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taz_39 **Disclaimer** The views and opinions expressed in this post are my own, and do not reflect the views or opinions of my employer. DO NOT RESHARE ANY PART OF THIS POST WITHOUT PERMISSION. Thank you.
This post covers the weekend.
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FRIDAY
I was up at 6:30am so I could have breakfast and work on Foodie Finds before heading to the botanical garden. I was worried at first because it was raining but thankfully it was just a quick shower.
It was a little over a mile to the gardens but it was partially through a nice residential area and then a public park. I had prepurchased a ticket and walked right in. There was a large group of Girl Scouts there for a special visit, and "activity stations" were set up all over the place for them to learn extra stuff about the plants, do some arts and crafts, make flower pressings, all that sort of thing. So my timing was NOT great, but I was still able to avoid the huge Scouts group for the most part by watching which way they went first and going in the opposite way (they went right so I went left.)
First was the Rose Garden and the Great Lawn, which had a fantastic view of the city and many lovely flowers.
(and yes for whatever reason most of the flowers were pink or purple! There were a few orange, yellow, or white, but vast majority were pink or purple.)
The garden has art installations/exhibits as part of their landscaping, and right now it's Niki de Saint Phalle. I don't really care for her particular art style, but I can appreciate her abundant use of snakes :D
There was a small pond in front of the indoor greenhouse that had beautiful water lilies.
For the bright pink one, I had to zoom in nearly 12x with my phone to get the photo.
Inside the greenhouse were two dinstinct tropical zones, one "regular" and one "high elevation." They were both humid but the regular one was a lot warmer, and the higher elevation one was actually a bit chilly. I think there were plants from the Brazilian mountains and such in there. Cacao plants and feathery ferns and alien-looking aerial plants. Lush tropical greenery, huge leaves and huge trailing vines. There was so much to see and these photos are just a tiny fraction of it all.
This photo is looking up at a big cluster of aerial roots from the surrounding plants, intentionally placed to hang in one spot.
There was an orchid room here also. Orchids are nice but they're not my favorite so I only captured two: this butter-yellow one, and this interestingly shaped and colorful one that was hanging from a tree.
There were a few interesting animals, including this large snapping turtle. His TAIL is about the size of a banana, for scale!
And a small tank with golden poison frogs, which are extra-toxic even in the category of dart frogs. They're also endangered so I really appreciated seeing one and getting this photo.
Popping out the backside of the greenhouse I was surprised by an absolute FIELD of pitcher plants!! There were two different kinds that I saw, one was all-green and the other was this gorgeous white with maroon veins. I love carnivorous plants and was very excited, having NEVER seen so many in one place like this before!!
Below that was a pond with more sculptures of voluptuous women prancing in the water, and a desert plant garden.
I didn't photograph the desert plants because to me they all looked pretty...standard? "Plant shop?" But there were tables and chairs there so I rested there and ate a half of a bagel I'd brought with me. Looping back up and around I saw more Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures, walked through a vine arbor, and visited the Edible Garden, Japanese Garden, and Perrennial Garden. This was now the RIGHTHAND side of the garden and as such here is where I crossed paths with the Scouts, who were moving right-to-left. I'd say 60% of the kids were well behaved but the other 40% were running around screaming, walking backwards on the paths, throwing gravel at each other in the Japanese gardens, etc. Therefore I did not spend a lot of time nor did I try to get photos in those gardens.
However this cute-yet-somewhat-creepy dog topiary was guarding the Edible Garden, and I scooted ahead of the Scouts to snag a picture.
Oh and there was a kiwi vine! (I had no idea that kiwis grew on vines!)
It was getting close to lunchtime, and it was 90°F (32°C) and very humid. My water bottle was empty and I could feel myself losing steam so I decided to wrap it up. Later on I realized that in my zeal to avoid the Children's Garden, I had completely missed one of the most iconic parts of Atlanta Botanical Gardens: the Cascades Garden and the Earth Goddess! Rats! But you know, it's ok. If there is a next time, she will be my first stop :)
During food logging this morning I'd realized I was out of protein and oats, so I walked an additional mile to a Publix for those things. At that point I'd walked 4.5 miles (7.24 km) and walking back to the hotel would've been 2 miles and 40 minutes (with meat, in hot weather). An Uber it was. Had a basic lunch, sorted all of these lovely plant and flower photos, and reflected on how much I'd enjoyed the gardens today. Being surrounded by plants is, imo, inherently relaxing and calming. And I got to see many plants and flowers that I'd never seen before. It was a reminder that there is still so very MUCH out there that I haven't seen...rare creatures and plants, places and people, artworks and creations, discoveries and adventures.
I am SO privileged to have seen and experienced so much in my short life already!
And even that said, I want to see as much as I can before time runs out.
Why can't our lifespans be DOUBLE what they are??
I rested for a bit and before dinner walked to pick up my dry-cleaned pea coat. I got back inside and was eating dinner when the skies opened up, huge downpour (no thunder though.) Umbrella'd up and walked over to the theater when it was time. Packed most things in my trunk, warmed up the horns, yada yada. The evening show was fine, we had a hold at the top of "Belle" but it was only about 10 minutes, and the audience was great.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY
Standard morning with standard breakfast and standard packing of final trunk things. Called Southwest because due to their new assigned seating protocol, I'm not unable to change my own seat within our company group bookings, and I'm trying to figure out how to accomplish that. The department I needed is closed on weekends so it'll have to wait, but I tried.
First show was good. One of Jameson's childhood friends was there so I got to meet her, that was nice :)
Between shows the usual dinner at the hotel (butternut squash, avocado, egg bagel, turkey) then back for the evening show, which was good and well attended like all of our shows have been here. I should mention that when our show lets out it creates quite a bit of chaos on the street, a big crowd jostling at intersections and dashing across before the light has changed. I tried to capture the madness but you probably can't tell. It IS a very big crowd, though.
There was some sort of big bash going on at our hotel (wedding afterparty maybe?) and only one elevator was working, and the line for that elevator stretched all the way across the lobby! Thus I ended my night by walking up TEN flights of stairs. Y'all, I am thankful to be in good enough health that climbing ten flights of stairs is nothing more than a minor inconvenience. I am not athletic by any means...I had to stop at floors 5, 7, and 9 to take deep breaths and massage my calves, lol. But it was probably good for me :p
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY
Standard morning of breakfast and typing this post, light packing, making overnight oats for tomorrow, and finishing Tucson Foodie Finds (knocking these out but still drastically behind until I can tackle the Los Angeles list.) Ate lunch slightly early, walked to the theater and had the first show which was great. Back to the hotel for an hour of chilling out with anime, then dinner and walking back. The evening show was good, a roaring crowd and a nice sendoff from Atlanta. It's been an amazing week here and I'm gonna miss the enthusiasm and appreciation of the people here.
In closing, here is the on-stage group photo that was taken with Jodi Benson (voice of Ariel/The Little Mermaid) earlier this week. I am at the bottom left, holding my trombone.
(click on the photo to open it in a new tab and click it again to enlarge it)
I've emoji'd out the kids' faces, out of abundance of caution after what happened that last time I naively reshared a social media pic containing Chip Kids. I have asked for and received permission from the parents/guardians to reshare this photo here. But I do not want any kickback on this topic ever again if I can help it, so no kid faces pretty much ever.
There was also an onstage photo taken for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month while we were in Knoxville, and BATB just released the photo yesterday. This was the first time I've ever had my personal Japanese heritage acknowledged and celebrated, and it meant a lot to me! CLICK HERE to see the photo if you like.
Finally, in this city the pit is shallow and in front of the stage. This puts us in range of the "Be Our Guest" confetti cannons. I've been collecting the streamers that rain down on my spot and building a "nest" with them.
At the beginning of the week:
By the end of the week:
This is the biggest "nest" I've managed to make on tour so far! LOL. Wish I had a big plush chicken to put in the middle of it or something. During the Sunday evening intermission I picked it up, carried it backstage, and threw it out so no one would have to clean up after me.
I can envision a book title for this: "Arts, Crafts, and Enrichment for Your Pit Musicians." LOLOL
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Direct flight to Memphis, later in the day. It's supposed to rain. Fingers crossed that we won't get delayed.
Tuesday: Opening day in Memphis. I do plan to visit a nearby Foodie Find, a local bakery with fresh bagels and croissants!
This post covers the weekend.
--- --- --- --- --- ---
FRIDAY
I was up at 6:30am so I could have breakfast and work on Foodie Finds before heading to the botanical garden. I was worried at first because it was raining but thankfully it was just a quick shower.
It was a little over a mile to the gardens but it was partially through a nice residential area and then a public park. I had prepurchased a ticket and walked right in. There was a large group of Girl Scouts there for a special visit, and "activity stations" were set up all over the place for them to learn extra stuff about the plants, do some arts and crafts, make flower pressings, all that sort of thing. So my timing was NOT great, but I was still able to avoid the huge Scouts group for the most part by watching which way they went first and going in the opposite way (they went right so I went left.)
First was the Rose Garden and the Great Lawn, which had a fantastic view of the city and many lovely flowers.
(and yes for whatever reason most of the flowers were pink or purple! There were a few orange, yellow, or white, but vast majority were pink or purple.)
The garden has art installations/exhibits as part of their landscaping, and right now it's Niki de Saint Phalle. I don't really care for her particular art style, but I can appreciate her abundant use of snakes :D
There was a small pond in front of the indoor greenhouse that had beautiful water lilies.
For the bright pink one, I had to zoom in nearly 12x with my phone to get the photo.
Inside the greenhouse were two dinstinct tropical zones, one "regular" and one "high elevation." They were both humid but the regular one was a lot warmer, and the higher elevation one was actually a bit chilly. I think there were plants from the Brazilian mountains and such in there. Cacao plants and feathery ferns and alien-looking aerial plants. Lush tropical greenery, huge leaves and huge trailing vines. There was so much to see and these photos are just a tiny fraction of it all.
This photo is looking up at a big cluster of aerial roots from the surrounding plants, intentionally placed to hang in one spot.
There was an orchid room here also. Orchids are nice but they're not my favorite so I only captured two: this butter-yellow one, and this interestingly shaped and colorful one that was hanging from a tree.
There were a few interesting animals, including this large snapping turtle. His TAIL is about the size of a banana, for scale!
And a small tank with golden poison frogs, which are extra-toxic even in the category of dart frogs. They're also endangered so I really appreciated seeing one and getting this photo.
Popping out the backside of the greenhouse I was surprised by an absolute FIELD of pitcher plants!! There were two different kinds that I saw, one was all-green and the other was this gorgeous white with maroon veins. I love carnivorous plants and was very excited, having NEVER seen so many in one place like this before!!
Below that was a pond with more sculptures of voluptuous women prancing in the water, and a desert plant garden.
I didn't photograph the desert plants because to me they all looked pretty...standard? "Plant shop?" But there were tables and chairs there so I rested there and ate a half of a bagel I'd brought with me. Looping back up and around I saw more Niki de Saint Phalle sculptures, walked through a vine arbor, and visited the Edible Garden, Japanese Garden, and Perrennial Garden. This was now the RIGHTHAND side of the garden and as such here is where I crossed paths with the Scouts, who were moving right-to-left. I'd say 60% of the kids were well behaved but the other 40% were running around screaming, walking backwards on the paths, throwing gravel at each other in the Japanese gardens, etc. Therefore I did not spend a lot of time nor did I try to get photos in those gardens.
However this cute-yet-somewhat-creepy dog topiary was guarding the Edible Garden, and I scooted ahead of the Scouts to snag a picture.
Oh and there was a kiwi vine! (I had no idea that kiwis grew on vines!)
It was getting close to lunchtime, and it was 90°F (32°C) and very humid. My water bottle was empty and I could feel myself losing steam so I decided to wrap it up. Later on I realized that in my zeal to avoid the Children's Garden, I had completely missed one of the most iconic parts of Atlanta Botanical Gardens: the Cascades Garden and the Earth Goddess! Rats! But you know, it's ok. If there is a next time, she will be my first stop :)
During food logging this morning I'd realized I was out of protein and oats, so I walked an additional mile to a Publix for those things. At that point I'd walked 4.5 miles (7.24 km) and walking back to the hotel would've been 2 miles and 40 minutes (with meat, in hot weather). An Uber it was. Had a basic lunch, sorted all of these lovely plant and flower photos, and reflected on how much I'd enjoyed the gardens today. Being surrounded by plants is, imo, inherently relaxing and calming. And I got to see many plants and flowers that I'd never seen before. It was a reminder that there is still so very MUCH out there that I haven't seen...rare creatures and plants, places and people, artworks and creations, discoveries and adventures.
I am SO privileged to have seen and experienced so much in my short life already!
And even that said, I want to see as much as I can before time runs out.
Why can't our lifespans be DOUBLE what they are??
I rested for a bit and before dinner walked to pick up my dry-cleaned pea coat. I got back inside and was eating dinner when the skies opened up, huge downpour (no thunder though.) Umbrella'd up and walked over to the theater when it was time. Packed most things in my trunk, warmed up the horns, yada yada. The evening show was fine, we had a hold at the top of "Belle" but it was only about 10 minutes, and the audience was great.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY
Standard morning with standard breakfast and standard packing of final trunk things. Called Southwest because due to their new assigned seating protocol, I'm not unable to change my own seat within our company group bookings, and I'm trying to figure out how to accomplish that. The department I needed is closed on weekends so it'll have to wait, but I tried.
First show was good. One of Jameson's childhood friends was there so I got to meet her, that was nice :)
Between shows the usual dinner at the hotel (butternut squash, avocado, egg bagel, turkey) then back for the evening show, which was good and well attended like all of our shows have been here. I should mention that when our show lets out it creates quite a bit of chaos on the street, a big crowd jostling at intersections and dashing across before the light has changed. I tried to capture the madness but you probably can't tell. It IS a very big crowd, though.
There was some sort of big bash going on at our hotel (wedding afterparty maybe?) and only one elevator was working, and the line for that elevator stretched all the way across the lobby! Thus I ended my night by walking up TEN flights of stairs. Y'all, I am thankful to be in good enough health that climbing ten flights of stairs is nothing more than a minor inconvenience. I am not athletic by any means...I had to stop at floors 5, 7, and 9 to take deep breaths and massage my calves, lol. But it was probably good for me :p
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY
Standard morning of breakfast and typing this post, light packing, making overnight oats for tomorrow, and finishing Tucson Foodie Finds (knocking these out but still drastically behind until I can tackle the Los Angeles list.) Ate lunch slightly early, walked to the theater and had the first show which was great. Back to the hotel for an hour of chilling out with anime, then dinner and walking back. The evening show was good, a roaring crowd and a nice sendoff from Atlanta. It's been an amazing week here and I'm gonna miss the enthusiasm and appreciation of the people here.
In closing, here is the on-stage group photo that was taken with Jodi Benson (voice of Ariel/The Little Mermaid) earlier this week. I am at the bottom left, holding my trombone.
(click on the photo to open it in a new tab and click it again to enlarge it)
I've emoji'd out the kids' faces, out of abundance of caution after what happened that last time I naively reshared a social media pic containing Chip Kids. I have asked for and received permission from the parents/guardians to reshare this photo here. But I do not want any kickback on this topic ever again if I can help it, so no kid faces pretty much ever.
There was also an onstage photo taken for Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month while we were in Knoxville, and BATB just released the photo yesterday. This was the first time I've ever had my personal Japanese heritage acknowledged and celebrated, and it meant a lot to me! CLICK HERE to see the photo if you like.
Finally, in this city the pit is shallow and in front of the stage. This puts us in range of the "Be Our Guest" confetti cannons. I've been collecting the streamers that rain down on my spot and building a "nest" with them.
At the beginning of the week:
By the end of the week:
This is the biggest "nest" I've managed to make on tour so far! LOL. Wish I had a big plush chicken to put in the middle of it or something. During the Sunday evening intermission I picked it up, carried it backstage, and threw it out so no one would have to clean up after me.
I can envision a book title for this: "Arts, Crafts, and Enrichment for Your Pit Musicians." LOLOL
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Direct flight to Memphis, later in the day. It's supposed to rain. Fingers crossed that we won't get delayed.
Tuesday: Opening day in Memphis. I do plan to visit a nearby Foodie Find, a local bakery with fresh bagels and croissants!
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