The Vent Guy!

The li’l woman and I spent a long weekend in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Even though I have spent plenty of time in the South, it was my first trip to Georgia. We went to visit our friends Laura and Jared and their kids, who live in Decatur. Some of the things we did/saw:

The World of Coke – What a racket! Adult admission is $9 for what is, essentially, a big commercial. Actually, the history was pretty interesting (though no mention was made of the fact that Coca-Cola originally had cocaine in it), and we enjoyed seeing all of the old print ads. Felix, the 6-year-old who was also in attendance, was about to burst waiting for us to be done in those areas – “Do you think this stuff is cool? Do you like that picture?” he asked us impatiently. He was, of course, anxious to go to the tasting rooms. You can try all of the beverages that Coke makes, even those only available overseas. We stuck with trying the overseas variety – the ginger beer was good. The Italian drink, called Bitters Aspertif or something like that, was what I’d imagine carbonated cesspool water would taste like. Yuck! We all left the World of Coke feeling a bit sick from the carbonation sitting in our stomachs, and I think the bottoms of my shoes were sticky from the tasting room.

Zoo Atlanta – We didn’t get to spend as much time here as I would have liked to. It’s a pretty nice zoo, from what we saw, although the reptile house could use some updating. (In the reptile house there was an exhibit that read "Most Dangerous Animal on the Planet." I looked in, and there was a freaking mirror! Ohmydeargod, that totally blew my mind! hardy har har….) The big attraction (and no doubt the cause of the steep admission) was the panda exhibit. I had never seen pandas before, so I really enjoyed that. They also have a great gorilla habitat.

Grub – We had a terrific dinner at Dusty’s Barbeque – great food in this little spot. I enjoyed my ‘cue while sipping a Cheerwine, a local soda that tastes a bit like cherry mixed with Dr. Pepper. We also had a great breakfast at the Flying Biscuit Café, a funky little spot in the cool old Candler Park area. I am now a fan of cheese grits.

Record Stores – I only made it to two stores to do a little vinyl digging. Wax N’ Facts is a packed store in the bohemian Little 5 Points neighborhood, I found a few goodies there. I also enjoyed browsing at Wuxtry Records, a nice little store in a strip mall in Decatur. Maybe I can make it to their Athens location next time.

The Vent – A column in the local paper, in which people call or email in asinine observations about life in Atlanta and local issues. A virtual soapbox for anonymous morons! They even refer to the moderator of this column as “the Vent Guy.” If I ever move to Atlanta, it will be my goal to become “the Vent Guy.” I honestly think I’m enough of an idiot to take on this role.

We enjoyed driving through some of the older neighborhoods; some of those old houses were beautiful. We also got caught in an amazing thunderstorm, and saw lightning strike a transformer maybe 300 feet from the car – the flash was incredible! Overall, we had a good time checking out a new city with our friends. Big thanks and hugs to Laura, Jared, Felix, Vivian, Emma, Buick, Linus, and Godzilla for their hospitality and opening their home to us!