Atlanta Day 6: Atlanta History Center, Botanical Garden, and Piedmont Park

These photos document the day's sights, especially the botanical garden.

Thursday morning I decided to grab breakfast at my budget hotel. I wasn't expecting much. And I was not surprised. They had a selection of packaged bagels and mini-muffin, all clearly store bought, and juice from concentrate provided by a machine. I selected a blueberry bagel, toasted it, and spread it with butter. It sufficed.

Fueled, I attempted to go to the Atlanta History Center. My lack of a good map of the area around my hotel in Smyrna, northwest of Atlanta, led me to get lost for roughly eighty minutes! This part of Atlanta, far from any area I've commented on previously, is fairly nice as well, though has some cookie-cutter houses. The Defoors, Northside, Moores Mill Rd, and West Paces Ferry are all quite nice areas. The latter is as nice as Ponce de Leon, which I previously wrote about and photographed.

Eventually, I made it to the History Center. Its exhibits covered:

• the olympics. The message seemed to be "look at us; we hosted the olympics; we're great."
• the civil war. A respectable, detailed history of the war. One sign stuck out, asking, "could people in one region dictate to all Americans what their rights would be?"
• folk and agrarian arts, including farming, pottery, cooking, woodworking, textiles, and music.
• Bobby Jones and golf. (Echoes of the guy I talked to at the cemetery the previous day. Atlanta's proud of Bobby Jones.)
• quilts. Some nice designs.
• the history of Atlanta and its sprawl. Interestingly, the part on the KKK was next to something on Gone With The Wind.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. This special exhibit had countless drafts of sermons. I'm not sure how I'd feel if, say, drafts of my old college essays were displayed in a museum. The exhibit also had his report card: mostly Bs. This must've been before grade inflation as, nonetheless, he was still the top in his class. In addition, the exhibit showed what books he had on his bookshelf. It's amazing how much one can learn about people and judge people by the books they own.

In the middle of exploring the History Center, I left to grab lunch. I selected Souper Jenny, a nearby funky joint with a very Californian feel. Here's my review.

After the History Center, I swung by Buckhead to give it another attempt at finding the cool part. I instead discovered a nice shopping district, but one that isn't made for people on foot.

The Atlanta Botanical Garden was my next destination. It's pretty. There was a special exhibit of glass flowers by Fräbel. These were amazing; I took a ton of pictures of them! There's also a frog pond and exhibit, warm tropical and southern hemisphere greenhouses, and a display of orchids. Other than those attractions, there's nothing too exciting.

After the garden, I went to the adjacent Piedmont Park. It's Atlanta's version of Central Park but is not quite so central. (Still, it isn't a bad park.) In getting to the park, I had to parallel park on the left side of a street--it was one way-- in an unfamiliar car. This was easier than I'd have thought.

For dinner, I drove aways north to get barbecue at Swallow At The Hollow. It was a unique place and quite an experience. Here's my review.