A Bit of Culture and A Big Surprise

Well another roasting day here in Atlanta (upper 90s). Got up this morning and decided to spend the day at the High Museum of Art in nice icy A/C. The new exhibit is Monet's Waterlilies and there are four waterlily paintings on loan from the Museum of Modern Art. Here is Claude in his garden.
Impressionist paintings are amazing in real life with all the color and texture. There was also a really interesting photograph exhibit of Richard Misrach's On the Beach series. It was lots of fun and a great way to spend a too hot day. Lunch was a trip over to Howell Mill Road to Taqueria del Sol, one of my favorite restaurants. I always have fish tacos and queso dip and chips. Today was a perfect day for a margarita on the rocks with salt so I had one of those too. A toast to a long hot summer in Atlanta.

I came home and was checking through blogs in google reader. To my huge surprise I won a blog giveaway!!! Good golly miss molly, it was the way fab bag sewn by Anne Sutton and her talented Chelsea!!! I nearly fell off the couch! See photos of the stylin' tote I will be toting soon here. I'm so excited I can't stand it.

An Atlanta Favorite

Hooray for Friday! I had a big meeting today for the day job. As with most all-day meetings, the best part of this meeting was lunch!
(all photos courtesy of roadfood.com--great website!)
Lunch was at a long-time Atlanta favorite--Mary Mac's Tea Room. Mary Mac's is a great place to have traditional Southern food. Fried chicken, collards, fried okra, whipped potatoes, chicken and dumplings, fried green tomatoes, cornbread, peach cobbler, the list goes on.
At Mary Mac's, you write what you want on a ticket. Good thing the pencils have erasers because a lot of times, it's really hard decide. I usually go for the vegetable plate because they have the best Southern-style vegetables (for all you non-Southerners, you may be interested to know that homemade macaroni and cheese is a vegetable in the South. It's true! So is Brunswick stew.) After much debate, I decided on black-eyed peas, fried okra, creamed corn, and sweet potato souffle with yeast rolls and sweet tea. Their tea is so sweet, you can stand a spoon up in it. Honest! I had three glasses and was on a big time sugar high (helps to get through the rest of the meeting). Tomorrow, I'm going to have a big salad and lots of water to make up for this decadent lunch.

Just to make you hungry, here's a photo of fried chicken, mac & cheese, fried green tomatoes, and broccoli casserole.
Mary Mac's is a definite stop if you are ever traveling through Atlanta. Let me know and I'll meet you there for tea!