Goin' South, Part III.

The city of Atlanta is justifiably proud of having hosted the Olympics 14 years ago.  It has a lot to show for the $1.8 billion it spent, most notably the Centennial Park downtown. It is probably the biggest and best urban park built in the US since Fredrick Law Olmstead's Central Park in New York City.

Centennial Park these days is dominated by what is touted as the nation's largest aquarium, and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company's tribute to itself, the "Coke Experience'.  I'm bigger on history than I am on fish, so I guided Maura towards the Coke building; its glass and steel design reminded me of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, a place Maura and I visited on our first trip together.

It costs a surprisingly lot of money to have Coke tell you its story; $20 a ticket, plus another ten-spot to park.  Remember though, the payoff of the tour is at the end -- the ability to sample Coke products from around the world.  ("64 different flavors!" we were reminded again and again.)

First stop on the tour are display cases and walls of Coke advertising from the past 100-plus years,followed by a small bottle line and then, their piece de' resistance, a "4-D" movie complete with shaking chairs and spitting seat backs.  It's all very, very Disneyland -- so much so I'd bet money they farmed out the work to Disney's "Imagineers". Nice, but unnecessary. We chose the non-shaking row, our backs still tender from the Delta flight.

Finally, you get to the fabled 64 flavors from around the world.  Having tasted a bunch of them, it's a good thing they thought up Coca-Cola first.  Here's a dirty little secret:  only standard American (read high fructose corn syrup) Coke is available.  If you come looking for the genuine original -- Coke made with (yum!) sugar -- you won't find it here.  I suppose if they did, nobody would want to buy the stuff we get now.  Visit your local specialty store and look for the good stuff from the independent Coke bottler in Dublin, Texas, or, even easier and cheaper to find, Coke from Mexico.  Now that's "the real thing"...

Atlanta is as beautiful as any American city can be.  Striking new buildings jut up to the sky; the highways make a Californian envious of their silky pavement, and the city fathers have done a good job of preserving the best of the past, too, both big (the historic Fox Theater) and the small (Gone With The Wind author Margaret Mitchell's house).

North of the city center, there are beautiful apartments and condos that, still farther out, give way to private homes that would be a joy to own anywhere in the country.  Atlanta is a city that's done good by itself.