Downtown Adventure

Last Saturday, July 3, we had quite an adventure. The day started with finding a MARTA card on the Freedom Park trail during my morning run. I can't return the card to it's owner and decided to give it to Colin. He is actually right on the cusp of being required to pay for his MARTA rides. Of course, Colin wants to try the card out right away. So that afternoon while Bob bottled beer with a beer friend, we decided to go to the High Museum via MARTA. After we got on the train I realized that we would not make it in time before the museum closed. Modify the plan, go to Centennial Olympic park where they have a playground.

At Five Points we were waiting to transfer to the North-South line and saw that the next train was coming in 15 minutes. Well, Centennial Olympic park is less than a 15 minute walk from Five Points, so we started walking. On the walk I noticed some barricades, then I noticed a bus that was burned to a crisp! What the what??!! Did some huge accident happen downtown? Terrorists? My mind was racing and I was wondering if I should point this out to the boys (they have not noticed it yet). And where was all the activity that should surround a burned out bus? And why is there a police officer standing casually right next to it? As we approach this strange situation, a couple of girls are looking and questioning the scene as well when a guy walking past heard them and said that they are filming a movie. Duh! Makes total sense now. But for a second there I was really worried.

So off to Centennial Olympic park where we first see the fountains and lots of fences for some kind of event. But the fences are blocking our way to the playground, so instead of walking through the park, we have to walk around the park. I'm not worried. I should have been. When we get to the playground, the fences go around the playground, including it in the inaccessible area. Colin gets really, really upset. For 15 minutes we try to come up with an alternate plan, but he is too upset to want to do anything else, except go to the Children's Museum. The Children's Museum happens to be right next to the closed playground, but it's really close to closing if it hasn't closed already. Also it's one of the only places in the city that we don't have an annual pass for. Ultimately we go in the Children's Museum to see if they have a discounted rate (like free) for the last 15 minutes of the day. Nope. But we can go to the gift shop. So two grabber thingies later (just a little bit less money than the reduced museum admission) we are heading back to MARTA to go home. And what should pass us, but the burned out bus being towed away.