Travel Tuesdays: Hot Atlanta!!

Welcome to the 10th Floor

Two weekends ago, we had an opportunity to visit Atlanta, GA to attend the True Dreams Showcase.  Sharee inadvertently punched in short route instead of fastest route on our GPS system, so we found ourselves taking a scenic drive through the city en route to the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel & Convention Center.   So many lights, left turns, then right turns, then left again.  Needless to say, we took the faster route home.  But back to the hotel...the hotel is very chic and modern, and we thought we'll share a few pictures of the facility, along with views from our morning walk around the premises.

View of the atrium from the 10th Floor

Window view from the 10th Floor

Cobb Galleria Centre...Registration, Workshops, Pitch Meetings

Daniel D performs for the crowd

Rhonda poses in front of massive balloons

The view during our walk near the hotel premises.

Sharee takes a pause from walking to smile amongst the beautiful surroundings.

A waterfall & clock structure.

The end of our scenic walk before heading to breakfast.

Rhonda W.  & Sharee W.

Public Transportation

My sister and I had a blast in NYC over the weekend during our family gathering. Other than hitting up a few eating spots and entertainment in Times Square, most of our time was spent traveling between shopping districts.  We assisted in shuffling thirty something people from place to place via NYC's ever changing public transportation system.  We did it all.  Train, bus, taxi, and ferry.  And for a directionally challenged individual like myself, the fact that I was able to get around via the various train and bus connections, and understand that the Uptown train takes you to "locations above" & the Downtown train takes you to "locations below" (if you live or ever been to Charlotte, NC...it's the complete opposite...Uptown is actually Downtown & Downtown is actually Uptown) is miraculous. Even after more than a dozen years living here, I still can't get around certain areas in Columbia, SC without my "trusty" GPS. Anyways....

chargrillkiller's photostream via Flickr

So in my wondrous thoughts about the ins and outs of getting around the various international cities we'll be visiting, my mind pondered on a few questions.  Here in America, there tends to be a "stigma" if you utilize public transportation services, but in other countries the train, "tube", bus, etc is the way to go. Are there certain cities where public transportation is acceptable, and others where it is not? Must the population be of a certain size to be "cool" to utilize public transportation? And with recent news in NYC about another subway fare hike, is public transportation becoming less accessible to the masses?  Any thoughts or inputs on the topic, greatly appreciated.

Sharee