Jim and Michael Colyer in Atlanta

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Michael and I drove to Atlanta and back on January 10, 2006. We went straight to the SunTrust Plaza. SunTrust Bank started in Atlanta and has its corporate office there. We went to the top floor of the building. There seemed to be SunTrust branches on every corner as we drove around town. SunTrust is the 9th largest bank in the country, in 8 southern states and Washington, D.C. It has 1100 branches with assets of $88 billion and deposits of $55 billion. Michael and I talked about his job. He is thinking of working full time as a Financial Services Representative while SunTrust pays toward his MBA. With his Master's, he can become an Investment Consultant. I wanted this trip to be oriented toward Michael's career. We meant to get a hotel but started going from place to place and realized we could get everything in and be back in Nashville that night. We walked through town and spotted the CNN Center. We ate at Arby's inside. A guy in a shop told us Larry King did his show from New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Michael and I talked about Ted Turner. We crossed Centennial Olympic Park to the Georgia Aquarium. The aquarium opened in November and is the largest in the world. We saw thousands and thousands of fish. There were no great whites but there were whale sharks which get as long as school buses. We drove through the suburb of Buckhead before heading back up I-75 and I-24. We had a good time and a learning experience.

Karen and I spent Memorial Day weekend, May 28 and 29, 1983, in Atlanta. We took I-24 to Chattanooga and traveled I-75. We stayed two nights at the Red Roof Inn. We began with what was most typically Atlanta, the downtown area. We went to Peachtree Plaza with its cylindrical tower, entered the blue bubble-domed Hyatt, the Omni and the World Congress Center. These are laden with shops, restaurants, hotels and convention halls. Next, we went to the Georgia State Capitol Building. The dome is done is gold leaf. The State Museum inside is strong in natural history. Karen said she knew I would like Stone Mountain. It is a State Park. The carving in the granite makes it a southern Mt. Rushmore. The figures from left to right are: Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. We rode the incline to the top. Sun-bathers were strewn on the rock as if it were a beach. We saw the Atlanta skyline in the distance. Our second day began with the Atlanta Zoo. As soon as we started along the walk, I felt an urge to take animal notes. Karen got some interesting photos. After some Major League Baseball with the Braves and Cubs, it was back to Nashville.

December, 1977 - Atlanta
Peachtree Street is the main thoroughfare in Atlanta. Here, I visited the Omni, Emory University and the Hartsfield International Airport. The buildings at Emory are gray and foreboding. The Atlanta airport is the second largest in the country. Nearly everyone changes planes there when flying to or from southern cities. Atlanta is more cosmopolitan than either Louisville or Nashville. I visited Atlanta Underground, a subterranean row of bars and boutiques, early in the morning. Everything was closed.

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