July 4th 2011 - Atlanta: Turner Field, Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum, and Woodfire Grill

The weekend of July 4^th, we hopped in the car and headed toward Atlanta hoping to cross off another ball park, see a dear friend, and check out a Top Chef restaurant. Our first stop en route had to be the World’s Largest Peanut Monument. It was pretty exciting and large.

We decided our first stop in Atlanta would be the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. I had never been to a Presidential Library before so I was pretty excited. I checked Yelp! For a good place for lunch and we ended up at Highland Bakery. Our brunch was fantastic! I had the corn cakes and Glenn had an Egg BLT. Great way to start our day in Atlanta.

We headed over to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. I was really impressed. It was a great recap of Carter’s Presidency. The recreation of the Oval Office was fun.

The Iran hostage crisis was handled even-handedly – the exhibit addressed the controversy that Carter recreated by not taking more aggressive by focusing on Carter’s focus on diplomacy. The exhibit detailing the Israli and Egypt peace talks gave a behind the scenes look at the process and how Carter was able to secure the peace. The most interesting part of Carter’s legacy was his work with the Carter Center securing free and fair elections across the globe. Many years ago , I applied for an internship at the Carter Center because I was so impressed with his work. I didn’t have the international chops to make the cut, but I have been very interested in the work every since.

Next stop was
the Martin Luther King Jr. National Monument. Sitting in the pews of Ebenezer Baptist Church where King gave his famous sermons was very moving. The Historic Center detailing King’s life is a great mix of press coverage, archived speeches and his writings.

After the King Center, we set out in search of a local brewery. We wove our way to Sweetwater Brewing – a difficult place to find – only to be turned away 45 minutes after it opened because the maximum capacity had already been reached. Second choice was Red Brick Brewing– another hidden gem.  Pulling up, it looked like a fun block party. We went in, but were disappointed when almost all the beers were already tapped out. I did have a couple pints of Laughing Skull – a slightly hoppy Brown Ale.

We headed to the hotel and then prepared for dinner at Woodfire Grill – the restaurant of Top Chef contestant Kevin Gillespie. He was having a special BBQ dinner for the Holiday. The highlight of the evening for me was the Farmers’ Daughter Cocktail – a refreshing mix of cucumber, ginger, mint and vodka.  

The meal started with a spring veggie salad,  then a great BBQ plate, and finished with a berry cobbler.

After dinner, we headed over to Top Chef contestant Richard Blais’s Flip Burger for their famous milkshakes. I tried the S’more nutella and Glenn tried the peanut butter Capt’n Crunch.

Both were very good milkshakes – lots of intense flavors. The evening ended as we searched for a local bar with local beers on tap – and failed. We ended up at the chain restaurant across from our hotel.

Day 2 – We set out to see Centennial Park. But it was CLOSED!

We were totally befuddled. I understand they were setting up for an event on the 4^th – but to close the whole park on the 3^rdjust seemed crazy.  After the trouble finding local beer the day before and this, we were starting to think Atlanta was mad at us. We walked over to the plaza between the Aquarium and Coca-Cola World  to check out the dolphins and the gift shop.

We drove through downtown to get to Turner Field for the Braves game. Turner Field is fantastic. One of our favorite parks so far. We got all-u-can-eat seats – a terrific private section on the club level that only had 20 people the day we went. Great views of the field and great ball park food.

After the game, we headed to a dear friend’s house so I could meet her daughter. Her husband is a chef so we filled up on good eats and then headed back to the hotel.

Monday we headed back toward Tampa. On the way we stopped at Ichetucknee Springs to go tubing. Ichetucknee is a cool water spring that feeds a local river. We rented tubes and took the lazy route down the river. It was a perfect day – hot enough that the cold water felt refreshing.

t was a great stop to break up the drive home. We ended our culinary aventure at the good old Steak-N-Shake.

Overall, we had a great weekend loved Turner Field. However, I don’t think we will be headed back to Atlanta any time soon. The city was hard to navigate and required a level of pre-planning that we usually do not like to do.