Friday, May 4 - Sunday, May 6, 2007
Hotel
The Highland Inn (www.thehighlandinn.com)
644 North Highland Ave.
Atlanta 30306
404.874.5756
Rooms
Room rates are discounted with the room block
Single (1 Full size bed) $62.95
Queen (1 Queen size bed) $77.35
Double (2 Full size beds) $86.35
Suite (1 Queen size bed with a sitting area) $95.35
When making a reservation, mention Buffistas and ask for a room towards the front. If you want to avoid steps, ask for a first-floor room.
Hotel Information:
There is no smoking throughout the hotel.
Pets are allowed. (See website for details.)
You have to walk up the equivalent of a flight of stairs to get to the first floor. The hotel only has two floors, and the hospitality suite and lobby are on the first floor.
There is free Wi-Fi in the common areas, including the hospitality suite. Melissa says that rooms towards the front on both floors also pick up the Wi-Fi.
The hotel was built in 1927, and that's obvious. The rooms are small, the heat is from radiators, and the rooms have window AC units. Everything seemed clean.
Prom
The prom will be at Manuel's Tavern. You can check out the menus on the website. PayPal money to cover the prom, hospitality suite and hospitality suite refreshments to Brenda at brendamercer at gmail dot com.
Area Information
For museum and history lovers:
Chazen Museum of Art: On the campus, very small, but has some well-known pieces of art including a Rodin.
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art: Inside the Overture Center, a sight in and of itself.
Historic Trust Walking Tours: Start in May.
For the performing arts:
Overture Center of the Arts: Even if there’s no performances you’re interested in seeing onstage, the building is a work of art designed by Cesar Pelli. Take a tour, see the inside of the theatre, it is absolutely gorgeous.
Wisconsin Union Theater: This link if for the theatre itself, but the Memorial Union is a landmark site with more homely entertainments to found in such things as the Stiftskellar, the Rathskellar and the Terrace.
Memorial Union: Scads of fun. Weekly musical offerings in the Rathskellar during the colder months, outside on the Terrace once the weather warms up. Come early, the Terrace fills up fast.
Monona Terrace Convention Center: To be seen just for the architecture, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Sundance Cinemas: For those who like to watch the indie flicks. Very posh.
Star Cinema: We cn haz IMAX.
Orpheum Theatre: One stop shopping for live music, movies and food.
For nature lovers:
Dane County Farmers’ Market, the website is down for maintenance: Located right on the Capitol square and occupying every inch of it, there is so much good food to be found here, it’s a shame it’s not a day long affair.
Olbrich Botanical Gardens: It has a Thai pavilion. What other botanical gardens in the US can claim a real, live, hand-built by Thai artisans pavilion?
For those who like the barley and hops:
Capital Brewery: There are other microbreweries in town, many attached to restaurants, but Capital is a slightly larger facility with an actual tour. Good beer, too!
Local microbreweries include:
Great Dane
Ale Asylum
Angelic Brewing
J.T. Whitney’s
Essen House (don’t brew their own, but 16 German beers! and a fun atmosphere.)
For sports lovers:
Mad Rollin Dolls Roller Derby! Season Finals May 10th.
For those who want to venture a little farther afield:
The Dells has tons of resorts, gambling casinos, water parks and clubs. Makes a nice day trip.
The House on the Rock: It’s got a full-sized circus carousel, inside. a. house. Opens in May.
Home of Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin, Spring Green, WI.
American Players Theatre: Also found in Spring Green is the American Players Theater. Amy Acker got her start there.
For those who have no idea where to start, but would like ideas of possible itineraries. Much more inclusive info than above:
Transportation
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the busiest airport in the world. Because of that, there are frequently pretty good deals to Atlanta. It also has a large number of TSA screeners, so security is pretty fast. There is a feature on the website that that gives the current wait times.
It is the home base of Delta Airlines and AirTran. The cheapest flights are from airports served by AirTran, and most airlines match AirTran sales.
By Car - Highland Inn's directions page
Traffic information: www.georgia-navigator.com
WSB-Radio, AM 750 (Weather and traffic about every 10 minutes. Definitely the best for traffic, although you have to dodge right-wing talk shows)
The hotel is a few blocks south of Ponce de Leon Ave., which is a much used road from downtown Atlanta to downtown Decatur. The Atlanta pronunciation is not the Spanish pronunciation. It's usually just referred to as Ponce.
When you exit I-75/85 at the Freedom Pkwy/Carter Center exit, follow the Carter Center signs to Highland. Freedom Pkwy veers off to the left, but you keep going straight.
To get back to the interstates, turn right on Highland, then right at the Carter Center sign. You'll go past the Carter Center on the left and then take a rather confusing left turn to get to 75/85.
MARTA - Atlanta's train and bus system.
There's a MARTA station in the airport, next to Baggage Claim. For most people, the best way to get to the hotel will be to take MARTA to the Five Points Station, then change to the East-West line and go to the Inman Park Station. We'll put together some people with cars who can shuttle back and forth between the Inman Park Station and the hotel.
Route 100 & 101 (Atlanta Tourist Loop Bus):
Georgia Aquarium is connected to the North Ave MARTA Train station via Routes 100 and 101 or the Atlanta Tourist Loop Bus. These specially marked buses run every 30 minutes. Route 100 stops at the Georgia Aquarium, Georgia Dome/Georgia World Congress Center, CNN Center, Underground Atlanta, Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District, and Centennial Olympic Park. The Midtown Route 101 offers service to the Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta Botanical Garden, High Museum of Art, Woodruff Arts Center, Piedmont Park, and the Margaret Mitchell House.Routes 100 and 101 run from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Taxis - My carless friends recommend Yellow Cab, 404-521-0200. It's a good idea to have directions and/or a map with you. Many drivers don't have the foggiest idea where things are outside of major landmarks.
Things To Do
Events: Georgia Shakespeare is performing Twelfth Night free May 2-6 at Shake at the Lake in Piedmont Park. It's free, but you have to pick up tickets the day of the show.
Runners or Walkers: The hotel is about three blocks (turn right when you leave the hotel) from the Atlanta-DeKalb leg of the Path, a running and biking trail that goes from the King Center to Stone Mountain. 14 miles of the route are green space: a long, skinny park. It was going to be a highway, but that was defeated by years of local activism and lawsuits. If you're running when it's still dark, turn left towards Stone Mountain. Parts of the other direction are kind of dicey after dark.
Walking Tours: The Atlanta Preservation Center offers walking tours of historic areas, including Auburn Avenue and the Fox Theatre. The Fox, one of the last of the grand movie palaces, is filled with gold leaf and faux Moorish decoration. The inside of the theatre looks like you're inside of a Moorish camp, and the ceiling has lights that take the theatre from sunlight to starlight. It is very cool. It does run some special movie series, but it's mostly a music venue.
Schedules of Events, Restaurante Reviews: Access Atlanta and Creative Loafing
The Carter Center and the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum are in walking distance of the hotel. Turn right, go about three blocks and follow the signs. The Carter Library has a museum about Carter's presidency, including a full-scale replica of the Oval Office and gifts to Jimmy Carter, some of which can only be described as weird.
The High Museum - The High is in a three-year partnership with The Louvre and will have a number of paintings from The Louvre on display.
1280 Peachtree Street, between 15th and 16th Streets, Midtown Atlanta. From the hotel, turn left on Highland, left on Ponce, then right on Peachtree downtown. There is limited street parking and you can park on Peachtree on Sundays. Watch out for the areas the require resident stickers. You can pay to park at the Arts Center and at several nearby lots.
MARTA: Arts Center Station
Fernbank Museum of Natural History
Mostly natural history, including reconstructions of the skeletons of some really big dinosaurs, plus some archeological exhibits. There's also an IMAX theatre, and on Fridays there is "Martinis and IMAX." Nearby is the original Fernbank, Fernbank Science Center, which includes 65 acres of old-growth forest.
767 Clifton Road N.E., Atlanta 30307. It's about 4 miles from the hotel. Turn left on Highland, right on Ponce and then left on Clifton. To get to Fernbank Science Center, 156 Heaton Park Drive N.E., drive past Clifton and turn left on Artwood Road and then right on Heaton Park Drive.
CNN Studio Tour - It's an interesting tour. When I went through it, it was mostly about the nuts and bolts of producing the news.
While you're there, you can see the nearby Centennial Olympic Park, where the best entertainment is watching little kids play in the fountain. Somewhere, there's a brick with my name on it. (It's where the Eric Rudolph bombing took place during the Olympics.)
190 Marietta St, SW., Downtown Atlanta. I usually take MARTA downtown, because parking is a pain. MARTA: Georgia World Congress Center-CNN Station
Georgia Aquarium - currently the world's largest indoor aquarium. There are penguins. Advance reservations are suggested.
225 Baker Street, Atlanta. MARTA bus from North Ave. Station
Atlanta Zoo - Baby panda! The panda tour is very popular, and you can reserve a time for the panda tour. There's also a pretty large population of gorillas in a natural-style habitat and the Sumatran Tiger Forest.
800 Cherokee Avenue S.E., Atlanta. In Grant Park. Take 75/85 south to Exit 246 (Fulton Street) and drive east on Fulton Street. Turn right at Capitol Avenue. Follow Capitol to first light, turn left on Georgia Avenue, which ends in a zoo parking lot.
Atlanta Botanical Garden
It's a lovely botanical garden and heavily involved in propagating endangered species. There's the outdoor gardens, including wonderful container gardens, plus the Conservatory, which houses tropical and desert environments, a separate orchid greenhouse and poison frogs (not loose). I loves it. It's also right next to Piedmont Park.
1345 Piedmont Avenue NE, Midtown Atlanta. From the hotel, go left on Highland, then left on Ponce. Turn right on Piedmont. It's on your right past 14th street. Piedmont is one way until 14th, so when you come back, you have to turn right and then left on Juniper to Ponce. MARTA: It's on the Atlanta Tourist Loop.
Atlanta History Center
The history center has exhibits on Atlanta history, including the Olympics, the Civil War, folk art and Bobby Jones. It is home to the Swan House, an example of what you could build in the '30s if money was no object, and the Tullie Smith House, which is a typical small farmer's home from the 1840s.
130 West Paces Ferry Road, N.W., Atlanta, in Buckhead near the Governor's Mansion.
Admission to all of the above are covered by the $59 CityPass.
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Site
The site includes a museum, the home where King was born, Ebenezer Baptist Church, a historic fire station and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site and the King Center (Warning: Site has sound), which includes the tomb of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King. The national historic site is run by the National Park Service. The King Center is run by the King family. They do not get along, which you may find obvious from some of their literature. The site is on Sweet Auburn Avenue, once described as the richest Black street in America. Auburn Avenue was once home to a thriving business area of shops and Black-owned businesses, including the Atlanta Daily World, the country's oldest Black newspaper. The APEX Museum on Auburn includes a history of the area.
Auburn Avenue, Atlanta. From the hotel, turn right. Take High to Boulevard. Turn left on Boulevard, which crosses Auburn Ave. MARTA: Take the East-West line east to the King Center Station.
Stone Mountain - world's largest piece of exposed granite. I'm irritated with the current management, which is trying to make the park into happy! fun! themepark, but the mountain and the park are beautiful. You can walk up to the top of the mountain, but going up is 1.3 miles of very steep trail. You can also pay to take a cable car up and back. The view is great, and it's a fine place to fly kites. There's also the Confederate Memorial Carving, of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Entrance is priced by the car.
From the hotel, turn left on Moreland and then right on Ponce. In about 4 miles, the road will split. Stay on the left and continue to go straight on Scott Blvd. In another miles or so, turn right onto Ga. 78/Stone Mountain Pkwy., which, unsurprisingly, goes to Stone Mountain. MARTA: It would take approximately forever.
Oakland Cemetery - Established in 1850, Oakland is full of Victorian iconography and quirky monuments. Picnicking among the graves was popular in the 19th century. Margaret Mitchell and Bobby Jones are buried here.
The Battle of Atlanta - Remnants of the Battle of Atlanta can be found at Grant Park, where eroding remains of the city's fortifications can be seen, and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Grant Park is the home of the Atlanta Zoo and the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum.
Atlanta Braves - America's team is at home that weekend. Turner Field also has a Braves museum and interactive games.
Turn right on red and either direction if you're on a one-way street turning onto a one-way street.
You must wear a seatbelt.
There are no alcohol sales on Sundays except drinks served at restaurants. Beer and wine can be sold in grocery stores, but not on Sunday. Hard liquor can only be sold in liquor stores, but not on Sunday.
There is no smoking in most public buildings. Bars can have smoking if they ban people under age 18, and hotels can designate smoking rooms.
Many sex acts that I hope you indulge in are illegal in Georgia, but there's no enforcement to speak of. Sadly, the bill that would have required hotels to list all the prohibited sex acts in great detail in each room did not pass in the legislature.
If you are pulled over by a police officer, be nice. Apologize. Say sir or ma'am a lot. If you weren't doing anything too egregious, that can get you off with a warning. I can't tell you how many people I know who gave police attitude and thereby got a very large ticket. I seriously doubt that any of you would do such a thing, but ordinary conversation in New York is attitude in Georgia.