Leaving Roswell

We are back on the nice MARTA train then enter the airport.

We want to be out in the sunshine but do find the airport quite pleasing.  It's quiet and comfy and has chandeliers just like Manchester Airport.  After being complemented on our accents yet again, ('I sure wish I had recorded you') on the bus, we have beer and wine on arrival after basking for a few minutes in the sun for the last time.

Spot the sky scrapers in downtown Atlanta.  They are on the horizon.

Good bye, it's been interesting!

Last morning in Roswell

Today is cool but sunny.  It's hard to emerge from my very cosy bed.  I am happy to go home but a week on South California would be good 😊 

Its off to the Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Shop

The company pays it's coffee growers in Rwanda higher than Fair Trade prices and uses the profits to invest in sustainable village projects in Rwanda such as a sustenance farm for orphans, a football field and more. To learn more about Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee, please go to www.landofathousandhills.com.com.

After breakfast it's a walk down Mimosa Boulevard 

After a look round the upmarket shops, we go back to finalise our packing and head to the bus stop.

Tour of Gate City Brewing

Today we are going to  Gate City Brewing Company

This involves walking from our end of Roswell, Georgia  to the centre.  We walk past Kimball Hall , where the wedding blessing we attended last night, was held. 

We see lots of placards for a local election.  It looks like one of our young Lib Dems has defected!  

Soon we arrive at the brewery

photo the knot.com

We have been offered a tour of the brewery by Taproom Manager, Michael Palko, who is featured here with Ullage Magazine.  

 

Michael very kindly offered us a tour when we called in the brewery yesterday.  It seems tours are no longer seen as mandatory by the state administration.  Until recently, the brewery could not offer tastings without a tour.  Michael found that people were not really interested in having tours, ( 'Done one brewery tour you have done them all'), so they were dropped.  Thus, we are extremely honoured!

Michael is from Ohio but has lived just up the road from the brewery for some years.  He is an ex wine sommelier and restaurant geek with an obvious passion for good food and drink. He and his wife became regular visitors to the tap room and loved it.  When an opportunity to work there arose he jumped at it.  

He begins by explaining the brewery's logo, which is a Phoenix.  

In Greek mythology,  a phoenix is a long-lived bird that is reincarnated by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.  The logo is inspired by Atlanta from the Ashes, more commonly known as The Phoenix, which is a bronze monument located in the near by city of Atlanta, capital of Georgia .  It symbolises Atlanta's rise from the ashes of the  Civil War,  which is still talked about in hushed tones round here. The Unionists had a tendency to burn all the settlements they attacked, or so I understand it.

Gate City’s name derives from Atlanta’s nickname, the 'Gate City'.  The brewery and 3,000 sqft taproom stand on the site of what used used to be two garages. There are eighteen house-brewed beers on draft. No guest beers are allowed by state law.  Don't ask me what that is about. Each weekend sees live music, comedy, tastings, and community-based events such as yoga....

photo culinarylocal.com

and art work shops ('Paint and Pint') 

 

photo culinarylocal.com  

The first beer I sample is  Mosaic'in Me Crazy, an 4.2 % American Pale Ale which has lots of body and taste and is right up my street.  Next, I ask Michael for another weak one to try and end up with Awe Juice.  This is another American IPA, but this time it's 8%! Perhaps he doesn't understand my accent!  Never mind, it's delicious as you might expect.  

Meanwhile J is sampling the Barley Wine!  

We both stagger round the brewery and notice immedately how impeccably clean it all is.  Michael is amused

Canning is undertaken on site

 

Citra hops from California are used in the brewing process.  This might explain why I am immediately impressed by the beers!  

 

Oak barrels from the UK are used as well as the more standard type.

In the corner of the brewery, which is upstairs, there is a corner where the beers were served originally before the tap room came on line. 

At the end of a great tour we decant to the tap room to finsh our drinks

 

There is a host of other breweries in and around Atlanta; the largest is Sweetwater Brewery.

I have had the good fortune to sample their beers and can vouch for them.  Within the last month Variant    opened up almost next door to Gate City.  Michael welcomes this friendly competition, it makes people more likely to vist this exciting new hub of beer culture.  Read more about breweries in the Atlanta/Roswell area  here

On the way home the sun comes out

 

Later the black cat moves in an J makes a bean dish and then we have an early night!  It's the jet lag.  Honest!

A cold Sunday in Georgia

Sadly, and for whatever reason, an arctic chill is biting through Georgia, the temperature has dropped by about 15 degrees C.  But there is no more rain.  I have woken early again but feel refreshed despite the throat. It's off to Public House , which we visited yesterday, again.  Public House was originally a general store for the Roswell Mill. It is one of Roswell’s most significant historical sites and one of the few area buildings pre-dating the Civil War.

The smaller area, portioned off by the brick columns, became the Dunwoody Shoe Shop in 1920. And as was the custom in those days, the upstairs was a funeral home. If you look carefully, you can discern where the opening was in the ceiling for raising and lowering caskets.
During the Civil War,  the building was spared from the Unionist torches in order to use it as a Union hospital. Public House legend has it that a forbidden romance arose between Michael, a 17-year-old Union soldier, and Catherine, a southern belle and nurse. One night while on guard duty at the hospital, Michael was killed by Confederate soldiers. Catherine also died, but no one really knows how. Some say she was so grief-stricken over Michael’s loss that she hung herself across in the square.

Nowadays you can hear Michael and Catherine dancing in the loft, banging on the piano or playing tricks on the staff. Many Public House visitors and investigators have been witness to some of the eerie goings-on here at night.  The staff provide us examples of ghosts they have encountered. Today they are all dressed for Haloween.  Here's Red Riding Hood at the till.

And here's my lemon blueberry pancake with fruit cornucopia 

Meet the lovely Matt all dressed up as white trash! 

And vultures, would you believe round the real trash

We then wander up Mill Lane 

Note the Confederate flag 

We pass old mill  buildings and walk down to Vickery Creek past two historic mills, 

 a covered bridge, and a spillway waterfall in Atlanta's Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.

And look who has come to dinner

This is the most affectionate, positively clingey cat, I have ever met.

Wedding Blessing

Heavy drizzle turns to heavy rain. The wedding celebration is beautiful and is followed by lots of fun 

We only just made it in time thanks to our air BNB host!  Lyft and my phone in general let us down.