Here I am in Atlanta

Tonight, there are word pictures.  I could upload a semi-blurry picture of the Wells Fargo bank building outside my window, but I'm thinking it will not be any more fascinating for you than it is for me.  I am finally unpacked, email checked, phoned home, and about to get ready to do a little bit of writing before calling it [a very long] day. However, I have enjoyed the sights and sounds of traffic and lights outside my window.  As much as I love my quiet and relatively peaceful life in the cottage on my Taylor hillside, I love the sights and sounds of the city--any city.

We were 2 hours late leaving this morning due to a combination of factors, but it was a pleasant drive with my two colleagues, and we enjoyed some fun stories intermittently on the trip.  Due to being late, we hit Atlanta at rush hour traffic--the thing I was trying to avoid!--but all in all, it was not too bad due to where our hotel is.  I discovered a wonderful little boutique hotel, the Artmore, formerly the Grenada, back in 2003 and it is my go-to hotel for all things Atlanta.  When they remodeled the interior a couple of years ago, they wisely kept the exterior, a Spanish, Mediterranean design.

The service is outstanding, I love the modern artwork and decor after the renovation (believe me, while it was nice enough before, the decor reflected nothing of the grandeur of the building's architecture, so it was not a loss in the decision to renovate rather than restore).  It is located in mid-town, right across the street from a Marta station and there is little that makes me as happy as using rapid transit when I am in a big city.  You can get anywhere in a few minutes, for not much money, and way less hassle than driving, parking, or taking a cab.  Top that off with a little deli/convenience store across the street where they have Asian take-out and wine, and I am perfectly happy with my 5 minute subway ride and 2 minute walk to the conference hotel--a glass, concrete and steel nondescript building that looks like every other hotel downtown, is furnished like every other hotel in downtown, and charges twice as much for the same kind of room.  Here, there are also great little neighborhood bars, cafes, and stores within the 2-3 block range, and one subway stop down, awesome shopping and food.  Last trip, and eating in an Irish pub, we met a young man from Ireland who was here on a work visa for 4 months.  Now that is my idea of a place to eat.

Debra and I plan to go to the Martin Luther King Memorial and the Carter Center while we are here--both a short subway ride away.  I have long wanted to do both of those, and just never made the time before.