Trip to Atlanta

Recently I visited Atlanta for a teacher conference on reading (IRA Annual Conference). I traveled with two other teachers. We arrived on a Saturday so we could tour on the Sunday. We took a trolley tour to see the general sights. We hoped to decide on a couple of things to see in more detail, but the tour guide would say, "Over to your right is the ___ building", then pause, then, "On your left is ___", and so on. Real helpful! I thought a tour was suppose to give you information...

This is a view of the city from Olympic Park.

Atlanta had a tornado go through the downtown a couple months ago. Most of the higher buildings have windows out. The convention centre and the Omni Hotel (part of the CNN complex) also had a lot of damage.

On our way to dinner the first night I was approached by three different people asking for money. At dinner the waitress avoided us (she took our order and we didn't see her again - someone else even delivered our food) until the end when we stood up to ask for the bill. She was very bold and didn't really apologize. She said, "I've been busy, you know. I haven't been standing around doing nothing," but not once did she use the word "sorry". So much for southern hospitality.

While our time started out in an interesting way we did end up having a lovely time. I enjoyed my sessions which confirmed many of the teaching strategies I use and I learned some things to enhance my teaching. I heard Jamie Lee Curtis speak about her ideas for her children's books. She cried when she read one of her stories and got to the part about the importance of family. Very touching! I tried taking her picture with my zoom lens but there was too much camera shake. I took a picture of the screen instead!

We are sitting waiting to hear Jamie!

Anyway, here are a few sights from an interesting city and some of the things I did:

I visited the Martin Luther King Museum. It was very touching to read about the walks fro freedom. It was interesting to read about the Freedom Riders. A few months ago I saw a special about the riders, one of whom is a Canadian. The special was about a reunion from the Canadian's perspective.

King's childhood home and his resting place...

I had a two hour wait between sessions so I walked over to the aquarium. I loved the cold water exhibit where there were penguins and beluga whales.

My friends and I went on a tour of the CNN building and watched the news being produced. Cool!

On my next visit I would like to go to the Margaret Mitchell house where Gone With the Wind was written. There is a museum, too.

Lastly, each day we sat out by the pool to enjoy the warmth and sun. One day was on the 80s! We tried to do some professional reading but the social talk was more interesting.