I think the majority of the US cities I’ve traveled to as an adult have been as a result of visiting friends from high school and college whose jobs have taken them to various cities around the country. Grand Junction, Tallahassee, Baltimore, Portland, New York, and as of this past weekend, Atlanta.

Our visit to Atlanta started late Thursday night when our plane arrived in ATL near midnight. Night owls we are not, so after a brief reunion with our friends (and a slightly startling reunion with their dog who thought we were intruders), Jon and I headed in for a good night’s sleep.

Here’s where I get to name drop names that will only be impressive (or possibly even recognized) by the nerds of the world. Jon and I went to visit our college friends Keith and Paula – Keith was a meteorology major with Jon and I, and these days he’s bringing his wit and size small suits to The Weather Channel. So after years of watching TWC (and for me, turning down a part-time position there after college, #nerdyhumblebrag), Jon and I got our personal tour Friday morning. My only regret is that it didn’t happen sooner when my girl Viv was still working there.

After wandering through the floor and various studio sets (and meeting meteorologists Dr. Postel, Dr. Forbes, and longtime favorite Dave Schwartz), Keith brought us into Studio 9 where I had a joyful reunion with the lovely Maria LaRosa, who I interned for over two summers 11 years ago when she was at CBS 3 in Philadelphia. We’ve kept in touch online since then, but we hadn’t actually seen each other in person since 2005!

Unfortunately, The Weather Channel does not offer public tours, so you probably won’t want to show up expecting to get in. But you can enjoy my photos in lieu of a tour. That’s the same, right?

(The next three images are from the summer of 2005 when I was an intern at CBS 3. One of Maria’s gigs during the summer was ‘Maria’s Backyard Barbecue’ in which she did all of her afternoon weather segments from a backyard in the Delaware Valley. My parents sent in a submission and were chosen for one of them, so I got to hang with my peeps outside of the studio. Oh, and it didn’t occur to me until this year that Alex Wilson -also on TWC – is the same Alex who had interned that summer as well. Small freakin’ world.)

And a few #crappyiphonepictures…

Despite being socked in be low clouds all day, the rain held off enough for us visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site (450 Auburn Ave NE) and to stroll around the Sweet Auburn neighborhood where King was born and raised. While King’s birthplace and childhood home is available to visit through a ranger-led tour, anyone can visit Ebenezer Baptist Church (407 Auburn Ave, NE) where Martin Luther King, Jr. was both baptized and ordained as a minister, where he served as co-pastor alongside his father, and as a result of his untimely death in 1968, the place where his funeral was held. King’s melodic voice booms out from the pulpit as speakers play recordings of his sermons. Just up the road from Ebenezer Baptist Church lies his final resting place.

Back in Midtown (which is surprisingly lush and wonderful and feels like a small city rather than part of a booming metropolis) we walked to Piedmont Park with Keith and Paula’s dog, Reeses.  A 185 acre park in the middle of Atlanta with views of downtown – well, when the buildings aren’t shrouded in low clouds. On the way back to the house, I got a little too into scoping out available real estate until I went online later to check out the prices. Yikes.

For dinner, Keith and Paula brought us to a unique restaurant called Gunshow (824 Garrett St) which, when they first told us they were taking us to Gunshow, we thought they were taking us to an actual gun show. Gunshow features several chefs in the kitchen creating dishes which they’ve listed on that week’s menu. As the chef finishes cooking a couple plates worth of his or her dish, they’ll go table to table where diners will decide whether or not they want that particular dish. All of the offerings are small plates, so one or two plates of each dish is plenty for a table of four. The chef will mark off on the table’s menu the number of plates ordered before moving on to the next table. It’s a pretty fun concept, but you’ve really got to be the kind of person who’ll eat anything in order to really enjoy this type of setup. All four of us kind of base our lives around food, so yeah, we found it delicious. A++, would dine again.

After a weekend interlude in Savannah (separate post coming soon!) we returned to Atlanta. Stretching our legs, the four of us went out for a walk, winding through Piedmont Park and picking up the Beltline until reaching Ponce City Market (675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE). PCM reminds me a lot of Union Market in DC, while the Beltline is similar to Virgina’s Washington and Old Dominion Trail. Oh, and for the record – if you’re looking for this colorful mural that’s all over the IG, it’s on the Beltline under Virginia Avenue. And also, how much do I want to paint my office to look like this?!

The remainder of Sunday evening was spent on Keith and Paula’s shaded back patio chatting and laughing and eating until the sun went down and the bugs came out. And then we went inside to watch Deadpool.