The Atlanta Beltline (02/21/22)

Early on, as I was researching things to do in Atlanta, I came across the Atlanta Beltline. And I immediately added it to our itinerary.

It is a really cool project that takes the old historic railroad lines that completely encircle the city and converts them into 14-foot wide trails which can be used for walking, biking, etc. When completed (in 2031), the beltline will have about 22 miles of paths.

The hope is that it will help to connect the various parts of the city in ways that don’t require a car, that it will encourage growth, and help beautify the city. All along the beltway there will be (new and improved) greenspaces, more parks, etc. It’s a pretty cool concept.

It just so happens that our Airbnb is only about 1/3 of a mile away from the beltline. So, you better believe that we took some time to go walk part of it.

But let’s go back to the beginning.

Jonathan had today off, since it was a holiday. And so, we started our day by attempting to sleep in. As you can see, our efforts were thwarted. (Not pictured, because she is taking the pictures, is Clara, who had previously been sprawled across the bottom of the bed.)

And then of course, we put on our the very finest of our fine finery and had a leisurely breakfast at home:

_{Fun fact about this little dress: it used to belong to Clara, and she was as obsessed with it then as Evie is now.}

Around mid-morning we headed out. On our way to the beltline, we came across a small park, and the kids insisted on playing for a bit.

Previously, Jonas hadn’t been super keen on our activity and had been dragging his feet quite a bit. But, at the park, we had a chat, and I told him that he could either choose to be grumpy or choose to have fun with his family. And it was like he flipped a switch. He decided that he would rather have fun with his family than be grumpy. And that was it. He was happy as could be the rest of the time. I really was proud of him. (Way to go bud.)

After playing for a bit, we continued over to the beltline and walked along it for a while. Evie sat on Jonathan’s shoulders and we had a chat.

I asked her if she liked Jonathan, and she said ‘He’s ok’ and so, obviously, this needed to be recorded, I had to prompt her in the video. But it was still cute.

There were cool things to see along the way. Apparently the section of the beltline near us has a bunch of art installations and educational signs all along the way. Here were a couple of fun ones:

Several of the works of art and educational signs we saw were focused on topics related to race and anti-racism, (such as discriminatory redlining). As of 2010, the demographics of Atlanta are predominantly Black: about 54% of the population is Black. So, it was cool to see that focus. Here is one example:

As we were walking along, we found a Lime scooter parked off to the side. Jonathan had just been telling me how awesome it would be to ride a Lime scooter on here (the sidewalks are dreamily smooth) and so it was obviously meant to be. He got it all set up and then everyone took turns riding it and crying until it was their turn again (ok, that was mostly the twins.)

Eventually, we put the scooter away and then we headed back home. With a little bit of exploration on the side.

And it turns out that we got home just in the nick of time, it started raining just almost as soon as we got inside.

And it continued to rain for the rest of the day. It felt so cozy.

After lunch and naps, we drove Jonathan to the airport so that he could attend some in-person meetings for work in New Jersey. Rude.

And basically, that was our President’s day. Hope you had a good one too!