Atlanta: Street Art, Street Food and Coke World

 Since school started up again on Friday we decided to have one last hurrah! before getting back into a routine. We headed up to Atlanta to finally see the city, scope out some street art and visit the World of Coke. Here is Henry on the drive in, bored of his books and eating his shoe velcro. The funny thing is that he was moving his leg around to the music in a kind of weird dance.

 We stopped to eat on the street right outside Atlanta Underground. Steve and I are huge street food people and I looked some up before our trip. Atlanta has a Street Food Coalition that moves around the city daily with multiple locations and vendors. We ate at Blaxican, mexican southern fusion. We had bbq steak tacos and jalapeno mac and cheese. Very good.

 We have been saving our Coke points and got 2 free tickets to Coke World.

 We were able to get our picture with the polar bear but Henry wouldn't get close unless I held him.

There was a Pop Culture Art room with a couple of cool pieces inspired by and modeled after coke and its branding. And a huge wall of the Santa Claus ad campaign memorabilia. Most of the other exhibits, a real bottling plant, the Vault which houses the Coke secret recipe and a history museum were okay but with a stroller and a two year old and only a moderate interest in the history of Coke, they weren't worth the effort besides a walk through. There was also a 4D movie experience but 3D makes both Steve and I sick so 4D wasn't going to happen.

The "Taste It" exhibit was the best one and we saved it for last. With over 60 sodas from around the world to sample, it was a little overwhelming and a little disgusting too. I had been warned against Beverly a battery acid type drink from Italy so I steered clear and was careful to only really taste the flavors that came with a description. Most of the fruity ones were good but since I am not used to drinking sugar, it was too much and some kids tricked me into trying one from Africa called Stoney. They said they had tried it and it was good, it wasn't. Touche. I ended the day with a nice tall Diet Coke. Ahh, the familiar.

After making our way outside, Henry needed some run around time. This field was the perfect place for him to let out some wiggles and he even managed to find a big rock to throw around. He would not cooperate for one last picture but that is okay. Overall I enjoyed our trip but I am glad we got in for free since I don't think it would have been worth $16 each. After Coke World we headed to Forsyth Fabrics for me and Henry napped in the car while Steve read and waited.

Throughout our travels through the city we stopped to see a couple of murals Steve had looked up. Atlanta was host to Living Walls, a street art symposium in 2011, so the city is alive with art. We had a couple of addresses for the bigger murals but were pleasantly surprised to stumble upon many other pieces. It was kind of exhilarating.

This installation was one of my favorites, its just brightly colored paper plates combined in an organic growth type way with mesh fabric. I like that they look like they are growing out of the building.

I love this alligator one too. It is so fascinating to me that this work is just in these crappy neighborhoods and people live among it. If you are interested in more about these artists, Steve looked them all up and has links on his blog, here.