Atlanta

I came with Hector to Atlanta because he was presenting at the International Reading Association Convention. 25,000 chubby, middle-aged teachers in sneakers and pedal-pushers. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis downtown, one of those concrete behemoths with a huge open atrium that soars upward 50 horrifying stories, including glass elevators, in case you're not already freaked out enough. We were on the 42nd floor. I can honestly say I did not look down once in 4 days.

Atlanta is a charming city. It immediately reminded me of Dallas and that opinion never changed. It’s very green and slightly rolling, it has a respectable skyline but the downtown area is filled with these huge concrete hotels so it’s not so great a downtown for strolling. It must have the largest black population in America. I had plenty of opportunities to overhear the use of AAVE, or African-American Vernacular English, which we’ve been studying a bit in Linguistics class. (formerly and infamously known as Ebonics.)

All the cab drivers must have recently gone through a required course in boosterism because they all acted like unofficial tour guides, pointing out highlights and providing tourist data. Did you know that the new Atlanta Aquarium is the largest in the world? So we went to the aquarium. It’s very nice but still doesn’t come compete with the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Did the Botanical Garden: very nice, CNN Tour: pretty entertaining (Did you know that the escalator in the CNN Building is the longest freestanding escalator in the world?) Last night we attended the Braves vs Padres game at Turner Field to watch the San Diego Padres get their lazy asses kicked. The stadium is fun, it’s newish, like Petco Park in SD.

Hector, Tere Rivera, and I had a great Southern meal of fried, horribly unhealthy food on Monday night at a restaurant I can’t remember the name of. I had hoped for more of that kind of thing but after that one I really couldn’t take much more, so the rest of the meals were a bit lighter in the carbs. Fortunately, we did a lot of walking.