April can be pretty cool. You never know. It snowed on April 5 about 20 years ago, and the official frostfree date is April 15. I've been going to the Inman Park Festival, on the last weekend in April, almost every year for the last 10 years, and it was in the 40s for at least half of those. The maximum would be the low 80s, but the more likely is between 50 and 75. (Your Global Warming May Vary)

Flea, the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, which are lovely at that time of year, has a children's garden where Casper, at least, can do things like crawl through a caterpillar. They're only a few miles away.

Also, did I mention that the hotel allows pets?

Atlanta's zoo is pretty awesome, too. And there's always the Coca Cola museum (no, seriously - it's fun).

ND, Victor, Lea, and I can't come if it's the weekend of the 14th, but obviously if that weekend works best for the majority, you should go for that.

I agree final four weekend and Easter weekend would be madness. I'd be good with offsite Prom if we could swing March 24th. If we start looking later (late April into May), it would really depend on the weekend. What is Atlanta typically like in March/April/May? At what point would it be too hot to be practical?

Coffee:

I should add, Ginger, that having been on the cat-herding side of getting the hotel and date wrangled, I know how frustrating we Buffistas can be. I apologize in advance for making your life more difficult. I just also don't want you to deal with the situation that arose in New Orleans, when we only had about 25 people and were scrambling for funds.

I voted "probably" in the poll, but I really meant "maybe", because I just don't know at this point, but my not knowing isn't really contingent on the date.

Later in April and into mid May should be fine in Atlanta, IMO. I really think we should open up the date discussion again.

Weather dot com: Pleasant springtime conditions arrive early for Atlantans. Average afternoon temperatures rise from the mid-60s in early March to the low 80s by the time May comes to a close. Chilly mornings in the low 40s are common early in the season, and freezes have occurred as late as April. Average rainfall in March exceeds 5 inches, but April and May are normally drier.

I just got Melissa back on the phone. We could also have the weekends of:

April 20

April 27 (Inman Park Festival. Lots of fun, lots more traffic)

May 4

After that, you get into graduations and heat. Should I run a poll among all four dates?

I think that would be good. It sounds like the later dates have more potential for larger numbers of people.

April 27 (Inman Park Festival. Lots of fun, lots more traffic)

eh, I think that traffic shouldn't be a serious consideration. Traffic in Atlanta blows chunks wherever you go.