A Sunday Afternoon Walk

The weather was beautiful on Sunday afternoon in Atlanta, and I think almost everyone went out for a walk or a bike ride.  Iain and I planned on walking the Beltline's Eastside Trail, but he decided he wanted to go to Woody's for a cheesesteak first so instead of starting at Elizabeth Street we headed down Virginia Avenue.

We were walking along Virginia Avenue towards Monroe when we heard a car horn honking repeatedly.  It was neither the short staccato honks of a car alarm nor the long blasts of the impatient or angry.  The cadence was irregular and the honker was a small fluffy dog.

Approaching Monroe Avenue, there was a great view of the skyline and the (current) end of the paved part of the Eastside Trail.

We got a late lunch at Woody's Cheesesteaks.  I had never eaten there before (I don't know how that happened, but there you have it) but Iain had;  we had cheesesteaks and chips and then headed south on the Eastside Trail.

The first thing we encountered was two violinists under the bridge.

They were excellent.  I don't know what they were playing but I enjoyed it.

There were families with their kids, people with dogs, people on bikes, people on skateboards, runners, and plenty of people just walking.  The first time we walked the Eastside Trail was during the Lantern Parade in 2012.  I still remember how weirdly disorienting it was, walking through an area I'd never been before, in the dark, but seeing the tall buildings of the city in the distance and not really having any idea where we were.  

We made a pit stop at Paris on Ponce.  I knew they sold used furniture -- I'd seen it out on their porch, alongside the trail -- but who knew they had a private party facility that was so red?  And why has no one invited us to a party there?

We went by the Ponce City Market site ("Leasing for November 2014").  Last summer there had been food vendors in the shed on Sunday afternoons but there was no one there today. 

Someone has built beautiful erosion-control fences on a bluff adjacent to the trail.  They didn't photograph so well because they were mostly in the shade.  I don't think they were part of Art of the Beltline, but they could have been.

As we approached Elizabeth Street, we were thinking ice cream, but there were many people with popsicles heading north on the trail, suggesting that King of Pops was nearby.  And indeed it was.

And here's the last photo that I took that afternoon.  I am guessing this is a father and son.  On unicycles.

We walked back on Highland and noted some restaurants that we wanted to try and stopped in Half-Moon Outfitters just to look around.  Sweet Auburn Barbecue has opened at the old Pura Vida location and FLIP Burger is adding seating on the roof, which sounds like a fun place to be, at least when the weather is like it was last Sunday.  

All the way back I was remembering other times we've walked this route.  The first time was the first Atlanta Streets Alive event that we participated in, in May 2012.  I didn't know, until then, that it wasn't too far to walk from my house to Elizabeth Street.  The poets of Free Poems on Demand at Highland and North Avenue.  There was the afternoon we looked for geocaches and mostly didn't find them but found a lot of other things.  Those memories are all knitted together, like the Beltline bluff's erosion control fence, and were inseparable from the experience of walking.  There are things you just don't see if you are moving too fast.

Addendum: The Beltline has just posted something about the erosion control structures (created and installed by Trees Atlanta) on the bluff on the Eastside Trail, with much better photos than mine.