Spring in Atlanta

About two weeks ago we met some family visiting from out of state at a local restaurant in the wealthy uptown Atlanta area known as “Buckhead” - read also high rent district…. The restaurant is called the “OK Café.” It is an informal Southern cuisine restaurant and moderate in price.

Click on collage then on each picture to enlarge

I had been there several years ago and saw that it had been enlarged quite a bit. The entrance has many fun graphics of employees.

A framed plaque shows why this restaurant was so named: "The OK Café was named in honor of the OK Café in ‘to Kill a Mockingbird.” Next to it is an autographed note from Harper Lee, the author. I had the “vegetable plate” - turnip greens, squash casserole, black eyed peas and Waldorf salad with a corn muffin. It was quite good.



I can stay a couple of days at home or more, work on my computer and read, but when I am out I like to see as much as possible. When we left the restaurant we decided not to take I-75 the freeway going back home but instead to take a convoluted way through the pretty neighborhood and look at all the spring flowers. Here is a house I used to drive by on my way to work when I worked in Buckhead.



There were quite a few houses for sale – really a lot more than I would have imagined. Behind this bench is another pretty house with a small stream (the house is for sale too.)



But as we drove past this house we had to turn around as some trees were down. There are often heavy rains and even tornadoes here and many aged trees come down unfortunately. (As I am writing this we are under a “tornado watch”.) Atlanta is called the “city in a forest” because there is such an abundance of trees, which is quite unique for a city of this size. Trees cover 36% of the city, the highest percentage out of all major US cities (the national average is about 25%.) The main Atlanta road is named after a tree: “Peachtree.” All these trees make for lovely drives. Most of the houses are shaded by trees and have well manicured lawns.



The houses in the collage below are for sale in case anybody is interested.



Below is another one. I looked up the listing, just to have an idea of how much such a house would cost.



The listing says this house sits on four magnificent acres with spectacular mature gardens and a lake which can be seen from the iron balcony. It has seven bedrooms with seven baths, 3 half baths, a library, a wine cellar and a grotto. Sotheby’s, the real estate company, shows more pictures which I’ll place below – these are the agency’s photos – $4,900.000 and it will be yours (3,500,000 Euros.)



Well I guess we won’t buy it today. I’d rather have a small house and be free to go on many trips. I’d like to go and have a cup of tea maybe in one of these houses, but that’s about it. Luckily I’ve never had delusions of grandeur. In a way I prefer to look at pretty flowers than showy interiors.



The house below does not have the “southern” look. Trying to look like an Italian villa perhaps? Well, their landscaping firm has worked hard in the garden, but for my taste the house is too ornate and a tad pretentious. It does make a nice picture though.



Now we’ll drive away from the affluent West Paces Ferry area toward the Chattahoochee River – and that will be for another post.

Georgia’s Chattahoochee River