The High Museum on My Birthday

Today, on my birthday--I won't say which one, because I'm still coming to grips with my age; it's a tad higher than I'm comfortable with right now--I went to the High Museum. My main reason for going was to see the William Christenberry exhibit before it ends on Sunday, but I love looking at all the art. Here are some of the pictures I took:

First, after gaining entry to the museum:

The Christenberry exhibit, and some others as well:

"The thesis of Walks to the Paradise Garden is that we rootless Americans are epiphytic.

We make up beauty out of the air, and out of nowhere." 

A few pictures of Atlanta I took through the windows:

(There were several school groups there, as you can tell from these buses.)

Some pictures in the Stent Family Wing, which when I used to come to the High in the '80s and '90s was (if I remember correctly) the whole of the museum:

A really cool 1930 (or so; I should have paid more attention to the sign) Kodak art deco folding camera, with jewel box:

American masterworks and some people appreciating them:

An Idle Moment by Daniel Ridgway Knight (ca. 1890 - 1895):

The last picture I took before I went to the car so I would be home when Elyse got back from school:

A One-Day Road Trip up U.S. 441

Today, the next-to-the-last day of Spring Break, I went on a solo one-day road trip up U.S. 441 (probably my favorite route to drive, at least that I've discovered so far).

I always stop at the Tallulah Point Overlook in Tallulah Falls, Georgia; it represents the point at which the drive first starts to get really fun:

I texted this picture to Anna:

I stopped for gas beside this hotel in Franklin, NC. I notice it (the hotel, not the gas station) every time I drive by it; it makes me think of what many of my books call "vernacular roadside architecture" during "the Golden Age of Road Trips":

(Although all you can see in this picture is the cool Carolina Motel sign and some of the stuff on the motel lawn...trust me, it's a very road-trip-looking motel.)

By noon I was in Dillsboro, NC, and had lunch at the Haywood Smokehouse:

I texted this picture of myself at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center (at the southern entry to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park) to Anna around 3:00.

After this, I turned around and headed south, and was back home in Grayson by 7:15.

A One-Day Road Trip to the Tellus Science Museum with Granny and Pa

This is the first day of Spring Break for ALL of us! (For the first time since I've been teaching there, Gwinnett Tech scheduled its Spring Break to coincide with Gwinnett County's.)

So, to begin our week of not-going-to-school, this morning Granny and Pa (or Mom and Dad, as I call them) took us all to the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville. Here are a number of pictures from our trip, including the drive up, our stop at CiCi's Pizza for lunch, and many of the things we saw at the museum:

(Elyse was very happy to be going, she just wasn't happy to have her picture taken)

(a Foucault Pendulum)

(Jessica has been taking pictures with the Canon lately, which she really loves.)

(a Waverley Electric Road Wagon, a century-earlier version of Anna's Leaf)