Not Dangerous In The Least

I've always told my children and my students to be careful about meeting people from the Internet.  Although I haven't always followed my own advice, I usually brought my husband along so I wouldn't be alone when I met bloggers from distant cities, like Rick and Ricochet.

Today I threw caution to the wind and set out to meet Ms. Cookie, a math teacher and a fellow blogger visiting NY from Texas.  Luckily, Ms. Cookie was everything she claimed to be and the only danger presented was that of sore legs from the long walk we  took, starting at 87th and Broadway, through Riverside Park, to the brand new Yotel, High Line Park, pizza at Ray's, Madison Square Park and then back up town.  Many of these places were new to both of us.  (More pictures posted here.)

It was a wonderful day.  The kids in Texas are lucky to have such a great, caring teacher and I'm happy to have made a new friend.

In the future, I hope to keep up this reckless behavior and meet more of my Internet friends.

Blogging Buddies

I love taking trips. As long as I am healthy enough to keep traveling, nothing is going to hold me back. I love visiting cities I have been to before and I love visiting new places. This is my first trip to Atlanta and I am in love with this big little city. There might not be as much to do here as there is in New York, but that doesn't matter. The subway system is fantastic. For $9.00, we were able to buy two round trip tickets from the airport to our hotel. The people are the nicest people I have ever met. Everyone has been extremely helpful. There was never a shortage of people to direct us to the right trains and to our hotel. A homeless man even helped us find the hotel and offered to carry our suitcases.

We don't like to let any grass grow under our feet, so the first day we visited CNN and Coca Cola. Both were interesting and surprisingly worth the money. We also saw Olympic Park, the site of the 1996 Olympics. This morning we hit the Aquarium which is probably the best aquarium I have ever visited. While these places are must on any trip to Atlanta, the highlight of my trip came this afternoon at 3:00. That is when Mr. and Mrs. Ricochet showed up at our hotel. When I saw Mrs. Ricochet exit a bright red car, it was love at first sight.

Mr. and Mrs. Ricochet live about 45 minutes north of Atlanta and graciously drove down to Atlanta to spend the afternoon with Mr. POd and myself. They picked us up at their hotel and then drove over to Georgia Tech to show us around the campus. As an added bonus, son Ricochet decided to join us. He has to be one of the most charming, handsome and intelligent boys I have ever met. Son Ricochet was worried about his parents going out with people they met on the Internet so he decided to hang around and chaperon. He ended up giving us a wonderful tour of the campus, complete with historical anecdotes and personal references. We completed our day with dinner at the Vortex Bar and Grill, a place recently featured on the television show Man Vs. Food.

It is funny how blogging and friendships seem to go together. When I meet my fellow bloggers, I feel like I am meeting someone I have known for years. Ricochet is exactly as I imagined her to be. I'm honored that she and her family chose to spend the day with us. I only wish there weren't so many miles between us so we could get to spend more time together.

I am looking forward to meeting many of the other people who have been my online friends for years and to making them more than just online friends.