I wound up sleeping on the floor of the Atlanta airport, although I'm not sure I was ever really out of it. I went into a state of semi-sleep from midnight to about 3:45 in the morning, and I probably woke up three times in that span. I knew the Admirals Club opened at 4:30, so I was just waiting my time, and anticipating the doors unlocking. Right at 4:30, I went inside. I was able to to get a toasted bagel and some fruit as well as a much more comfortable chair to sit in. I only wish they had a shower so I could have gotten myself a little cleaner. But nonetheless I finally changed my clothes and cleaned up the best I could before getting on the Marta train to head downtown. The thing with these trains, it's just like being in a homeless shelter. They only left the station every 20 minutes, the outside of the cars look like they were designed in the 1950s, and I will just say the characters on board are not exactly reminding me of upstanding citizens.
I took the train to Five Points, which is the only place that four rail lines converge. Yep, there's only one place you can get a transfer. This is not the most thorough subway in America. So I decided rather than wait for a different train and take it one stop east, I just walked over to the Georgia State Capitol building. Unfortunately I could not take a tour, as they are not available on the weekends, which is just absurd. They had a statue of Jimmy Carter outside and a replica of the Statue of Freedom on top of the Capitol dome.
Around the corner, they also have a replica of the Liberty Bell with flags from the 13 original colonies arranged in a circle, a nice touch of American history. I then took the train to the Midtown station. I had seen enough of downtown, I didn't want to spend any more time there. This was a much more modern area, I found a Caribou Coffee, which I have not seen in maybe 10 years, and got a chai tea. I really thought they were out of business.
My next stop was Piedmont Park which is known as the Central Park in the south. Actually it reminds me a lot of Prospect Park and Brooklyn with different fields, different events, and so on. The truth is there is only one Central Park. I walked through a fantastic farmers market, where I sampled everything from green juice to potato soup to strawberries to scones to Neapolitan pizza to peach tea to green salsa. The were maybe two dozen vendors, and pretty much all of them or fantastic. I had to get a container of strawberries, I cannot remember the last time I had strawberries that had this much flavor to them.
Back downtown, and over to the Canteen food vendors shop, in the shadow of Georgia Tech university. Actually I should take a second and mention the area. I'd never seen an Amazon store. But they have a store composed of three kiosks and two guys on staff. I guess people place their Amazon orders and go pick them up at the store. Funny, I thought the idea of shopping at Amazon was so I didn't have to leave the house to complete a purchase.
Anyway, Fred's Meat and Bread has a stall inside of the Canteen. They also have a bar, a bagel shop, and a Mediterranean stand. The girl who took my order was getting her first day on the job, so I told her it was cool, we were both first timers. I ordered a mushroom cheesesteak and it was one of the gooiest, cheesiest sandwiches I've ever had. There was a good ratio of meat to bread, and plenty of provolone and aioli. The old Bay fries were delicious, but man, I could only get through half an order. They were spicy, they were thick cut, and there were just so many of them. About halfway through, I gave the rest of the fries to a couple of college guys.
From there, I grabbed an Uber to Sweetwater brewing, on the North side of Atlanta. Now because there was the Sweetwater 420 festival going on all weekend downtown, I thought maybe the brewery might be a little bit slower. Not exactly the case. There was a small outdoor festival with a band and sponsors. I pushed my way to the bar. I noticed they had mostly pale ales and a few wheat beers. I tried about six or seven beers and there wasn't one beer that didn't taste really good. Obviously, the 420 extra pale ale is iconic, and one of the best beers I've ever had. The Goin' Coastal is an IPA with pineapple flavor. So darn good. The tropical lover has flavors of mango, papaya, and passion fruit. This wasn't my favorite, a little too fruity for me. The wheat beer with the lemongrass would be ideal on a hot day, especially a lazy hot day. But one of their specials was the New England hazy IPA. This was a juicy flavorful IPA that I got to sample on my tour, and when the tour ended, I immediately ordered a draft of it. Basically I ordered three beers, and was charged $15. I had a fantastic experience. I'm really starting to think between Coca-Cola and Sweetwater, beverages are the only good things to ever come out of the city of Atlanta.
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