I posted earlier this summer about one of Kelly and I's favorite places to train, the Silver Comet Trail. While all of the trees and peacefulness makes for a wonderful escape from the city, it can also get a bit monotonous. A few weekends ago, after walking 17 miles at the Silver Comet on Saturday, we decided we needed a change of scenery for our 13 mile walk on Sunday. So, I sat down at my computer and planned us a great route that wound through the city, allowing us visit many of Atlanta's most famous landmarks. I brought my camera with me for the second half of our walk so I could document our adventure in the A-T-L!
We started our trip back to our car at Piedmont Park, Atlanta's version of Central Park. For those that don't know, Mike and I actually live right up the street from the park, so Kelly and I train here often.
After walking past the park, we headed up 10th street to Peachtree St, the main street running north and south through Atlanta. One of our first stops was at the Margaret Mitchell house. This house is the place where Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind, one of my mom's favorite books. As we continued on up Peachtree, we came upon a place that you will only find in Atlanta: the intersection of Peachtree and Peachtree. I wish I could say that this was a unique location, but it isn't. Atlanta is really uncreative with street names - there are over 70 streets in Atlanta with Peachtree in the name! Regardless, we thought this was a landmark worth noting, as it is quintessentially Atlantian.
As we continued south on Peachtree, we came across a few more notable locations, namely the Fabulous Fox Theater (where Kelly and I plan to see both Wicked and the Nutcracker in the months ahead) and the the Bank of America Building, which is the tallest building in the United States outside of Chicago and New York City, Georgia's tallest building, and the tallest building in any U.S. state capital. We also crossed over "The Connector", the nickname of I75/85, the huge highway running through the city.
On the other side of the Connector, we found ourselves in downtown Atlanta, home to many of Atlanta's best tourist traps. We walked past the New World of Coke (which is not as good as the Old World of Coke, in my opinion) and the Georgia Aquarium (which is fantastic and highly recommended), both of which are located in Pemberton Place. Across the street from Pemberton Place is one of my favorite places in Atlanta, Centennial Olympic Park! There are all kinds of monuments and tributes to the 1996 Olympic Games scattered throughout the park, which makes it really fun to explore.
Another highlight of the park is the Olympic Rings Fountain. These fountains are going from dusk until dawn, and people are constantly running in and out them. By this point, Kelly and I were on our 29th mile of a weekend when the temperatures were hovering in 90s. Jumping into these fountains was refreshing to say the least!
Following our journey through the park, Kelly and I passed by my favorite hotel in Atlanta, the Westin (which is sadly still showing signs of tornado damage), my beloved CNN building (beyond cool to visit!), Phillips Arena (home to the Hawks, the Thrashers and the Dream, our NBA, NHL and new WNBA teams, respectively) and finally, the Georgia Dome, home to the Atlanta Falcons. Luckily, they were on the road that day or else we never would have been able to find parking there!
All in all, it was a really fun afternoon and one of favorite training walks to date. There are lots more pictures from all of the sites that can be found over on my Picasa page, which is linked to on the right hand side of this page. They are all in the album titled "3-Day Training". Oh, and just a hint - if you click on the pictures in this post and all of my other picture posts, they open up full sized!
We started our trip back to our car at Piedmont Park, Atlanta's version of Central Park. For those that don't know, Mike and I actually live right up the street from the park, so Kelly and I train here often.
After walking past the park, we headed up 10th street to Peachtree St, the main street running north and south through Atlanta. One of our first stops was at the Margaret Mitchell house. This house is the place where Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind, one of my mom's favorite books. As we continued on up Peachtree, we came upon a place that you will only find in Atlanta: the intersection of Peachtree and Peachtree. I wish I could say that this was a unique location, but it isn't. Atlanta is really uncreative with street names - there are over 70 streets in Atlanta with Peachtree in the name! Regardless, we thought this was a landmark worth noting, as it is quintessentially Atlantian.
As we continued south on Peachtree, we came across a few more notable locations, namely the Fabulous Fox Theater (where Kelly and I plan to see both Wicked and the Nutcracker in the months ahead) and the the Bank of America Building, which is the tallest building in the United States outside of Chicago and New York City, Georgia's tallest building, and the tallest building in any U.S. state capital. We also crossed over "The Connector", the nickname of I75/85, the huge highway running through the city.
On the other side of the Connector, we found ourselves in downtown Atlanta, home to many of Atlanta's best tourist traps. We walked past the New World of Coke (which is not as good as the Old World of Coke, in my opinion) and the Georgia Aquarium (which is fantastic and highly recommended), both of which are located in Pemberton Place. Across the street from Pemberton Place is one of my favorite places in Atlanta, Centennial Olympic Park! There are all kinds of monuments and tributes to the 1996 Olympic Games scattered throughout the park, which makes it really fun to explore.
Another highlight of the park is the Olympic Rings Fountain. These fountains are going from dusk until dawn, and people are constantly running in and out them. By this point, Kelly and I were on our 29th mile of a weekend when the temperatures were hovering in 90s. Jumping into these fountains was refreshing to say the least!
Following our journey through the park, Kelly and I passed by my favorite hotel in Atlanta, the Westin (which is sadly still showing signs of tornado damage), my beloved CNN building (beyond cool to visit!), Phillips Arena (home to the Hawks, the Thrashers and the Dream, our NBA, NHL and new WNBA teams, respectively) and finally, the Georgia Dome, home to the Atlanta Falcons. Luckily, they were on the road that day or else we never would have been able to find parking there!
All in all, it was a really fun afternoon and one of favorite training walks to date. There are lots more pictures from all of the sites that can be found over on my Picasa page, which is linked to on the right hand side of this page. They are all in the album titled "3-Day Training". Oh, and just a hint - if you click on the pictures in this post and all of my other picture posts, they open up full sized!
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