{"id":237,"date":"2009-04-06T09:56:48","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T16:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lastgreatroadtrip.net\/?p=237"},"modified":"2009-04-10T10:33:35","modified_gmt":"2009-04-10T17:33:35","slug":"picks-and-pans-athens-atlanta-ga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lastgreatroadtrip.net\/?p=237","title":{"rendered":"Picks and Pans – Athens & Atlanta, GA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Athens is a cool little college town with a music scene recommended by the drummer of the rockin’ funk bank, Entropy, that we saw in Boone. Looks like it has some interesting art scene, but all the exhibitions were in transition while we were in town.<\/p>\n

Atlanta is a funky city (Entropy is from Atlanta!), though we didn’t sample much on this trip. Too bad it is sooo steeped in car culture or we’d have more desire to check it out more seriously.<\/p>\n

PICKS:
\n<\/strong>283 Bar<\/a> in Athens<\/p>\n

We sat down for a beer and ended up meeting Dan, one of the bar’s owners. There was also a DJ later that night, who was probably quite good given the way the bar was filling up as we finished our drinks, but Sean and I were a little too road weary to make it to the midnight start time.<\/div>\n

Jittery Joe’s Coffee<\/a> in Athens<\/p>\n

They roast their own coffee and serve it up at this local joint. We had a great time getting caught up on our website while the Georgia spring winds blew through the window and, if we didn’t need the electrical outlets, we sure would have headed out to their big porch to sit a spell.<\/div>\n

Weaver D’s<\/a> in Athens<\/p>\n

Their enigmatic sign proclaims “Automatic for the People” and this soul food kitchen is such a Athens classic that R.E.M. (Stipe is an Athens native) enshrined it with one of their album titles. My fried catfish, biscuit, collard greens and mac was perfect, but so filling I had to enlist Sean to help me finish it.<\/div>\n

State Botanical Garden of Georgia<\/a><\/p>\n

Because all the galleries we wanted to visit were between exhibits, we drove over to the Botanical Gardens and managed to while away several hours strolling around the grounds. While there we also saw some really cool “nature sculptures” by Susan Carlton Smith.<\/div>\n

DeKalb Farmer’s Market<\/a><\/p>\n

Audra and Powell introduced us to this amazing Atlanta market. You can get almost any kind of farm fresh produce you can imagine as well as seafood, meat, cheese, bread (well, basically anything you would want of the food or drink variety) at this enormous place.<\/div>\n

Stone Mountain<\/a><\/p>\n

The hike up the granite face of Stone Mountain was super fun, but it was the view from our trek around the peak that was the highlight.<\/div>\n

Harriet Tubman Museum<\/a> in Macon, GA<\/p>\n

Neat little museum on black history. Sean’s fav part was the “inventions” room. Who knew the traffic light, the lunch box, and the gas mask were all invented by African Americans? Thanks for the tip, Michael, Judith & Teddy!<\/div>\n

PANS:<\/strong>
\nSean and Erica’s pathetic lack of energy<\/p>\n

While in Athens and Atlanta, our high energy, immersion-style travels finally caught up with us. As a result, our Athens\/Atlanta activities were but a paltry sampling of all the things we could have done. Athens seems to have a great live music scene that we just didn’t have the energy to partake in and Atlanta could have certainly kept us entertained for days. We did, however, have a great time hanging out with the Norris-Jacob clan in Atlanta and managed to catch up on our sleep. We’re still finding a balance to get all that we can from our journey and still find the time for rest and maybe even a little relaxation.<\/div>\n