10 Things we love about Atlanta

Most of you realize that we recently moved to Atlanta after living in Boston for over 8 years. While there is plenty we really miss about Boston, we have found many things we love about Atlanta! We are very happy here, and feel it's a great place to be raising our kids right now.




1. The daffodils in my front yard start blooming before January was over. I know it's been unseasonably warm, even for Atlanta, but we have had a wonderful time enjoying the signs of spring a solid 3-4 months earlier than we did in Boston. I realize we will pay for all this wonderful weather this summer, but at least we'll have central ac! (she says with an awkward, unsure laugh)

2. Umm, the food. Wow. I love to eat, and Atlanta has some amazing restaurants. It helps that we've landed in Decatur, which is like craft beer and foodie heaven, but we continue to be impressed with all the delicious independent foodie restaurant options here at a variety of price points. My favorite burger so far is at Kitchen 155 on Clairmont. The kids love their milkshakes - they're huge, made with Ben and Jerry's, and are only $5. I am also in love with Your Dekalb Farmer's Market. Yes, Your Dekalb Farmer's Market, or YDFM. It has bulk prices, just about any produce you could dream of (they sell Durian fruit, Oil!) and it feels a little like shopping at the Somerville Market Basket.

3. The YMCA. I grew up at the Y, on the gymnastics team, and have a great affinity for the YMCA and their family-oriented approach to fitness. the Y system here "in town" is great. None of the facilities are large, but we have two very close to us we can go to. One has a great pool with family swim times every day from 2:30 to 6, and they keep the water at 87. Dex will actually swim here! We try and go once a week. The kids are also in gymnastics at the Y, and I have found an incredible yoga class. The kids will take soccer this spring!

4. The kid's preschool. The kids are enrolled in a Methodist preschool here in Decatur, and they love it. We love it. They have made many friends, and I have been able to make friends with other moms as a result. I get to volunteer in Frankie's class to help teach Handwriting without Tears, which is really fun way to help the kids learn handwriting. There really are no tears. Dex looooves his teacher, and actually looks forward to school days. For those of you who know how much Dex has struggled with social anxiety and being away from Momma, this has been huge for our family. They have music every day for 20 minutes. They come home signing all kinds of songs. Frankie spent a while yesterday singing "Valentimes, Valentimes!" to the tune of "All night, all day, Angels watching over me my lord!"

5. Stone Mountain. We're only about 20 minutes away from Stone Mountain, which provides us a great mid-week place to hike and get our fresh air. I'm looking forward to the day when we can all bike the 5.5 mile loop around the mountain together - it's where they held the Olympic Cycling event in the 1996 Olympics.

6. Plenty of Green Space. We were worried about this, coming from Boston which is known for its parks, and for having a rather fitness-focused population. We're living intown, so I can't speak for all of Atlanta, but at least the pocket we're in seems to have plenty of really nice parks for the kids, and some decent running paths. The community we're in also has a big focus on walking and biking. Many of the kids in Decatur walk or bike to school.  But boy, is it hilly!  I haven't run this many hills since my Indian Hill Cross Country days.

7. Proximity to family. We're now withing driving distance to all our extended family members, and since moving 3 months ago we've already made multiple trips to see family, or they have come to us. We love this! We even have some family in town, and I'm so glad to have our kids (and us!) be able to see family more often.

8.  Our church.  We've already started to get settled in a church here, which is such a blessing.  We've moved other places where we've looked and looked before finding a church home, but we have found the local PCA church here to be a place where we feel we can find community, grow in our faith, and worship God.  And it's only 1.5 miles from our house!

9.  The hipsters.  Like I said, we landed in Decatur, which is home to many a hipster.  While I'm not a hipster myself, hipsters usually have good taste, and I usually kinda like them.  The dream of the 90s is alive and well here in Decatur.

10.  Chris loves his new job!  Yay!

So friends, rejoice with us that this has been a successful transition for our family.  It's been a lot of work to move our little family of 4, and there are definitely things we miss (and, really, people we miss), but we are settling in here.