This past Saturday, we used our groupon for a biplane ride over Atlanta and Stone Mountain. Taking pictures was a bit more difficult–tight quarters, open cockpit, just general scariness…than it was during our recent helicopter flight.

We took off from Peachtree Dekalb Airport, did some sharp banks over Atlanta…which were a bit scary for me, headed toward’s Stone Mountain, where we attacked some balloons someone had let loose..at about 1200 feet at going 100 miles an hour…and won!

Unfortunately, My Tracks on my Android phone didn’t work correctly–I wasn’t able to record our flight path.

After the ride, we had lunch at the 57th fighter group, where we watched our plane, and several others, take off. We also spotted the helicopter that we flew in last week taking off.

So, if you’re looking to experience a thrilling ride, check out the folks at Biplane Atlanta!

BiPlane

Last year we bought a groupon…a discounted helicopter tour of Atlanta, from Air Atlanta Helicopters, through groupon.com

Helicopter

Earlier this year, I finally made a reservation. Not to be outdone by all the other procrastination efforts I’ve undertaken, this one expires March, so it had to be sooner rather than later.

We made it to the W around 4PM. Our reservation was at 5PM, so we opted to take in some liquid encouragement prior to the flight. Our Ciroc vodka martinis were the industry standard $12 a piece…although, they were served in rather small glasses. I’m guessing two shots rather than the at-home-standard three-shot vodka martini that we’re normally used to. 🙂

After finishing our drink, yet still 30 minutes prior to our reservation, we walked to the welcome desk. Not sure what to expect….we told the concierge were there for a helicopter ride, and he pointed to our Air Atlanta escort who took us to the elevator, and pressed the impressive “H” elevator button. We were whisked past the 27th floor…the elevator doors opened, and our escort directed us out the building onto the rooftop…”go up there to the helicopter, and I’ll meet you back here when you return.”

Slightly taken aback, we walked up the metal stairs to the chopping noise of the helicopter’s churning blades…there it was…a tiny little red helicopter. We were greeted by Kevin who welcomed us. He let us know that we didn’t have to duck walking to the helicopter (no chance of getting the top of our heads lopped off), and cautioned us to avoid walking too far towards the end of the copter (where we might get chopped up by the tail rotor blade) as he took our picture. Kevin helped us climb aboard the helicopter, get strapped in, and waved as we took off.

Our pilot, Scott, was very calm, even when his door opened up as we took off. He was very nonchalant, waiting until we were well into the air with nothing beneath us before he reached over to shut his door. Not scared. Not at all.

Piedmont park was our first spot…we banked over the park before heading to Atlantic Station. From there, we were whisked off to Centennial Olympic Park, where we flew over the Georgia Aquarium. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any beluga whales through the skylights—maybe next time. We looped towards the Georgia Dome, making our way towards Turner Field, where we banked with a nice view directly onto the field.

We followed I-85/75 heading back towards Atlantic Station, making the loop back to the rooftop of the W.

Awesome.

Groupon.com offered a deal…1/2 off skeet shooting. All you have to do is show up, hand over some money, and they’ll give you a 12- or 20-gauge shotgut, along with 25 shells. And you then get to go shoot things that fly out of a box.

Scared? You should be. Most of us knew nothing about shooting these things. There were no injuries to report. Thankfully!

Only a few pix here, but also two videos, one of Kevin, and one of Maria. Enjoy!

Skeet Shooting

HalfOffDepot.com was offering half-price ice skating and skate rentals at the Rink at Park Tavern. Here’s an album from one of our last excursions there.

Ice Skating

Some pix of our Christmas Holiday, at Kevin’s parents. We played pin-the-nose-on-rudolph, had a gag-gift exchange, and tried to open the “secret” gift with gloves…

Christmas

So, someone was complaining that it was taking tooooooo long for me to post pictures of various events. Yes, I do tend to want to have things perfect–my digital workflow is very involved:

1. Download images from camera/phone/whatever
2. Remove useless images (out of focus, too under exposed, accidents, etc.)
3. Tag photos with keywords
4. crop, adjust colors, etc.
5. Create a photo album for the web/print

There’s a few more things involved, but either way, there’s a lot of work.

So, to help quiet all those pesky voices: I’ve uploaded UNPROCESSED PHOTOS…yes…I would typically not do this. So I named that album “Quick Pix” for all those that ain’t been processed yet…

Here you go, impatient peeps!  🙂

Quick Pix

Back in October, the scarecrows were back at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Kevin and I visited the garden on one of the Thursday evenings when the garden is open late, for music, beer, and cocktails.

scarecrows