Georgia On My Mind

We are spending the summer in the South! I grew up here and love the warm summer nights, the call of the cicada, and spending time with family and friends. It has been over a year since I have been able to come home, so spending two months here with little H is a true blessing. This week we explored some of our favorite places that have had facelifts in the years I have been away and also found a few new favorites.

Our neighborhood pool is a great place to hang out. I was worried that little H may not love the water as much as I do - boy were we wrong. He loves splashing in the water and even tolerated us plunking him under a few times. Once he was so relaxed he fell asleep in his Godfather's arms while he was floating him on his back. The pool has great seating where I can read and people watch while H naps in his stroller. On Fridays, there are food trucks that provide a great dinner option. Memorial Day Happy Belly Truck was at the pool and I enjoyed a kale and salmon salad and some amazing fries. Tonight I'm excited to try the tastings of the WOW! food truck - what ever I choose I will certainly be trying out their award winning desert donuts! I think Fridays at the Pool are going to be a summer favorite!

It seems that food trucks are going to be a theme for this summer. Food Truck Friday at Atlantic Station was a blast even with a storm rolling in. We enjoyed fish tacos and sweet potato fries from The Blaxican and salted caramel gelato from Honyesuckle. If you need more food truck options there is a new Food Truck Park open on Howell Mill Rd near the highway that features the above mentioned food trucks as well as many more. A complete list of trucks that frequent the park is available on their webpage.

We headed down to Piedmont Park one afternoon to explore the expansion of the park. It has always been one of my favorite places in Atlanta and it has only gotten better. The addition of a parking garage has eliminated the mess that was parking and the fees are quite reasonable. The park was full of campers (which lead me to reminisce about my days as a camper in Piedmont Park), fellow walkers and runners and plenty of swimmers. The park has a wonderful public pool and a new splash fountain that looked just as popular. They have expanded the park to include a huge dog park and Saturday farmers market. We were scheduled to take a park walking tour - but had to cancel due to a scheduling change and I have yet to reschedule.

My parents have been telling me about the Atlanta BeltLine pretty much since I moved away in 2008. The BeltLine is a rails to trails program that is bringing some amazing walking paths to the city. The whole BeltLine is not yet complete but a few sections near the house have opened. We explored a little section off of Collier that covers some Civil War sites and also houses two amazing parks. Little H is still too small to enjoy these parks but on our next visit to Atlanta he will be just the right age. The best part is these parks are only accessible from the trail, so they are tucked away from traffic. This section of the trail runs near Bobby Jones golf course (where they are still figuring out how to get the trail over/under/around Peachtree Rd.) You can park near the golf course or right at the meadow off of Collier. The trail is stroller and bike friendly.

There are so many fun improvements going on around the city but Atlanta's charm is still here. I'm excited to have a few more weeks to explore my hometown!