The Devil Went Down to Georgia: Day 2

We kicked off day two with the requisite trip to the GA state capitol building to indulge my obsession. My favorite part was that all of the offices, from the governor on down, had windows you could peer into to symbolize the transparency of government.

We then happened upon one of Andy's favorite parts of the trip. After exiting the subway near the Georgia Dome, we saw throngs of nerdy-looking teenagers wearing matching shirts and flowing into the building. Being the intrepid explorers that we are, we decided to investigate and stumbled onto the FIRST Robotics Competition where high school teams from around the world brought their homemade robots to face off in a variety of competitions. We saw robot soccer.

The lovely azaleas in bloom downtown.

Horrible self-portrait outside the CNN Center where we took the Inside CNN Studio Tour. We saw live broadcasts, as well as the actual newsroom and technology of how the news gets made. Veeeeery fascinating to a media nerd like moi.

Downtown skyline at night.

Fountains at Centennial Olympic Park.

That afternoon we wanted to see a movie, but the only theater playing the one we wanted to see was two-mile walk (one way) to the charming Virginia-Highland neighborhood. We hoofed it and the movie was good, but the theater was crazy.

Saw "The Ghost Writer," about an author (Ewan McGregor) who gets sucked into a web of intrigue when he agrees to ghost write the memoirs of a controversial former British Prime Minister (Pierce Brosnan). Andy's review: "A good mystery."

The Plaza Theater: Atlanta's oldest continuously operating theater. Small, quirky, and hosts movies like Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It basically still looked like this, in a nondescript strip mall, except now it's next door to an Urban Outfitters.

We walked through the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood and not only saw lots of cute houses that I wouldn't mind buying, but ate some delicious gelato as well.

A few of the homes that caught my eye:

Love the front porch and hanging baskets on this one.

We ended our night and million mile hike by heading home through Piedmont Park with a fabulous view of the Midtown skyline. Every community needs a place like this with fishing ponds, running/biking trails, dog park, playgrounds, an arboretum, and more.

I just noticed the crazy guy in the background of this photo.