Saturday, June 05, 2010

HOT-lanta!

Unfortunately, this is not a picture-heavy post.

I was in Atlanta, Georgia earlier this week for a conference - and because it was a work thing, I didn't get to spend much time outside. My co-workers and I flew out to Atlanta Monday morning - and once again, I have to say I love it when I my trips are contained within a single time zone! We arrived at our hotel, the Marriot Marquis, and I had to take this picture from my room on the 23rd floor:

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The hotel had a very Escher-like quality to it - and if you are the kind of person who has any kind of aversion to heights, I don't think this would a good hotel for you. Here is a look up from the mezzanine floor:

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I hadn't expected to see this kind of interior space hotel in Atlanta - I have seen hotels like this in Denver, but I expected it there because of the cold weather - you would want to give the illusion of open space, even when it is too inclement to be outside.

After checking in and changing, we attempted to find the Georgia World Congress convention center... Yeah, notice the word 'attempted'... We did find it eventually, but not before rolling through some less-than-savory neighbourhoods and finding a motorcycle club. We were tempted to go back to the motorcycle club to ask for directions, but then found one entrance to the GWC. It wasn't the one we wanted (I don't know if I could even explain how huge this place is), but at least by getting in there, we were able to nose around until we found the conference area. We set up our booth, and then high-tailed it out of the GWC to head out to Turner Field (getting lost along the way, once again) to see the Phillies lose 9-3 to the Atlanta Braves. The game was not fabulous, but our seats certainly were - we were maybe 15 - 20 feet past the 3rd base and only 8 rows up from the grass (and at only $38 per ticket!! You would pay *way* more than that to sit in the same place at a home Phillies game.) We arrive in the 6th inning, but it was just as well considering how we were getting clobbered.

Coming up next: a surprise concert and funny beer -

2 comments:

Zonda said...

Yikes, that hotel would scare me!! Glad you finally made it to the convention center. Hubby will be spending 3 weeks there in July...Hothotlanta in July ;)

kemtee said...

OMG… you're right… I got dizzy looking at the pictures. If I'd been on that level, you would have seen me clinging to the wall, as far away from the railing as I could possibly get.