Went to the Benjamin Franklin exhibit today at the Atlanta History Center. We drove through one of my favorite streets, West Paces Ferry Road, which is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Atlanta; about halfway along the route is the Governor's Mansion and Pace Academy, a well-known private school, is located there as well. The houses there were already large with huge lawns and hidden garages; now more of the wooded land around these houses has been cleared for "McMansions" and some of the older houses have been enlarged. One house is a huge Italianate estate that looks like something a Victorian children's novel millionaire would live in.

Still, it remains beautifully wooded and you can see hints of fall, especially in the dogwood trees where half dozens of leaves at the end of branches are turning a rusty red.

We spent almost three hours at the museum, mostly looking at the Franklin artifacts—I particularly was amused by his quote that he did not have much money, but he always managed to have some for books! There were interactive exhibits, including an interesting one about Franklin's journey from Boston to Philadelphia; you had to decide whether to buy passage or walk or use other transport, carefully hoarding your money.

There are more details of the exhibition at the website for the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary.

We also walked through the exhibit for the 1996 Olympic games, which is great: there are panels on each of the previous summer games, showcases of Olympic and ethnic gifts, panels of highlights of each of the sixteen days, and even an interactive trivia test at various stations throughout the exhibit.

After the museum we went to Richard's Variety Store. This appears to be the only surviving store of its type left in the city. They have a small section of hardware and housewares, but most of the store is taken up with toys, novelties, greeting cards, some decorative items, and, right now, seasonal (Hallowe'en) items. They have a great children's book area where they have books I didn't even know were still in print: Lois Lenski's "Small" books, the picture book Pretzel about a dachshund, etc. They have goofy things like action figures of a librarian, Sigmund Freud, an obsessive-compulsive (this gentleman has dark hair and comes with a wet wipe—wonder where that inspiration came from), and Van Gogh (he has two heads, one with two ears, one with only one).

We had our dessert before our supper (Baskin-Robbins chocolate fudge ice cream) and then went to Red Lobster. I was craving a lobster pizza. I wanted to have some clam chowder with it, but the cups are usually so small. I thought I would have a bowl instead. Most bowls in other restaurants are just a bit smaller than the cups, but I was brought a brimming salad bowl full of soup! So most of my lobster pizza is saved for telework lunch this week.

Everything else is stopping this week, at least Sunday through Wednesday then Sunday through Tuesday, for Ken Burns' The War. We are already into the first 90 minutes, covering the four towns they are specifically profiling, pre-war lives, Pearl Harbor (my hair still stands on end when Roosevelt makes his declaration of war speech), the nauseating horror of the Bataan death march. Now they are talking about the Japanese internment camps...such a waste and a shame.

Labels: food, museums, shopping, television

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