Happy birthday, Sheila!

A selfie at the fairgrounds

Tomorrow is Sheila's birthday, so our youngest organized a fun day for her today to celebrate. We met about halfway between Decatur and Rome at a "tasting" festival at the Cobb County fairgrounds in Marietta. We walked around and tried food from several vendors somehow ending up with several Caribean dishes including a jerk chicken & rice plate, jerk chicken tacos, fried plantains, and chicken-stuffed arepas.

Then we headed to an interesting game shop. About half of the shop is lined with tables and chairs where patrons are welcomed to bring their own board games. Lillian and Jordan have a new game they wanted to teach us, Dice Forge. We had a ball with this complicated strategy game that involved dice with interchangeable faces and a variety of cards, tokens, markers, etc. It is a wonderfully designed game which keeps all players involved through each of their fellow players' turns. Jordan won; Lillian was close behind; Sheila came next; and, yes, I was dead last. But I had a great time.

Playing Dice Forge

From there we drove to the quaint downtown of Kennesaw to the Frozen Cow Creamery. Despite having to wait in a long line on this hot July day, what a treat! Sheila and I each had a big cup of "Turtle" - coffee ice cream with fudge, caramel, and pecans! The ingredients are mixed in front of you in liquid cream in a stainless steel bowl then flash frozen by super cold clouds of nitrogen.

There was a long line a Frozen Cow Creamery.

There is no way this beautiful woman is a septuagenarian!

The crew of young folks freezing and mixing the ice cream were hard a work for the whole time. 

First they mix the ingredients in a stainless steel bowl...

...then they flash freeze the cream mixture with a blast of super cold nitrogen.

The result was delicious.

Many to the homes in this area of Kennesaw have been remodeled into businesses: the ice cream shop, coffee shops, restaurants, etc. 

The Frozen Cow Creamery is in an old home.

A neighboring old home is a coffee shop.

The Nest barbecue restaurant is located in two remodeled old homes joined by a single shared long porch and a large covered patio between the two.

A old former church building has been converted to an event space. It would make a great storytelling venue! 

This picture shows the proximity of the Creamery to the church.

During our walk we found a painted rock on a public bench. We photographed ourselves with the rock to share on "Kennesaw Rocks" ... 

...then relocated the rock to a branch of a nearby tree.

After a thirty minute walk'n'talk around the neighborhood we said our goodbyes and headed home in opposite directions. A great day.

Gleaning Facebook: An Excursion to Summerhill

\Sheila and I made our first venture out of town since the first week of March.

Now before I discuss the hedonistic abandon of today, I must emphasize that Weight Watchers just sent me a special charm to celebrate the fact that I had reached my original weight loss goal.

Our trip was to see -- using face masks and/or social distancing -- our baby girl, Lillian.

As soon as we reached her apartment we headed to Big Softie for unbelievably scrumptious softserve ice-cream. I splurged on a huge waffle cone filled with swirled strawberry and green tea sherbet coated with a layer of delectable chocolate. Oh, my! We took our treats back to Lillian's deck to enjoy them with some good conversation.

On the street near Big Softie.

How many Weight Watchers points are in this picture?

We ate on the little back deck of the apartment that Lil shares with two other women. The deck is shaered with one other of the four apartments in the little structure in Summerhill.

Having devoured our dessert first, we crossed the street again to Woods Chapel BBQ to further indulge our culinary passions with huge pulled pork sandwiches on fresh toasted and buttered buns served with thick jalapeno potato chips... AND since we were her last customers of the day the manager threw in two generous slces of bourbon chocolate pecan pie and a large cup of "Frosé" for us to share. Oh, my!

I highly recommend Wood's Chapel BBQ. Delicious. 

Back to the deck for supper. 

We took a 30 minute walk in the beautiful Summerhill and Grant Park neighborhoods to assauge our consciences before we said our goodbyes and got on the road back to Rome just before the 9 p.m. curfew.

Our walk up Georgia Avenue from Summerhill into the adjacent neighborhood of Grant Park illustrated the gentrification of this area that Evan Ross talks about in his comment to this post. Though we enjoy the beauty of these beautifully redecorated and updated homes, -- in easy walking distance of the former Turner Field --we must also mourn the loss of the neighborhoods that predated these. Most of the folks who once lived in this area likely could not afford these houses now.
In major city after major city ordinary workers have been priced out of homes there. We must find a way to restore affordable housing for those who work in cities. One step in the right direction would be to find ways to reduce and reverse the extreme redistribution of wealth toward the already wealthy. In this wealthy republic very full time worker should have a comfortable income. 

I may have consumed more Weight Watchers points today than on any other day (excluding Fourth of July) since I joined WW.