Day One in Atlanta

We arrived in Atlanta safely! We left the Bucknell campus at 3:45 and arrived at our gate just in time to be the last passengers boarding our plane. It was cutting it a little close.

We were greeted in Atlanta by warm temperatures and the trees starting to flower! We made it to the Hotel Indigo where we are staying for two nights. It's a nice hotel on Peachtree Street, one of the main streets through Atlanta. It is also directly across the street from the famous Fox Theater.

The famous Fox Theater on Peachtree Street.

The sign as we walked in the door.

Once we figured out how to park the vans that wouldn't fit in the hotel's parking garage, we walked to Mary Mac's Tea Room for lunch. By this point, most of us hadn't eaten since Friday night. I got a bunch of sides including fried green tomatoes and okra. It was delicious and everybody seemed to enjoy their meals.

Brittley, Brandon, Christian and Brianna
waiting for their food at Mary Mac's.

Fried green tomatoes, okra, mac and cheese
and potato salad. Good Southern food!

We met up with Prof. Young's colleague Letitia Campbell at Mary Mac's. Letitia, who teaches at Emory, created a self-guided walking tour of the Sweet Auburn area of Atlanta. After a brief rest at the hotel, we did the walking tour and learned a great deal about the race relations of the city throughout its history.

Rajasri, Christian, Lydia, Ajan and Erik reading
about John Wesley Dobbs while sitting around
his statue.

Erik, Lydia and Jennie listen as Rajasri reads from the
self-guided tour.

Quinn reading to the group from the steps of the
Wheat Street Baptist Church.

Brittley reading near Woodruff Park while
Will and Karina listen.

After a light dinner at the pita place near our hotel, we called it a night despite being on one of the busiest streets in Atlanta with tons of fun things to do. Exhaustion has caught up with us and we have a big day tomorrow. We are going to church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King was minister and then spend the rest of the day at the King Center and National Historic Site and the Atlanta History Center.