"When in Rome, Do As You Done in Milledgeville."

Last weekend, thanks to the President's Day holiday and tacking on an extra day off from work, I had a chance to get down to Atlanta to visit my Mom.  Often, when I get down to Georgia for a visit, it's around a major holiday or there are other family members visiting, which is always fine and lovely and all of that, of course.  However, there is rarely much time to play "tourist."  (Well, that and sometimes, a girl just wants to lay low at her Mom's house, you know?)

This weekend, however, my Mom and I donned our finest "tourist caps" and I spent a good chunk of the long weekend seeing sights in a city I've flown in to probably five hundred times, but have never actually had the time to explore.

On Friday, we drove to the Martin Luther King Center and spent an hour or so walking around.

I'd known that Dr. King and his wife's tombs were at the center, but I hadn't realized that the church he used to preach at was right next door.  All that history, so much social change, and so many lessons all tucked in to just a few city blocks...

We spent the rest of the day exploring various neighborhoods in the city, with me trying my best to get my head around the layout of Atlanta.  (Still not quite there gang.  One day, I swear.)  The highlight of our afternoon may have been the fact that it was warm enough to HAVE LUNCH OUTSIDE, which, coming from blizzard happy Boston was a treat I couldn't stop commenting on.  (Really, I think I remarked on it five times in as many minutes while Mom and I sat waiting for our cheeseburgers to arrive.)

Speaking of those cheeseburgers - wow.  Some of the best I've had in a long while.  If you should ever find yourself in Decatur looking for lunch, I highly recommend Sweet Melissa's.   (See those tables out front on their website?  Yep.  That's where we were.  Because again - outside, lunch, February.)

(I honestly don't know why I found that so remarkable this trip.  It's not as if I've never traveled south in the winter before and this was certainly not my first meal outdoors.  Guess the winter snow has really been catching up with me this year...but I digress.)

On Saturday, we made a pilgrimage that has long been on my 'to-do' list.  For years I've wanted to visit Andalusia, Flannery O'Connor's farm in Milledgeville, a few hours south of Atlanta.  Due to one scheduling thing or the other, we've never been able to take the trip.  Until now. 

Literary geek that I can be, I was nearly beside myself when we finally drove down the dirt road onto her property, with butterflies in my stomach as we approached the old farmhouse.

I mean, her porch!  How could you not want to spend an afternoon there?

I've yet to read either of her novels, but I'm a big fan of her short stories and I find the little bit we know about her personal life quite interesting too.  Diagnosed with lupus in her 30's she moved back home to the farm from the Northeast so her Mother could help care for her.  She'd write every morning until noon and then spend the afternoon caring for her Guineafowl and the peacocks she kept on the property.

This is her bedroom, a replica of her typewriter and desk next to her bed.   

The farm was donated in 1995, after Flannery's mother died.  (Flannery herself died in 1964 at the age of 39.) None of the buildings or the farm itself have been renovated, and most of it is left just as it was for years before it became a museum.  While part of me was sad to see peeling paint that needed attention and torn curtains hanging from some of the windows, I also felt like these flaws lent a certain authenticity to the place that you might not find were it a gussied up, look but don't touch sort of spot. 

There were only a handful of visitors in the time Mom and I were there and she and I were without question the folks who got the most of their time on the farm that day. We spent hours wandering in and out of the farmhouse and around the grounds, pondering what life was like for Flannery and her mother back in the '60s.  (I mean, we got our suggested donation in lieu of admission charges, is what I'm saying.  Twice, we went back into the house to ask the guide more questions after walking around the old barns and outbuildings.) 

You guys, I just eat these sort of trips up!  I hope I will forever be inspired and in awe any time I find myself treading along the same footpaths and walkways of those who have come before me, of those whose creativity I admire and appreciate. 

I mean, there I am in 2013, standing in front of Ms. Flannery O' Connor's front door.  And this, ladies and gentlemen, is absolutely my idea of cool.