A Day Trip to Atlanta

Here’s an easy equation: $30 flights + end of finals = ?

A day trip to Atlanta, obviously!

My friend Shayley and I left my house at 4:00 a.m., MCO bound.

As you can see, Shayley is super excited:

What you cant see is our exhaustion, neither of us slept more than three hours the night before and we had an incredibly full day ahead.

The drive to the airport only took a few minutes and we were parked in the terminal top garage before we knew it.

As it was a super short trip, we chose the more expensive lot to circumvent the need for an additional shuttle ride. It was totally worth it when we got home.

As we walked to the elevator, we started to get into one with a family of three, when a woman says: “I’m sick, don’t come into this one,” and pushes the door close button.

What a great way to start our morning! People are the worst.

My annoyance grew when the airport had a 30 minute security line… at 4:30 a.m.

We waited, half asleep, as we watched other people slowly inch through the metals. After what seemed like forever, we made it to the other side and found our gate.

As we got to our gate, we saw the flight was still on time, so we hung around the gate. Seeing as it was Frontier Airlines, we were some of the last few to board.

Before 5:30 a.m., we pushed back and were going down the runway.

It was a pretty uneventful flight. I tried to sleep but being only 50ish minutes, there wasn’t much time.

We landed at right about seven and made our way to my beloved (lmao) airport MARTA station.

We bought our tickets and hopped on the departing red line. The city was starting to wake up as we traveled through the different neighborhoods.

We crossed into Downtown and switched onto the Blue Line at Five Points Station.

From there, we took the train all the way out to Indian Creek Station, eight miles outside downtown and at the end of the line.

For our trip, the first destination was Stone Mountain park. As Ubers are expensive we wanted to try and utilize public transportation. Unfortunately, that included a bus.

The 119 bus to Stone Mountain sounds perfect on paper, a direct link to Stone Mountain Village, but was a nightmare in reality. First, the buses are scheduled to come every thirty minutes. Whatever, not the most efficient, but it’ll work.

We get off the train and are super happy to find a bus waiting: “119 – Stone Mountain Village.” Perfect. We get on the bus.

The first airs of suspicion arise when it pulls away seven minutes early. I look at Shayley and we pull up a map. The route we’re supposed to be on makes a left turn at the light. Our driver makes a right.

He drives us to the MARTA station BEFORE Indian Creek and parks.

“Just letting y’all know, this is the 125 bus now.”

WHAT!?!

We weren’t the only disappointed people, as a few others stormed off the bus. I asked the driver how we’re supposed to get to Stone Mountain and he says:

“119. This was the right bus, but I had to change.”

WHAT!?!?!?!

We checked on the next 119 and it was 25 minutes away.

Whatever.

I was literally about to click ‘order’ on the Uber app, when low and behold, up pulls the bus.

We thought it was a godsend, until it sat there for 20 more minutes.

Once the bus actually started MOVING, we were there in no time. We got off the bus in the aptly named Stone Mountain Village.

It was cute, but felt like a ghost town. Shells of buildings sat there, but nothing was open. We had planned to get coffee, but literally all the shops were all closed… at 10 a.m.

The bus also dropped us off at some random spot on the side of the road. We awkwardly walked the half-mile along the road down to the trailhead. Along the way we passed some pretty houses and a very friendly jogger.

Eventually reaching the lot, we weaved around cars and were elated with the discovery of bathrooms was the day’s highlight. After a quick stop we started on the trail.

When I envisioned climbing a mountain in Georgia, I pictured a dusty dirt trail through the woods.

My friends, this trail was literally rock. The entire way.

It turns out Stone Mountain isn’t so much a mountain as a giant rock. It was created by hardened lava seeping out of the earth over 300 million years ago. The quartz dome now stands on its own.

Anyway, we scrambled up the trail as it progressively got steeper. The last bit saw a rope bolted into the granite with crude footholds to climb. My sole-less shoes kept slipping and I convinced myself it was the end. There were a few points on the way up to steal a glimpse of the view, but the panorama at the top was unmatched.

It was stunning, almost as breathtaking as the trail’s near vertical finale. You could see the skyline of Atlanta, the Blue Ridge Mountains and tons of trees below.

The trail was about a mile each way.

We walked back down and wandered around a few of the forest’s other trails.

Learning from our mistake, we ordered an Uber back to the MARTA station and took the Blue Line to the King Memorial station. Keep in mind it’s not even noon and we’d already flown 400 miles, summited a mountain and climbed back down.

From the MARTA stop, it’s about half a mile to the Martin Luther King Junior National Historic Site. I have a lot of bucket list items in my life and visiting every National Historic Site is, of course, one.

On the way, Shayley and I stopped by Chrome Yellow Trading Co. A coffee shop I enjoyed last time I was in the city, it lived up to my personally high expectations. This was the third cup of coffee in the day and it was much needed.

The swanky interior left me manifesting something similar in Orlando.

Caffeine in hand, we walked the few blocks protected by the Historic Site. The area includes Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached, King’s birth home, a memorial museum and a water feature suspending King and his wife’s graves.

It’s a somber and moving sight, especially when sitting in the church. The pews are relatively untouched and speakers project King’s booming voice. It’s as if he’s preaching.

On our way out, we walked past King’s birth home.

When Shayley and I were in Austin, we fell in love with those Lime electrical scooters. Ecstatic to find some in Atlanta, we zoomed through the southern neighborhoods to Cold Brew Bar, a now defunct coffee shop. The coffee shop served up cold brew concoctions in an innovative environment.

I can’t explain why, but the shop kind of felt out of Nashville. We sat in the sun outside on a tiered staircase of seats.

The industrial/brick/warehouse looking space was pretty cool, but the coffee wasn’t anything spectacular. Regardless, it was a nice break as we were very tired.

After about an hour of relaxing, we scootered a mile up to the Historic Fourth Ward Park.

This park surpassed any expectation I had, it was so pretty! The architecture surrounding the park was superb as well. I was blown away and never expected anything like that in Atlanta.

The park’s central lake was really cool too.

We ditched the scooters and walked through the park to Ponce City Market.

We took a lap around the market and shopped for a bit at the bookstore, west elm and a few of the other retailers.

We hopped back onto the Beltline and walked up to Piedmont Park. It was honestly perfect. The sun had just started setting and the park was alive with people hanging out and playing games.

It had an energy that most cities have but Orlando always seems to be lacking.

There were some Canadian Geese in one of the ponds, another thing MIA in Orlando.

Soaking in the last few seconds of community, Shayley and I walked back to the MARTA station before making the southernly trek to the airport.

It was about a 30-minute trip back down to the airport.

A really embarrassing moment saw us walking to one end of the airport just to have our gate changed to one right next to the front of the airport.

Neverthless, we were eventually on the plane.

We took off from Atlanta right around 11 p.m. where I caught a final glimpse of the skyline.

As always, the trip back to Orlando was very short, just under an hour, and I was back in bed shortly after.