Wednesday, Thursday: Atlanta

I forgot to mention - our hosts in New Hampshire each night would take their bird feeder inside because the local black bear eats everything in sight otherwise! On a walk last night, I was hoping to meet him in the bush but he didn't turn up.

Also they pronounce "Concord" as "Konkered"!

Wednesday morning: very early flight to Charlotte, then next flight we were shut down on the runway because flights weren't being allowed into Atlanta because of bad storms. We eventually got in 40 mins late. If our plane had been scheduled a couple of hours later, we wouldn't have been able to get in at all, the storm was pretty impressive, with tornado warnings.

Now we're in the deep south, y'all! We were met by our friend, Polly and her son-in-law, Tom who took us straight to Georgia Tech where Polly's late husband, George spent two years playing for their team. He's hung (well, not literally!) in the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame and his name and photo appear everywhere around the walls. Lucius, the facilities administrator, showed us around the football facilities - amazing - and we actually got to walk out on the playing field in the stadium! Then we went for lunch at the Big Easy, which specialises in New Orleans-type cuisine - very good food! That was George's favourite quick food place and, of course, his picture is there too.

Next stop: Polly's home in the rain but we got there before the storm hit. Her home is very beautiful and we're in the guest suite. Spent most of the afternoon talking, looking at pictures of our families and hearing about local history. For dinner we went with some of the family to the Capital City Country Club - elegant dining and such a lovely evening. We had our first taste of southern fraaaad chicken!

Today we had a delightful, leisurely breakfast: grits, bagels and fruit. Then Tom picked us up again and we went to the CNN Centre for a tour - truly amazing and gives us a whole new slant on watching CNN. We also saw the Olympic park. Tonight the family is coming over for dinner and then tomorrow morning we're off early to catch our flight to Florida.