Atlanta sightseeing

Hmm, I'm not doing too well with blogging this semester. But at least I'm getting the important stuff.

Great news: Heather now has a job!!! She's working for an exciting, promising startup company, NanoH20, which is located on UCLA campus. It's practically a perfect fit for her, and I'm so happy that all her hard work and motivation paid off by landing her such a sweet job. On the flip side, it also means an extension of the long-distance relationship, for at least another year or year-and-a-half. But this is something that both of us are together on: given how amazing our first year together (when we spent more than half of the time separated by thousands of miles) has been, we are prepared for, and even look forward to, more close communication and frequent visits that shorten the distance apart. But of course, we will also be earnestly waiting for that time when we can finally be together, physically, 100% of the time…

Anyway, two weeks ago, before Heather had an inkling of an idea that she'd be employed by the end of February, she did come to visit me in Atlanta for a week. I have never been to any of the main tourist attractions in the city, so we decided to get "City Passes," which allowed us into six local attractions at a reduced price: the Botanical Garden, High Museum of Art, CNN Center, Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, and the Zoo.

In the Atlanta Botanical Garden, in Piedmont Park, just 5 minute's bike ride from my house. Not many outdoor exhibits this time of year, but the indoor exhibits were amazing!

Anyone need an idea for a hairdo?

The current main exhibit: orchids! They were so photogenic.









I call these "X-wing fighters"

Looking out from the Botanical Gardens in Piedmont Park and towards downtown

Hangin' with Mister Frog

The Vitruvian Woman?

We were already feeling the Valentine's Day spirit

Outside the High Museum of Art

On Valentine's Day, we kept our streak alive by going somewhere nice to watch the sunrise. Despite the bitter cold, we biked over to Piedmont Park and shivered as we watched the early morning glow on the Midtown skyscrapers.

A cold morning can be pretty special when you have a special someone to spend it with…

CNN Center. The tour was actually pretty cool. We were able to listen in as the director (the person controlling which image is on the TV screen at any moment) gave commands to his staff while covering some breaking news, all live; and we also viewed the main news room from windows above, with the main anchors stuck in the corner looking into robotic-powered cameras and the main floor all hectic and relaxed at the same time, with news-gatherers and editors idly eating lunch or intensely burrowed into their computers.

Inspired by Claire's current study-abroad location, we made a Turkish-themed meal: here's some Iskender Kebab, which was absolutely delicious.

And for dessert, these are "lokma"…they look like donut holes, and they taste somewhat similar, though chewier and much tastier.

The Georgia Aquarium is apparently the largest aquarium in the world. Parts of it were quite impressive, such as this glass-cielinged tunnel underneath the massive salt-water tank.

Whale shark, the world's biggest fish. And a whole lot of other fish!

Jellyfish at the Georgia Aquarium

This actually turned out to be a pretty cool picture in the lobby of the World of Coca-Cola. Of course, the highlight of the World of Coca-Cola is the Tasting Room at the end, where you can try over a hundred different Coca-Cola drinks from around the world.

On Saturday, we drove up about 90 minutes north of Atlanta to do some hiking in the Appalachian Mountains! We took the Appalachian Approach Trail, which is the 8.5-mile (one-way) trail that takes you to the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail on Springer Mountain. It was a perfect day, and a very pleasant hike (though thoroughly unspectacular compared to other recent experiences of ours…)
It was a tough decision, but we ended up just doing the 17 miles to Springer Mountain. 4217 miles seemed a little far for the day.

Amicalola Falls, apparently the tallest falls east of the Rocky Mountains (which isn't saying much)

A pleasant day hiking in the woods!

The southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail!

View of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the terminus (really the only view we had since the first mile, because of all the trees obstructing the view elsewhere)

One of our delicious homemade meals: spring rolls! We ate quite well the whole week, including several fabulous restaurant meals, including one at an excellent Ethiopian place and another at a trendy, friendly tapas bar where I spent about $60 on the two of us, but felt it was well worth it.

Old guy at the zoo

Meercats: so cute, three of them were having an intense and violent wrestling match while others sat back on their hind legs, looking around dumbly, totally oblivious.

Kimono Dragon

The pandas are the main attraction at the zoo. We were pretty impressed, because they were quite active, and there wasn't much of a crowd watching them (partially because it was 5 PM on a Monday.) This one was really chowing down on the bamboo.

Le Tigre!

Not a great picture through the fence, but this lemur was really funny: he was unabashedly sunning himself in front of that lamp…