Atlanta with Kids: The Best Things in Life are Still Free

            The kids are out of school, and if you've never taken them to Atlanta, this summer might be a good time to do it.  The following piece is based on a trip we took to the Georgia capital in July 2011.

We had just finished our tour of the childhood home of Martin Luther King, Jr., located in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood, when 11-year-old Sophia turned to me and said, “Wow, that’s the best thing we’ve done in Atlanta.”

An hour earlier, she and her 10-year-old brother, Andy, had been less enthusiastic.  In fact, they had staged a near mutiny on the short walk from the subway station to the King Historic District, saying they hated historic sites and that they had already learned all there was to know about the late civil rights leader in school.

Ah, the pleasures of traveling with tweens.

The kids had been to Atlanta once before, but they hadn’t seen much more than the zoo.

Now we were back for two days—and in addition to the King Center, I hoped to visit some of the tourist spots the kids wanted to see, as well as eat some kid-friendly food.  Because Atlanta is so large, I confined our visit to the downtown and Midtown areas.

Both my kids were excited about the trip—Sophia, because she likes big cities, and Andy, because he couldn’t wait to play in the Centennial Olympic Park fountain, which he had seen on the cover of a guidebook.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.

Downtown Atlanta

Atlanta was founded in 1837 as the terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad.  Burned to the ground during the Civil War, the city has bounced back to become Queen of the New South, with a metro area population of more than five million.  In addition to having hosted the 1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta is home to dozens of worldwide corporations—including Coca-Cola and CNN—and one of the world’s busiest airports.

On our first morning in the city, we took the subway downtown from a station  near our hotel in the Buckhead district.

“Public transportation is better for the environment,” announced Andy as we boarded the train.  His statement surprised me, since I didn’t know he knew what public transportation was, let alone cared about its environmental impact.

I was impressed with his sudden eco-consciousness, however, and we went on to find Atlanta’s mass transit system—MARTA—clean, reliable, and easy to use.  Since we don’t live near a subway system, both my kids were fascinated by the ticket machines, the escalators and the tunnels. 

Our first stop was the Georgia Aquarium, which, with more than 10 million gallons of water, bills itself as the world’s largest.  My kids’ favorite exhibit was Ocean Voyager, which features a 100-foot-long acrylic tunnel that runs through a tank filled with manta rays, whale sharks (the largest fish species in the world) and thousands of other sea creatures.  “This must be what it looks like when you go scuba diving,” said Andy, who has expressed an interest in learning to dive.

After the aquarium, we reported to CNN World Headquarters for a tour of its news operations.  The tour had some interesting moments—in particular, the eight-story escalator ride at the beginning—but it ultimately left my kids disappointed.  Sophia had hoped to see some well known CNN personalities, but the windows that look into the studios don’t give visitors a view of the anchor desks.  

“I promise she’s in there,” said our guide as we stared into the seemingly empty studio from which Nancy Grace was allegedly broadcasting live.

The six-story escalator, highlight of the CNN tour.

Fountains and Fries

 After the bland CNN tour, we consoled ourselves with the thought of getting something to eat.  But as we passed through Centennial Olympic Park, Andy quickly located his dream fountain.  Called the Fountain of Rings, and built for the 1996 Olympics, the fountain consists of five interconnecting circles with a total of more than 250 jets, each of which shoots up to 30 feet into the air.

There were several dozen kids playing in the fountain, and Andy was ready to join them.  But I wasn’t sure how I’d take a soaked nine-year-old to dinner, so I asked him to wait until the next day.  He agreed—reluctantly—and we took MARTA to Midtown to eat at The Varsity restaurant.

The Art Deco-style Varsity was founded in 1928, and with space for 600 cars and 800 inside diners, it claims to be the world’s largest drive-in.  As we approached the massive stainless steel bar to place our order, a surly female attendant wearing a red sailor hat barked, “What’ll ya have?”

We were shocked at first.  Wasn’t this the genteel South?  Then we heard all the other attendants barking the same thing, and Andy discovered the catch phrase emblazoned on the employees’ t-shirts.

We ordered Glorified Burgers (large beef patties topped with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise), fries and a mystery beverage called Frosted Orange, which tasted like Creamsicles dropped into a blender.  As we ate, we gazed at the Atlanta skyline, which includes buildings by star architects Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei and Marcel Breuer.

Atlanta's Varsity claims to be the world's largest drive-in restaurant.

Coke Isn't It

The next day we returned to Centennial Olympic Park so Andy could play in the fountain, but it wasn’t working.  As it turns out, it’s on a schedule, and it wasn’t going to be back on for several hours.  To console Andy, we decided to visit the World of Coca-Cola.

            Coke was born in Atlanta in 1886, and this attraction celebrates 125 years of Coca-Cola history with displays of old Coke machines, signs, advertisements and other items our tour guide referred to as “artifacts.”  The tour included an overly-long question and answer session, as well as a 6-minute “movie” (nothing more than an extended Coke commercial) which seemed to last 60 minutes.  The one interesting part of the tour was the “Tasting Room,” which has help-yourself beverage bars with Coke products from around the world.

Sophia doesn’t drink carbonated beverages, but Andy sampled each selection with the seriousness of a wine taster.  His favorite was a product called “Ice,” from South Korea—which he described as “a very strong Sprite.”

The tasting room:  the only positive thing about the World of Coca-Cola.
(Photo:  Georgia on My Mind)

King Legacy

As I already mentioned, the highlight of our trip to Atlanta was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Site, where we toured the two-story frame house where Dr. King lived from his birth in 1929 until 1941.

Our guide pointed out the parlor, where the three King children did their homework each evening, and the dining room, where each child was expected to comment on current events and on racial injustice at each evening meal.

But the information that most affected my kids was the explanation of the Jim Crow laws, which, among other things, kept black Atlantans confined to a small area surrounding the Sweet Auburn neighborhood and barred them from stores when whites were present.  According to our guide, because of that policy, the young Martin Luther King, Jr. was once escorted out the back door of a store while shopping for a new pair of shoes.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. birth home in Atlanta.

As we walked back to the subway station, Sophia and Andy both said the tour of King’s home had helped them see the civil rights leader as a real person, and not just a name in a textbook. 

As we rode back to our hotel, we were already planning a trip back to Atlanta.  On our future agenda:  the Atlanta History Museum, the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and Stone Mountain Park, to mention just a few places.

            While our short trip had been successful, we all agreed that in hindsight, we should have dropped both the CNN tour and the Coke tour from our itinerary, since both were rather expensive ($12 kids, $15 adults), and neither was especially rewarding.  This would have given us time to have visited one or two other museums or attractions.

            The unexpected highlight of the trip remains the free tour of the King house, an experience Sophia and Andy say they’ll never forget.