Georgia 2011

When my boss complained of dreading a long drive to a 3-day conference in Chattanooga, I volunteered to drive her if she'd let me take her car on down to Alpharetta, Georgia to visit a friend.  Surprisingly, she agreed.  We headed out on Tuesday, June 14.  Joel went with us and ended up doing all of the driving.

I'd given my friend a "heads up" that we'd be coming, but I didn't give her an exact date of arrival.  Thus, she was a little surprised when I called her and said that we were one hour away from her house.  I told her not to worry about putting us up, as we planned to stay in a hotel.  She generously offered to let us stay at her house, but I insisted that we would not impose on her.  I had not bothered to make a hotel reservation as I had not anticipated a problem with finding a room in Alpharetta.  Boy, was I surprised when we tried to check into a hotel, only to be told that there were no rooms available.  "Phish concert," the hotel clerk explained.  From that hotel parking lot, I called several other hotels and got the same story: no rooms available.  Thankfully, my friend again offered us a room.  We had a pleasant evening, chatting over drinks on her patio.  The next day we again shopped for a hotel room.  For a while, I feared that we wouldn't find one, as the Phish concert was a 2-night event, and most of the hotels were still full.  After several phone calls, we finally found a room, and we hurried there to check in before someone else could snatch it up.  That evening, we went back to our friend's house for a delicious steak and chicken dinner cooked on the grill. 

On Thursday, Joel and I drove up to Elberton, Georgia to see the "Georgia Guidestones."  This mysterious monument sits at the edge of a field, a little over 7 miles north of Elberton on Highway 77.  I shall not recount here the tale of the origins of this monument, as plenty of information is available with a quick internet search.  Do look it up; it is quite bizarre.

A plaque on the ground said more information could be had at the Elberton Granite Museum, so we stopped there on our way back through town.  We did a quick tour of the place, watched a film on how granite is quarried, finished, and etched, and learned that Elberton is the granite capitol of the world.  Evidently, it is the local granite that will help protect the place from disappearing when the apocalypse comes.  ;)

It was long past lunch time when we left the museum, and we began looking for a place to eat.  Understand that when we travel, we prefer to eat at places that serve local fare, or at least food that we don't typically get around our home; fast food is a last resort.  But we had chosen a route out of town that had virtually nothing but fast food restaurants.  We kept driving.  By the time we reached Athens, Georgia and saw a sign for Krystal, we decided to break our travel rule and stop there.  Following the signs, Joel steered us off the highway, but when we came to the next intersection, there was no Krystal in sight, and no sign pointing the way.  "Turn right," I told him, and we'll see what's over the hill."

He turned right.  Just past the intersection, there were two "quick stop" gas stations, a Mexican restaurant, and this:



He turned on the blinker.  I thought he was just going to turn around, but he pulled into a parking space and turned off the engine.

I gasped.  "We're eating HERE?"

"It's not fast food," he said with a shrug, "and it isn't something we'd get at home."

Reluctantly, I followed him to the door. 

If there was an indoor dining room, I didn't see it.  (I don't know what they'll do when the weather turns cold.)  The lattice-enclosed seating area had picnic tables and a pea-gravel floor.  From the rafter ceiling hung colorful tissue paper party decorations.  There were more picnic tables out back, alongside a small stream.  A chalk board near the kitchen door advertised the day's specials:  jerk chicken, jerk pork, spicy cabbage, rice & peas, squash.  We took a seat at one of the tables by the creek.  Big sticks of incense smoked along the creek bank, apparently functioning as bug deterrents.  We both ordered jerk pork, mine with rice & peas and squash, his with cabbage and lima beans.  Every bite was delicious.  I was glad that Joel had been brave enough to give the place a try. 

We headed home the next day, stopping in Chattanooga to pick up the boss.  We rolled into our driveway at about 5 p.m.  As always, though we'd had a good time on the trip, it was good to be home. 

Baltimore-Washington DC, April-May 2011

Joel had to go to a seminar in Baltimore, Maryland last week.  I went with him.  We left on Tuesday morning in a drizzling rain.  We had a short lay-over in Indianapolis, then flew to DC (for some unfathomable reason, the tickets to DC were cheaper than tickets to Baltimore).  Although we would have taken the train to Baltimore, my sister graciously offered to pick us up at the airport.  That evening, we had a tasty Mexican meal at a nearby restaurant, then Deb and her husband, Jack, drove us to Baltimore in their car.

The conference was at the Hyatt hotel in the Inner Harbor section of Baltimore.  Our 10th floor room had a view of the lovely harbor area. 

On Wednesday morning, I set out walking along the harbor.  From the hotel room, I'd spotted a bookstore, and I made a bee-line for it.  For the past few years I have been collecting cookbooks from each state that we visit.  This bookstore had a nice selection of Maryland cookbooks.  I added one to my collection. 

Just down the street from the bookstore was an aquarium.  I bought a ticket and went in.  The place was crawling with schoolchildren.  In addition to the fish displays, the aquarium had a theatre that offered a "4-D" movie.  4-D?  Not long after the movie started, I found out what the 4th dimension was.  When a polar bear climbed out of its den, a blast of cool air blew through the room.  When a killer whale nabbed a fish by the back of its neck, a blast of air shot out of the back of the seat and hit me in the back of the head.  When the whale splashed in the water, a fine mist sprayed.  The kids squealed with delight.  I probably squealed a little, myself!
After the aquarium visit, I walked a little farther, looking for lunch.  There was an Irish pub close by.  I went in and opted for a seat on the restaurant's second floor patio.  For lunch, I ordered a tasty crabcake sandwich and a Tulley & Ginger to wash it down. 

Later that evening, Joel and I went to a reception at Luckie's Tavern, hosted by the seminar folks.  The whole place had been reserved for us for the entire evening.  Outside on the patio were rows of picnic tables, and on the end of each table was a big basket of steamed crabs and a pile of wooden hammers.  An experienced crab-eater showed us how to crack open the little beasts.  They were tasty, but I was not brave enough to try the "mustard."

On Thursday, the weather was bad.  There were tornado warnings, and it rained off and on all day.  I stayed in our nice, dry room and watched the pre-wedding (Kate & Will) specials.  By late that afternoon, the clouds had moved out.  Joel and I walked along the harbor to a restaurant (Rusty Scrupper), where we had a delicious seafood supper.

The next morning, we packed our suitcases and headed back to DC, taking the train this time.  Deb picked us up at a Metro stop, and we went to her house for the weekend.  We had such a good time with her and Jack.  On Saturday, we visited a garden plant sale, then toured part of the National Arboretum.  The azaleas were in full bloom.  It was beautiful. 

Later that evening, we tried yet another Mexican restaurant, a new one that offered Salsa dance lessons.  Though my feet were itching to join in the dancing, my arthritic knee was not.  Besides, we had heard that there was swing dancing in a pavillion at a place called Glen Echo, and we wanted to check it out before the evening grew too old.  There was a live band at Glen Echo, playing swing music.  There must have been 200 people cutting a rug on the dance floor.  Had we arrived earlier, we probably would have paid our money and joined the dancing, sore knees or no; as it was, we stood on the outside of the pavillion and watched the dancers. 

On Sunday, we drove to West Virginia for brunch at the Bavarian Inn.  Talk about food...they had just about anything a body could want:  omelettes, Eggs Benedict, German sausages with kraut, lamb, roast beef, pork, vegetables and salads and breads of all descriptions....  The desserts were just as plentiful.  Man, oh man...it was delicious! 

We waddled out of the place, got in the car, and drove back into Maryland to the Antietam battlefield (just a few miles away) to have a look around.  Since it was raining and a little chilly, we did not tour the whole place - just watched the film in the vistor center, then drove around a little bit. 

The countryside was so beautiful.  It was hard to imagine that such horrible death and destruction - over 20,000 men died that day - occurred there 150 years ago, a battle that changed the course of the Civil War. 

Having been such pigs at lunch-time, we opted for a light, quiet meal and a glass of wine at Deb's & Jack's house that evening.  We called it an evening before 10 p.m. 

This morning when I awoke and went downstairs, Deb asked if I'd heard the helicopters circling the house during the night.  I had not heard them.  Evidently, the helicopters had been flying in response to the crowd of students which had assembled near the White House in response to the news that a much-wanted terrorist (I shall not even type his name) had been captured and killed.  The students were there to chant "USA!" in support of the feat, pulled off by a group of Navy Seals while most of us had slept.  Good job, guys!

Airport security was a little tighter today for our flight home.  A security guard swabbed my palms, evidently looking for residue of some sort.  I suppose I looked suspicious - a dumpy, middle-aged woman in reading glasses, poring over the pages of a gardening magazine. 

It's good to be home.