Screen On The Green

Today was a great day! We decided to go to downtown Atlanta to check out Centennial Park (where Georgia hosted the 1996 summer Olympics). We knew there was a movie showing outdoors at sunset (around 9:15 pm). It's called Screen On The Green, and tonight they were showing “Footloose”. We tried to get there early to have enough time to find a parking spot for Bella (very important) and to check out the town.

We took a walk around the park and then went off exploring. It was a hot and sticky southern day. We had brought a mojito in a water bottle, to help us through it. As we were walking Bernie spotted a tall, round shaped building and wanted to know if there would be a restaurant at the top.

We made our way to the round building and found out it is a Westin Hotel and they do have a revolving restaurant on the 72nd floor. Well, of course we just had to check it out but … they have a very strict dress code and to say the least, we didn’t meet it …. They allow no shorts, tank tops, or flip flops. We were out on every count …

But Mar wasn’t worried, she knew that if anyone could get us in, it would be Bernie, for sure. So we found out we could go up and have a light dinner at the bar, which was on a different floor, so we were escorted up. When we get up there, Bernie talked to anyone she could, she even had the hostess looking for pants or jackets they could lend us but they had none … and guess what? Bernie did it. She got us in the restaurant by talking to the manager, who said she would make an exception for us because (and I quote:) we were nice :-)

We sat in Mike’s section. Mike was one of the people Bernie had met while we were trying to get a table. If you are ever in Atlanta and decide to go to this restaurant, ask for Mike to be your server. He was awesome. The food was absolutely incredible and we got to see all of Atlanta, and beyond, as the restaurant went around. Pretty amazing.

We were feeling adventurous so decided to try something we wouldn’t normally try. Everywhere we have been to in Georgia, we kept seeing the dish “shrimp and grits” and decided to finally give it a try. We had shrimp and grits for our appetizer, and have to say we were pleasantly surprised, it was very good.

After an amazing dinner experience we left with full bellies and happy hearts, and headed back to the park to watch the movie on the lawn. Bernie had never seen this movie but Mar saw it when it first came out (yes, a looooooong time ago).

Centennial Park was packed. There had to be over a thousand people there to watch the movie, everyone sitting on blankets with their picnics. Right before the movie started, the DJ had everyone get up to do the electric slide. That was fun, hundreds of people all doing the electric slide together. Then it was time for the movie to start. You have to know that watching a movie outdoors with that many people is truly a unique experience. You could hear the whole crowd boo, cheer, or clap, which made the movie so much more fun. It was a great way to experience a movie. At the end of the movie, when Kevin Bacon and all the other kids are at the school dance and they’re playing the final song, everyone in the park got up again and started to dance to Footloose. Very cool!

Then back in Bella we remembered that Bernie has a membership at L.A.Fitness which means we can shower there. Yeah!!! So that’s was our next destination.