Playing Hooky

Very rarely do I have to travel for work. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of places I've been while on the company dime. So even though the purpose of my business travel has been to attend scientific conferences (admit it, you just yawned), I've been fortunate to have enjoyed some extra time to play tourist in... 

• New Orleans (1993): Preservation Hall, Jackson Square, Cafe Du Monde, tons of great food and cool jazz
• New York City (1994): Manhattan, Empire State Building, Staten Island Ferry
• Frederick, MD (2017): not exactly a hotbed of tourism, but there is a Civil War battlefield and national park passport stamp (woohoo!)

Up 'til now, I've only blogged about our travels as a family, but I think I'll make an exception for my solo trip to Atlanta.

The current Ebenezer Baptist Church building in the background

On Saturday morning, since the conference wasn't yet in full swing, I got up early (so painful given the three-hour time difference!) and headed over to Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. The one-mile walk from the hotel took me through the King Historic District and Sweet Auburn neighborhood. 

When I arrived, the visitor center hadn't opened yet, so I waited while a bunch of people were setting up for some sort of event. It turns out that they were expecting hundreds of Boy Scouts and their families for a Civil Rights Heritage Hike. 

Birth home

Fortunately for me, the event meant that the park had lots of staff and volunteers on hand. Instead of the limited 15-person first-come first-served tours of the home where Dr. King was born, it was an open house. When the ranger said that the Scouts weren't going to start touring the birth home for another half hour, I high-tailed it up the street to see it before the crowds came. Sadly no photos were allowed inside the home.

Houses on the other side of Auburn Avenue

Next stop was Historic Fire Station No. 6. Built in 1894, it served the Sweet Auburn community, although during Dr. King's childhood, all of the firefighters were white. The Atlanta Fire Department would not become desegregated until 1963.

1927 American LaFrance fire engine

Across the street from the fire station is The King Center. Established by Coretta Scott King in 1968, the center is not administered by the National Park Service. I really enjoyed going through the exhibits in Freedom Hall and learning more about the lives of Dr. and Mrs. King. Their crypt is on site.

My last stop was the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. I joined one of the Scout groups in the pews and listened to the ranger's presentation. Dr. King’s maternal grandfather was Ebenezer’s second pastor, and his father became its third pastor in 1933. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as co-pastor in 1947 until he left to attend Crozer Theological Seminary in September 1948. From 1960 until his assassination in 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. again co-pastored Ebenezer Baptist Church. I also learned that his mother was shot and killed while seated at the organ during one of the church services in 1974.

Then I headed back to the visitor center to look through more exhibits and to watch the film. After spending about 2+ hours at the park, I walked back to the hotel and then joined my colleagues at the conference, which was being held at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Among the perks of business travel is dining on an expense account. My colleague and I enjoyed several good meals during our stay. The historic Sears Roebuck building in the Old Fourth Ward was converted into Ponce City Market, and now houses a food hall, shops, and living space. We chose Bellina Alimentari for a tasty dinner our first night in town. The fried green tomatoes at Mary Mac's Tea Room were to die for. Seeing a line outside of Poor Calvin's prompted us to make reservations to try it the next night. And a visit to the South isn't complete without chicken and waffles - Sweet Georgia's Juke Joint didn't disappoint!

Today was pretty light at the conference, with only one scientific poster that I needed to see. So once I finished with that, I zipped over to the state capitol to check it out before my flight home. Atlanta's light rail system (MARTA) was pretty easy to use, just two stops on the Blue Line from GWCC to Georgia State.

Apparently the legislature worked late into the night yesterday,
killing a lot of trees in the process

Once I finished walking around the nearly empty capitol building, I debated whether to Uber, take the train, or walk back to the hotel. I was tired and short on time, but the MARTA fare was cheaper than Uber, so that won out. Besides, I was pretty proud of myself for figuring out that I needed to change trains at Five Points.

Getting thru the TSA checkpoint at ATL was horrendous (the cows say "moo"), so I'm glad that my colleague and I arrived at the airport early for our flight back to LAX. All in all, an interesting conference and a good first visit to Atlanta. Hopefully I'll be back again with the family soon!