Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Georgia - pre conference fun

We left for Georgia amidst a snow storm. We walked 20 minutes in the pouring snow with 6 inches on the ground.

It took 2.5 hours to get to Indy airport but we were still in plenty of time. Flew into Atlanta at 4pm and Nadia picked us up. We went to an amazing farmers' market in Atlanta and spent over an hour finding fresh meat, fish and vegetables. Then an hour drive back to Athens to meet Robin and start cooking (and drinking).




Of course we met the 'children', Penske the cat and Jasmine the dog.




Llew cooked fish the first night with a wonderful fish stock sauce.


Jasmine only gets carrots. (Bit chubby!)

Saturday we had the whole day of fun. Nadia and Robin took us out for some authentic southern experiences. First stop - boiled peanuts just down the road.

Then downtown.

The "pride" of Athens military is the double barrelled cannon. It was supposed to shoot 2 balls conntected by a chain to mow down the opposition. The problem was getting the 2 balls firing at the same time!

This is the monument to the Olympic flame that came through on its way to Atlanta.

This is not a real man-hole, it is where they put the Christmas tree right where I was standing in the last photo.

General street view. Very warm ~70F (20C).

The University of Georgia has the bulldawg as its mascot and the town has really embraced it. Athens with UGA is a lot like greater Lafayette and Purdue. Athens is about 1.5 hours from Atlanta like Lafayette is 1 hour 10 from Indy.




Lunch time! We had to have BBQ. Weaver D's is famous for being the starting place for REM and Weaver D himself always said, "Automatic for the People". The place is bright but small and had great food.



Then we walked around UGA's northern campus starting at the famous gate.



There is a bell that anyone can ring. Must be crazy for the neighbours!



Another thing we had to sample was sweet iced tea. It is great! Although we did realise we were doing the very typical American thing of walking around with huge cups. Seems everyone does it.
We walked down to the stadium. Football is big here too.

Then home to relax. It was even warm enough to "hang out" on the back deck.



That night Llew (helped by Robin and Nadia) made an amuse bouche of asparagus soup and duck 2 ways - breast on asparagus with blackberry sauce and leg confit on roast potatoes and zuchini with a duck stock reduction.


Dessert was blood orange pie with whipped cream of course with home made pastry. We took down a few vanilla pods and they were put to good use.

Then came the drinking and fun and games. Dominos. We played until 3am! Had way too much to drink. Hey, don't have to do anything tomorrow morning. Just got to get to the conference by 5pm.

2 comments:

alicepawley said...

Hah, boiled peanuts. Can't escape 'em. Glad you're back in the Comparatively Frozen North. ;-)

Gemma said...

And flooded north!