Welcome To Atlanta, Where The Players Play
If I may steal a line from Ludacris, “Welcome to Atlanta, where the players play”, and this week on the NGA Hooters Tour the players are playing at Royal Lakes Golf and Country Club in Flowery Branch, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. For those not in the know, Atlanta is famous for having the world’s busiest airport and the countries’ second-worst traffic. Fortunately that’s the worst of the news, and I can attest to Atlanta being a great place to live as I have made the south’s biggest city my adopted home for the last 2 years.
I really enjoy living in Atlanta. Many cannot stand the traffic issues that plague Interstates 75, 85, 20 and the ubiquitous 285 which seems to be in a permanent state of congestion. But as a golfer I don’t have to be in traffic during rush hour so I find it a fine city to rest my head. Although I haven’t been in the city long I have discovered a few cool places to spend both time and money and I thought I’d share a couple with you.
1. Buckhead- The affluent, centrally located suburb sits just Northeast of downtown and is home to a variety of shops, restaurants, upscale malls and my former favorite watering hole, Fados. Before recent renovations Fados was an authentic Irish bar with cool low ceilings, good beer and dark, intriguing corners. It was moved to a new location just off Peachtree St. (one of approximately 257 streets in Atlanta that feature the name “Peachtree”) a little over a year ago and morphed into a 3 story monster complete with faux Irish decorations. Luckily the good beer remained, and
Fados is still a great place to spend a Saturday night, or if you feel so inclined, a quiet Sunday afternoon.
2. Virginia Highlands- The Highlands is the hipster section of Atlanta and has a great collection of second-hand boutiques, restaurants and my favorite record store in Atlanta, Criminal Records. For those, audiophiles out there who still purchase their music physically, Criminal has a phenomenal selection of new and used vinyl and CDs and a very knowledgeable staff. Their $1 used record section is a particular gold mine, especially if you’re looking for that lost Steely Dan record to complete the discography.
3. Downtown- The downtown section of Atlanta is a great place to spend some time with several tourist attractions worth a look. Atlanta was the host of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games and Centennial Olympic Park is a expansive, green homage to that fact. The Atlanta Braves, Hawks Thrashers and Falcons also make their homes downtown, with all but the Braves making their home next to Olympic Park. Located adjacent to Olympic Park is the World of Coca-Cola, a museum and entertainment exhibit that takes you on a fascinating tour of the history Coke and its journey from a small Georgia soda company to it’s current state of global domination. Directly across the park from the World of Coke is the Georgia Aquarium, which was opened in November 2005. Billed as the “world’s largest” aquarium, it is home to more than 100,000 animals enclosed in 8.1 million gallons of water. If you go, be sure to check out the 3 beluga whales, none of which are named Nemo.
There are plenty of other sites to see in Hotlanta, so be sure to catch me this week and let me know what your favorites are. See you out there.
Nick