whatever

Wow Rockgurl I'm really shocked to hear that coz' I read somewhere that Savannah was supposed to be the most beautiful area! Now where did I read that.... so I can show you all.... hmmm.....think it may have been on a lonely planet review.

whatever

81 in Feb! How lovely!!!
Ermmmm big Chicken - is that like Big Bird????

whatever

Hey I did that search (looks lovely) and I reckon my son will love it there at the park - plenty to do!

whatever

The house he's looking at is 'WOW'! and half the price of the one he has in Providence.... it seems GA is cheaper than MA.
I think he said his commute from Stone Mountain to Atlanta was looking like 40 minutes. Well to me this is pretty wonderful as the last job I did, my commute - door to door with frenzied drop off and pick up at the child minders, done as a sprint and speeding by car to the station and rail the rest of the way took 1 hr and 30 minutes at best! My DH is currently on 1hr 10mins daily commute each way and if we ever manage to get there (come on BCIS!!!) - I think his commute in Boston will be the same(ish).
Actually - that's quite interesting.... what is a reasonable commute... think I'll start a thread.

Thanks for all your info - much appreciated

Steffi

I have to say that having lived in Atlanta since '93 it's not THE most exciting town. I think the most we can offer tourists is Stone Mountain, the Coca Cola museum & Underground (mall type thing) and uhmmm....I can't actually think of much more! *L* I would have to say that the people are pretty nice though, but you'll probably also find things to be slower than up north. The traffic is absolutely horrible, and I think may actually be worse than the famous LA traffic. To me Stone Mountain is pretty far out from the city, so it's definitely a bit of a drive. Luckily they have been trying to clean downtown Atlanta up a good bit, like renovating old factories and turning them into fancy lofts and what not. So that's definitely a plus since I personally like the whole living in town thing.
Stone Mountain is pretty cool...it's quite a nice exercise to get to the top (it gets pretty steep towards the top), and I can't remember if they do the laser shows in the fall/winter time, but that's also something that's pretty cool to watch. They project the lasers onto the mountain and you can watch it from the grass field. They end the show with a firework.

Jon1905

I've driven through Georgia a few times.. The most notable thing when driving through it was it's high volume of discusting restaraunts advertised on the interstate...

"Cheap Food, Cheap Women" kinda thing..

Some really unsanitary eating conditions too..

"We bare all while you eat..."....

So watch out.. Georgians are probably all perverts.. (Mass Generalization)

~ Jon

dunroving

I lived in Athens (Go Dawgs!) for 4 years. It's about an hour from Hotlanta. Hotlanta has some fun places to eat, drink, and be merry (Five Points area, Virginia Highlands), but the downtown is a bit of a dump.

I interviewed at Georgia State (donwtown A.) but came second - not too upset, as I didn't fancy the commute. Hotlanta drivers are the absolute worst I've ever seen, which combined with some 8-lane (each way!) roads makes for the scariest driving I've ever experienced.

Stone Mountain is worth a visit. I think Bill Bryson wrote a funny description, can't remember which book.

Even if you are not really into football (the American kind), you have to see at least one Georgia Bulldogs game. They are more exciting than most NFL games, absolutely wild, passionate fans, a wall of sound, and currently about the best level of play you'll find at the college level. And Athens is a really cool, arty farty place with some fantastic restaurants and live music. A bit too far to live there and commute to Atlanta, though, which is probably a good thing.

Savannah has a wild St Patrick's day. I've never seen so many drunk people in one place at the same time. But when you get away from the touristy area, Savannah is a bit of a dive, and has high crime rates.

The "seaside" (I still cringe when I accidentally say "ocean") is a 5-hr drive, and some of the barrier islands are beautiful.

All in all, Georgia is a good place to live!

Jabba1

I spent a day in Atlanta on my way to Ohio a couple of years ago. They have a great airport which looks more like a shopping mall than an airport. If you have kids, they'll love Six Flags Over Georgia. It's nestled in the woods and has wonderful rides for the whole family. It also has a large collection of rollercoasters, including it's newest coaster "Superman: Ultimate Flight". I rode that last year and it was totally awesome! There's also the Georgia Scorcher (standup coaster), and two awesome wooden coasters- The Georgia Cyclone and the Great American Scream Machine!! The Mind Bender is a classic Anton Schwartzkopf coaster from the 70's. There's also a new coaster called Deja-vu which is a hanging foward/backward coaster. Batman the Ride is also a must.

whatever

Are you serious?!???!?! Are we talking Topless Waitresses? I thought that sort of thing was for bars not restaurants... tell all!!!

Jon1905

The signs said we bare "ALL" so I'm thinking topless wasn't the full extent of it...

I had no plans to venture close enough to find out..

~ Jon

Yorkieabroad

Spent a long weekend in Atlanta a couple of years ago - then went up to some manmade lakes (Lake Lanier??) about an hour out of the city...golf courses, boating, hiking all that sort of stuff- nice to have on the doorstep. City itself seemed OK - plenty of interesting stuff for a weekend, though thats different to living there. On the basis of that visit, I think I'd rather be there than here (Houston)!

whatever

Well reading through this thread, Atlanta and Georgia is getting more thumbs up than thumbs down. (Thanks everyone )
BUT I can't help but think that he will feel (my friend that is), that Atlanta is a step down from Boston, rather than a side-step (with it being smaller and it doesn't sounds as lively/offer as much diversity). The suburbs for both places probably offer about the same.
Anyway I'm passing all your comments on (which is pretty mad seeing as he's the Yank here LOL!!!!!)

Yorkieabroad

whoops - missed the bit about comparing it to Boston, which happens to be pretty close to the top of my favouites list....apart from all the road/tunnelworks in the centre...

Steffi

Yeah, I noticed those signs too...but only when you get closer to Florida in the middle of bumble**** (excuse my French). I always sort of thought they were trucker entertainment stops...

Like in already mentioned in my previous post I'm not the biggest fan of Atlanta and think it's generally not the most exciting city, but in fairness to it they are trying to make the downtown area more exciting. It was a real dump when I moved here in '93, but over the last couple of years I've noticed them really cleaning up the area. They are restoring all the old buildings and converting them into lofts and making the street floors into restaurants and what not. So I do have to give them some credit for at least attempting to make "something" out of the city. Oh, and I forgot: they're going to start building an aquarium (donated by Home Depot) which should open in 2005 or something like that.