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This post is one chapter on our trip to Atlanta, Georgia on United Airlines and Air Canada. This trip was booked and credited to Aeroplan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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City Visit: Atlanta, Georgia

I woke up the first morning and enjoyed a Platinum Breakfast with MrsWT73 and her colleagues that were filtering through the restaurant. I bid them farewell and headed off to explore for the day. 

Exploring Centennial Olympic Park:

I started immediately outside the hotel at Centennial Olympic Park, passing by the CNN Atlanta Headquarters almost immediately adjacent to the Glenn Hotel. The park was dedicated for the Summer Olympics held in Atlanta in 1996 and marked the revitalization of the downtown Atlanta area. It was also the site of the Centennial Olympic Park Bombing, which was a domestic pipe bomb attack during the Olympic games. The park itself is a nice and pleasant place. It’s quite open with interesting exhibits and features. 

Many hotels anchor the area around the park. It’s a very pleasant place to walk through, at least during the daytime. In terms of history, you can even see the statute and shrapnel of where the domestic bombing occurred in the fan shaped figure at the end of the fountain pool.

Visiting the Human Rights Museum:

After wandering through to the other end of the park, I ended up at the Human Rights museum at the north end. The main feature was on the American civil rights movement. The museum outlined the struggles of this particular movement through the 1960’s, including the Civil March on Washington. 

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Particularly interesting at the museum was a simulation of the “sit ins” that blacks would do at restaurants and cafeterias during the movement. The exercise involved sitting down at a counter, and while wearing headsets, obscenities and derogatory comments would be made into your ears while a timer ran. The goal was to determine how long you could maintain your composure before wanting to stop the exercise. It was particularly poignant and the highlight experience within the museum.

They also featured articles on open democracy as well as profiles of many of the worlds past “freedom fighters”

Walking the Atlanta Downtown area:

After a tour through the museum, I wandered back through the park and headed for downtown in order to self situate and orientate. I passed by many more Olympic references and statues that commemorated the games.

Downtown had the usual amenities, although there was a subtitle reference in tourist brochures and similar publications to stay out of downtown at night. I was surprised to see how leafy and treed the downtown core was, amongst it’s historic buildings. 

The street murals were also interesting. I especially liked this one for its interesting message in the heart of the town anchored by the Civil Rights movement.

I later returned back to the hotel and went for an afternoon run in the shaded heat around the park. I eventually returned to the hotel for a shower and an American house wine (Copper Canyon Chardonnay) at the hotel bar where I was able to catch up on the trip report.

Enjoying Fried Chicken at Pittypat’s Porch Restaurant:

For dinner, MrsWT73 was tied up with work events. As a result, I was on my own until the late hours of the evening. Part of the goal of coming to Atlanta was to have some southern food. A little search through Trip Advisor yielded the touristy Pittypat’s Porch restaurant for authentic southern food. I booked through Open Table and easily found the restaurant a short walk from the hotel.

The place was packed with tourists and business traveler groups. I’d typically say this was a bad thing but it certainly meant that the food was going to be fresh. Indeed, Pittypat’s Porch served up a great meal with a diverse southern menu. 

I was able to enjoy a Scarlett Peach Lemonade with vodka, gin, tequila and rum, along with an included salad bar with Aunt Pittypat’s Fried Chicken served with homemade mashed taters and gravy. It was super tasty and worth stopping by. 

I crawled back to the hotel after this meal. I’d easily visit here again if I was through town for some of the chicken. It was a terrific first day in Atlanta with great weather and great food. 

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