So, hellooooooo, from...HOTLANTA!
Okay.
So.
Now that I’ve gotten that greeting out of m’system, it’s time for a li’l bit of background as to why we’re here in Atlanta during this 4th of July holiday!
I’ll do my best to be succinct. ;)
So...I spent seven years of my childhood in Atlanta. Lively, happy years that my parents loved. And during those years, my dad always participated in the Peachtree Road Race—the largest 10K in the U.S., that’s held annually, on the morning of July 4th.
Now, as most of you likely already know (as 90% of my tiny handful of followers on this here blog are relatives, hehe), our family moved from Atlanta to Tulsa in 1990, and one year later, my dad passed away.
Now, two years later (I think I’ve got all my dates correct), when my older bro and I were preteens, we returned to Atlanta for the 4th, and “ran” the race in his honor. Which means we mostly walked, but felt super cool doing something so adult (sadly, little bro was a bit too young to join us at that point) and made sure to jog professionally through the finish line where they took the official photographs, so we’d have evidence of our racing prowess. Ha.
So, now.
Fast forward oodles of years, and older bro is now the age that my dad was when he passed. And he got this awesomesauce idea in his brain to run the race again.
When he first mentioned this scheme, I had crazy hopes to run it with him, as well, but we were scheduled to have other plans for the 4th this year, so I couldn’t commit.
Now, this race is so ginormous that you have to enter a lottery to even get a participation slot, so it wasn’t a sure thing that the idea would come to fruition.
But older bro entered, he won a spot, he trained, and hilariously, our previous 4th of July plans didn’t work out, so...here we are!
As things have just been HEINOUS this year for our family (see every past post discussing our move and its collateral damage, ha), we knew this was probably our one-cost shot at an official vacay this summer, so instead of just flying out myself to cheer on older bro, we decided to turn it into our family trip.
And others joined in, too.
Beyond my siblings and mother (known exclusively on this here blog as Nanna), we’ve got Nanna’s sister, husband and two of their sons, and one of older bro’s dearest friends. A whole gang of lucky 13. :)
My crew of five arrived last night, and by early morning today, everybody else was in the city, as well.
Now, the only other important piece of background information to note: I’m apparently physically incapable of calling it “Atlanta.” It must be HOTLANTA (usually, in caps). I don’t know why. I wish I did. Though I don’t question it too overly much, because it just feels right.
I think part of it stems from my professional years back in the day, when we frequently conducted focus groups in the city, and it was always HOTLANTA for my co-workers and I back then.
Also. Let’s face it. It’s HOT.
Especially during July.
And especially tomorrow, when there’s a heat advisory for the race—oye.
But that, we shall worry about mañana.
For today...air conditioning it was, during a trip to the Georgia Aquarium (that was coolio, but CRAZY crowded and busy!).
Now...more throughout the week as we spend a couple days here, and then my crew of five continues on to a lake an hour or two outside the city.
But as usual with trips, except a lot o’ pics but not a lot o’ time spent on words. :)
Happy 4th of July week, peeps!
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