5. Environment

Before we had a dog (and kids, but the dog came first), Dave and I made a habit of visiting obscure festivals in random locations or just taking off for a weekend to explore a different city. Sometimes, we'd just get in the car and drive on all the back roads we could find in the surrounding counties. We like to find neat things in out of the way places and just enjoy each other's company in the car. That mostly ended with the dog because we couldn't just up and leave for a few days without making arrangements for her. Then the kids came along and Ella hated riding in the car so much that we hated it, too, so we don't do very much exploring anymore.

We went to Atlanta this past weekend for the roller coasters, but we decided to wander around the city before driving home Monday morning. We just recently watched an episode of House Hunters where a guy bought a house in the Virginia Highland neighborhood and we got it in our heads to go see about it. (While we were creeping through the streets in awe of those big, old houses, I wondered aloud if the residents get tired of people gawking through their neighborhood all the time. Dave quickly reminded me that most people aren't like us, religiously watching House Hunters every night and then stalking the locations that are near us. I couldn't disagree.)  As we drove around, we happened upon the Jimmie Carter Presidential Library, and having never seen a presidential library before, we decided to stop. The grounds were green and beautiful, so I took some pictures thinking that they would fit nicely with the day five topic of "environment". We decided not to pay the $8 to walk through the museum, instead we settled for peeking through the windows and strolling around the gardens. It made me wish I had brought my big camera, but I made do with the iPhone.

We found a large goose feather for Ella and saw a flock of not-quite-baby-anymore geese. There were also ducks and very large coy in a little pond. It was a nice stroll around the grounds and on the way to IKEA afterward, I was thinking up some things to write about "environment" and democratic presidents and my indoctrination into green-thinking in elementary school with Auntie Litter's visit to teach us about recycling and the scene in our 5th grade play that included the song Pass It On Down by Alabama - as if I need to justify or explain how I came to think the way I do about the environment.

Then, I walked up to the hand dryer in the bathroom at IKEA and read this sign, and I knew I'd found my photo for day 5.

It's blurry because someone came out of a stall just as I was
snapping this picture and I was trying to hurry and
not look like a complete weirdo. Ahem.

Also, I love IKEA. Dave loved it, too. If we'd driven the Pilot to Atlanta, we probably would have come home with a load. We will go back.