Awestruck in Athens

I had a wonderful day in Athens today. Of course wonderful days in Athens are pretty easy to come by:-) It was a beautiful, rainy day.



After I got some school stuff out of the way I headed downtown to eat at my favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Spoon. The Garlic Pepper Chicken was as good as always. I had forgotten that I get a spring roll with this awesome carrot ginger sauce! YUM
Here, check out their menu.

http://www.allmenus.com/ga/athens/219359-thai-spoon/menu/

By the end of lunch, the sun had come out and it was that fabulous, sunny with clouds breaking fresh puddles great feeling out. I walked to Walkers to grab a cup of tea. This is one of the tops coffee houses/pubs around.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/walkers-pub-athens

Then it was back to South Campus, Miller Plant Science Building, at the UGA College of Environmental Sciences

http://www.caes.uga.edu/

I had an appointment to catch up with Dr. Smalley. I was getting very nostalgic being back in Miller - it had been a while. I got a good chuckle at noticing the new desks in the classrooms. They are so modern and a far cry from the archaic desks I sat in.

I love Dr. Smalley. He was my adviser and will be a friend of mine forever. He is a gifted horticulturist and teacher, and we always laugh alot chatting.
Make sure to check out the award winning documentary his son made, Darius Goes West.
http://www.dariusgoeswest.org/

Then I managed to catch Dr. Armitage which was a total surprise and sheer luck on my part. I hadn't seen him in years and it was nice to catch up. He is a Horticultural living legend.

Since the rain had passed I walked on over to the UGA Trial Gardens.
http://ugatrial.hort.uga.edu/

It is beautiful as always. I took lots and lots of pictures. There are so many awesome plants there. Since they built the new Pharmacy building they have added a whole new section to the garden (well, that is after they removed all the greenhouses to make room for the Pharmacy building, least they could do is leave a little are for plants), a Rose garden area. The roses looked amazing for only having been there for a few years (ie. they weren't there when I was a student).

It was hard for me to leave. That was until I found myself unknowingly standing in a fire ant pile while trying to capture a good shot.

The Trial Gardens are such a peaceful place and there are so many specimens on display. I am glad I was able to collect these photos to share. I've put them together in a slide show for you to enjoy.



As I was approaching town I could see the cloud line ahead and driving down Riverwatch Parkway it started to rain again. A full rainbow appeared just as I was reaching town. It was gorgeous. A great end to a great trip.

I've been so thankful for the perfect rain we have had the last two days. We really did need it.