December 24-29,2020: White Christmas, Hotlanta, and Points Forward

 

"I'm dreaming of a White Christmas..."

Paul and I trade out who plans our anniversary trip and this year...it's been a little wild. At first, I had plans for a foreign venue, but COVID made a big question mark that turned into a ZERO by fall. Then I planned a trip to Arizona (to help my hubby achieve his goal of having visited all 50 states), but COVID ixnayed that too. So instead, we are continuing our 2020 theme of car trips with lots of hiking, social distancing and visits to uncrowded spaces. And even that went a little haywire!  I got off work Christmas Eve and Paul and I planned to go to Chattanooga for the night, socially distant visit his sister and on to Atlanta. BUT it snowed and the road didn't get cleared and we ended up staying at home with our kitties. It was very beautiful in our yard. We didn't expect a white Christmas. The next morning, we were able to spend a little time with Paul's sister while on our way to Atlanta. 

And by the way, it was FREEZING. 25 degrees Fahrenheit when we reached Atlanta. We stayed in a nice midtown airbnb and literally walked in the garage/parking lot bundled up like Inuits because it was too danged cold to go anywhere else. For Christmas dinner, we had Indian food at Tabla. Not your usual fare, but tasty none the less!

Papadams and Chutneys

Paul toast everyone a Happy Christmas from our midtown airbnb

The next day, we were fortunate to do a civil rights tour of Atlanta with our guide, Runella. She is a transplant to Atlanta from Buffalo, NY but has family roots in the city. We went to the APEX museum (and were the only visitors), walked through Sweet Auburn, visited the outside of the Ebenezer Baptist Church and the outside of the MLK museum and his grave. We also saw the home he grew up in in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood. At that time, it was a very nice place and predominantly affluent and prominent blacks. This was during the Jim Crow era, and Sweet Auburn was a place where blacks owned businesses and could move freely about. Some of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood is in good condition, but much of it is sadly now in disrepair and there is a serious homeless problem as well. Our last stop on the tour was MLK's last home in another area of Atlanta. That home has been purchased by the park service and is undergoing renovation as a museum. It is not open to the public at present, and many place currently are closed that once were open. 

Martin Luther King's final home recently acquired by the park service

Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King's final resting place. 

The Municipal Market in Sweet Auburn. For the black community, they used to call this the "curb market"," because they couldn't go inside. 

We enjoyed a meal that night in Bacchanalia, a  perennial Atlanta favorite. The only reason it doesn't have a Michelin star is that Michelin doesn't come to Atlanta. If you are in Atlanta, go there. They are in a new location and it's very roomy. 

Same great food. New location. 

The next morning we were off to the High Museum. It's always on our favorites list. We saw a combination of European masters, contemporary art, sculpture, Persian works from the 19th and 20th century and the work of Julie Mehretu, an Ethiopian-American artist with extremely large and detailed works. 

Persian painting. I really like this painting from the very early 20th century. Big eyebrows are STILL all the rage. The amount of time the descendants from this period spend on their eye makeup is still astounding in the 20th century. 

Sculpture from Burkina Fossa

Julie Mehretu. These are large and multilayered works

Paul admires the work and gives you an idea of the scale. 

That night we had a private pasta class with Chef Luca in a midtown condo. We made pasta by hand and it was as fun as it was educational. 

Taglietelle. Handmade!

Paul Parris produces pasta!

Chef Luca is Ligurian and has worked in Atlanta and in Ethiopia. 

The next morning, we were off to the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia. This modest home was a place of escape for Franklin Delano Roosevelt and also where he died. 

The Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia

FDR had his cars altered so he had hand controls. 

He came to "take the waters" of the 88 degree Fahrenheit springs and try to regain his strength after polio. He was a favorite of locals and was inspired to form the Rural Electric Administration and numerous other projects by seeing how local folks lived out in the rural and poor regions of this state.  

FDR looked for a cure from polio here, but didn't find it. He did however find better health and learned a lot about the rural poor. 

We are now staying at Callaway Gardens for a couple of days, and more on that later!

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

Paul's Ponderings:  Great trip so far.....we got a bit of a late start due to snow, but had a great time in Atlanta.   Besides some good food, we saw these fabulous works by Julie Mehretu at the High Museum.    I've never heard of her, but these were really interesting and the scale was huge.    We then drove on down to Warm Springs, which was new to me.....it's quite amazing how simple it is....no president would have a vacation home this simple these days.   By the time we got here, the weather was lovely and in the 60s.   Quite a change.    We ended the day by stopping at Calloway Gardens for a couple of nights.