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03 November 2017

Going For A Crazy Cabbagetown Walk In Atlanta, Georgia, Pt 1

Remember when we evacuated Florida to escape the wrath of Hurricane Irma? Well, we ended up crashing with our friends, Greg and Duwan, in Atlanta. While we were there, we did a bit of walking.

Okay before we get into the walk, let's start out with a little confession. I have no idea if this all took place over one day, two days or more. That's because things got really blurry during our time in Atlanta. All my memories are jumbled up like those Kitchen Sink cookies at Aldi's. You know the ones with pretzels, chocolate chips, nuts etc. Pretty much everything thrown in there but the kitchen sink.

I imagine some of you are thinking, "Hmm...can't tell one day from the other. Exactly how much beer did you drink while you were there?"

Sure, there was some beer drinking, but that's not the reason for my jumbly memory. It's because every day was fun. Every night was fun. Even my dreams were fun. It was just a big mish-mash of fun. Who keeps track of days of the week when you're having fun?

So, let's just pretend that this walk took place during the course of one fun-filled day. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't.

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Here's the start of our walking adventure.  A cute house in Cabbagetown, which is a funky neighborhood in downtown Atlanta. Don't you love the colors? Greg's a house painter. If you live in the Atlanta area and you need your house painted, he's the man. You can find out more here.


This is Greg and Duwan by the way. Yep, not only does Greg paint houses, but he also plays the accordion. We're not talking your ordinary polka-kind of accordion playing. He and Duwan sing crazy cat lady songs in Spanish. The paper bag Duwan is holding up has the English translation written on it so that Scott and I could follow along. And, yes I know what you're thinking, but honestly, beer was not involved.


Oh, yeah, back to the walk. Sorry I was lost in thought thinking about crazy cat lady songs and Duwan's awesome granola bars. They have mini chocolate chips in them which explains the awesomeness.

We walked up to the park. It's a park. There were kids running around. There were dogs running around. I have no idea what the modern art sculpture dotted about is meant to represent, but I'm sure it's something profound. I don't do profound. Too much mental energy is required for profound.


We walked up leafy streets. Cabbagetown kind of reminded of us the Hawthorne district, our old neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, except on steroids. Funky, arty and a little bit weird in a delightful sort of way.


Want to see some of the weirdness? Check this out.


Across the street from this fence lives an artist that Greg and Duwan know. This is what Cabbagetown is like. You just stop, knock on the door and say, "Hey, can we show our evacuees* around your place?" The answer is always, "Sure, come on in." More often than not, they also add, "Want a beer?"

{*We got referred to as Greg and Duwan's 'evacuees' during our time there. Anyone who was anyone in Atlanta had their very own evacuees during Irma.}

This is how I like my scary sea monsters - beached on a lawn in Atlanta, not swimming in the sea near my boat.


This is one of the ways out of Cabbagetown. Not that you'd ever want to leave, mind you. But occasionally the lure of cheap beer and pizza forces you to venture further afield. That's us about to walk through the underpass which is decorated with lots of street art.


At some point, we went to a festival. I couldn't tell you which festival it was. There are a lot of festivals in Atlanta. You could spend every weekend being festive at the festivals.

I don't know who these guys are, but I'm sure they're thrilled to be featured on the blog. I just took the picture to capture the whole neighborhood feel of the festival. I wonder what they're talking about. Whether or not pretzels belong in cookies?


Lots of people walk around Atlanta. It really surprised me. Downtown Atlanta is full of lots of different neighborhoods. It's nice to see a vibrant downtown area with people out and about enjoying the good weather.


That's Joanne in the picture below. She's a lot of fun. You tell by the way she's dancing in her chair. Her husband, Vic, is lots of fun too and he wears great hats. Don't you just love a great hat?

Joanne has two dishwashers - one for clean dishes and one for dirty dishes. Why bother to unload the dishwasher and put things away when you can just pull out a clean dish from the clean dishwasher and deposit the dirty one in the dirty dishwasher? Genius. Of course, we don't have a dishwasher on our boat so anything having to do with dishwashers seems genius to me.


Just ignore the beer in the picture above. It wasn't ours. Someone left those pitchers on our table accidentally. We went to this place for the pizza, not beer.

This is a sign of good pizza - grease residue on the paper your slice came on. It's not a sign of a good-for-your-health pizza, but let's not talk about that. Pesto pizza is my new favorite thing.


Look - more people walking. That's the BeltLine, a former railway corridor that they've transformed into a multi-use trail.


We walked up the BeltLine to another festival - the Lantern Festival. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of some fun lanterns. But don't worry, there's more to come soon. Did you notice the Part 1 up in the blog post title? As I've been going through photos, I've realized that there's too much to share with you in just one blog post. So, good news...another installment of "Crazy Cabbagetown" is headed your way.



Have you ever been to Atlanta? If so, what would recommend people see/do there? Do you like going to festivals? Do you play the accordion or another instrument?

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25 comments:

  1. I want that Star Trek lantern!
    Crazy cat lady songs in Spanish? Yes, I've heard everything now.
    Great photos. Not a side of Atlanta I've ever seen.

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    1. I thought you might like that lantern :-) It's a really neat part of Atlanta. Definitely worth checking out at some point.

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  2. If you have to evacuate to somewhere, that looks like the place to go. I love that shark on the lawn!

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    1. It was the best evacuation I've ever had :-) Thankfully, it's also the only evacuation I've ever had.

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  3. How fun. I'm glad you had a safe place to go and all that fun entertainment too.

    Have a fabulous day and weekend. ☺

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    1. We were lucky to have such wonderful people take us in.

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  4. I have flown in and out of Atlanta but, apart from a night in an airport hotel when we arrived, never stayed. Reading this, I think that was a mistake!

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    1. Atlanta really surprised me. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what we found. Such a fun, vibrant city.

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  5. I've never been to Atlanta, but that clearly that has to change -- Cabbagetown looks like my kind of place! Have you thought about linking this post up with Jo's Monday Walks? Her readers would love it!

    https://restlessjo.me/

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    1. Good idea about Jo's site. It's been a while since I've linked up with her. Of course, it also been a while since I've been on an interesting walk.

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  6. We moved here to the Atlanta area in 1971, and I've never been to Cabbagetown. Thanks to your pics, I may have to change that. Thanks!

    We do have a lot of awesome festivals and car shows in the area. Great museums, too.

    I'll be looking forward to part II. Have a super weekend!

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    1. There are a lot of cute neighborhoods in that part of Atlanta. Well worth exploring one day. Sadly, we did't gt to hit any museums while we were there. Although we did get to the MLK historic site which was great.

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  7. YAY! Looking forward to installment 2 of Cabbagetown +. Does the Beltline actually go through Cabbagetown? I live here (outside of Cabbagetown, but in Georgia) and even I don't know. All of the little areas that make up Atlanta confuse me (Old Fourth Ward, Midtown, Buckhead, etc).

    And you are so right! Everyone who is anyone in Atlanta had guests during Hurricane Irma. My brother got stuck up here (he lives more toward Savannah). We lost power and a few trees feel. What happened to his house? Absolutely nothing. The weather makes (and made) no sense. *sigh*

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    1. No, I don't think the Beltline goes thru Cabbagetown. I remember we walked a little ways to catch it. One of the things I liked about Atlanta were all of the different neighborhoods. The hurricane seemed to follow us to Atlanta. We were lucky and didn't lose power in the house we were staying at, but it seemed like everyone else around us did.

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    2. The Beltline does go through Cabbagetown - it just isn't complete and all of the pieces of it are not connected yet. We actually walked on the part that goes through Cabbagtown on the way back from one of our festivals.

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  8. Next time I go to Atlanta, I need you for my tour guide.

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    1. The people you really need as your tour guide are our friends. They know all the cool places to go :-)

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  9. I could tell you were having fun, Ellen :) :) Thanks for showing me the crazy side of Atlanta!

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  10. Nice post! It was great to see Cabbagetown through fresh eyes. It was an almost perfect Cabbagetown week. And I am so glad you got to experience it and understand why we are on about it all the time. BTW - that sculpture in the park is called "The Herd." It is a left over from when there was a school there instead of a park. The school closed and became a location for prostitution and drugs until he neighborhood petitioned for and built the park. As I understand it, there was discussion about what to do about "The Herd." Of course, Cabbagetown decided to keep it.

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    1. I have such a bad memory. I'm sure you told us this on the walk.

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  11. I came here by way of Jo, Ellen, and I so enjoyed your walk through Cabbagetown (what a name!), which I've never heard of before. It looks like a lively place, and your friends seem like great fun!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by - glad you enjoyed the walk :-)

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  12. Very very soon there will be an art and history center - The Patch Works - dedicated to preserving and sustaining the stories of the mill, Cabbagetown, and its residents. Stop by on your next trip!

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    1. That sounds like it will be a fantastic center and I love the name :-) If we get back that way, we'll definitely stop by.

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