t know that we have a particular agenda. Kristen came up with a nice list of things to do. I feel like we are taking things a day at a time while we’re here. Tomorrow we’re planning on going for a hike on the Appalachian Trail or to see some waterfalls. It will be a drive but I am looking forward to being out in more of a nature setting.

We planned a trip down to Atlanta for the holiday. We drove through the night so that Annabelle would be asleep for most of the drive. We finished packing in Madison and left at 7:40 pm on Wednesday night. I drove most of the way. About 5 am I pulled over so that Linda could finish the trip. We swapped Annabelle’s car seat behind the driver seat. I wanted more leg room so that I could try to get some shut eye before we finished our drive. I woke up and helped Linda navigate through Atlanta.

We went to two parks with Kristen. First we went to Poncey-Highland Playground & Community Garden. It is always fun to take Annabelle to different parks. This one was close by, so it made sense to visit it. The next park that we went to was much more impressive. We went to Old Fourth Ward Park. There were a lot of very cool play structures for kids at this one. A couple adults – Drew and I, used some of them as well. One item was a spinning apparatus. You stand on it, start it spinning and move your body from outwards inwards. Drew managed to get this spinning very quickly. I tried it after he did. I didn’t get it to spin very fast but it made me very dizzy.

Annabelle loved this park. There were so many things for her to play on. There was a double decker spinning wheel that we went on together. They also hand a number of different monkey bars to play on. Some were perfect for her size. It took her three tries, but AB was able to get all the way across one of the monkey bar sets. She figured out how to use her momentum to swing from one bar to the next. It was so impressive to see.

Kristen and Drew had purchased a Thanksgiving meal for us from a nearby BBQ place, Fox Brothers. We went to check into our Airbnb. I took a shower. I was so tired, I hoped to catch a nap. I was able to lay down for ten minutes. We told Kristen we’d be back in an hour and a half for dinner. Kristen was heating up our dinner. We stopped by. They had two tables set up outside for us. Kristen and Drew ate on their porch. Linda, Annabelle and I ate together on the lawn.

You could see this happening in slow motion. Annabelle has a thing for playing with things with her feet. So she started swinging the table back and forth. Right when I realized I should grab Linda’s wine glass, it fell to the ground with a pop. Kristen picked up the glass as best as she could. In hindsight I think we got it all. But we have been wearing shoes on her lawn since.

After dinner, Kristen and Drew brought a TV outside. We watched some short Disney movies. Although I should say that Linda and Annabelle watched them. I laid down on a mat that Kristen brought out there. I covered up with a couple blankets and slept. We had a fire too.

When we came home we had a tough time getting Annabelle to bed. Linda read some to her and went to bed. I read a couple books, then tried to get Annabelle to go to sleep. I gave her some cuddles. She didn’t want to go to bed. Finally I told her to just be quiet and went to bed. I got up to check on AB. I opened my bedroom door and saw her walking around. Linda asked what was going on. I explained what happened. Then Linda went to go sleep with Annabelle in her bed.