When I was invited to the Conversations with Coca-Cola conference in Atlanta, GA, I was torn.  It was set to take place during my family’s summer vacation in Atlanta, GA.  We were heading there anyway, but I was hesitant to leave my family while on holiday. On the other hand, I was intrigued.  Coca-Cola is a brand that I have known all my life and one that I highly respect. Here they were inviting me to a conference, along with other bloggers who I know and value.  However, as you know, here on the Culture Mom, I don’t often push products, particularly food and drink, and I was curious about their expectations and how I would fulfill them.  Although I have to admit, I was instantly interested and I gently let my husband know that I would be taking a few days out of our vacation to attend.

And you know what?  I made exactly the right decision.  My family had a great time hanging out with my mother.  They went shopping, they went swimming, they relaxed, they enjoyed the city I was born and raised in.  It was a city they know very well and they thrived without me for those two days.  It even gave them time to miss me.

And me? I was exactly where I was supposed to be.  I was invited to spend time with a company that supports, promotes and understands the issues that are most important to me: women, advocacy, smart marketing, branding, health, sustainability and living positively.  We did talk about Coca-Cola and the brands that it supports but only in relations to our lives. It was nourishing, supportive and left me with so much to think about in terms of my brand, where I’m going and how I can form meaningful relationships with brands like Coca-Cola.  They have paved the way as a brilliant example of how a company can build meaningful ties with bloggers like me.  They connected with me in a way I hadn’t expected by appealing to my interests and passions.  It’s so smart.

Katherine Stone was our key note speaker.  She’s someone I have watched closely in this space as the editor and founder of the leading blog on postpartum depression, Post Partum Progress. At every conference I’ve attended in the past year, she has won awards for her efforts in Social Good and she has served as an inspiration in that area.  It’s an area that I want to expand upon and I was eager to hear her tips on expanding my platform. One tip that stands out in her presentation was this:

Start claiming who you are and recognize what you are not.

I have a platform.  It started here on this blog but it has several extensions. She also said to “create your arsenal and update it continually” by finding opportunities that are aligned with your goals. I definitely left her presentation armed with ammunition and a list of possibilities buzzing in my mind.

But it didn’t stop there. We spent another hour working on vision boards – thinking about where we see our blogs and brands going and getting it all down visually.  It was basically a collage of cut outs from magazines – pictures and quotes – that resonated with me.  I found the process very cathartic and thought-provoking, as well as presenting our findings with the group out loud.  Yep, that’s me below. I got a bit emotional.

Later that day, we heard from a panel on “Women in the Work Place”.  I was anxious for this session because if you read my blog (I was so impressed that my contact at Coca-Cola had read and appreciated my “I Don’t Know How She Does It” series that I focused on early this year), you’ll know that work/balance is very important to me and is something that I’ve struggled with since I had kids.  The women on the panel were women from within the Coca-Cola organization, from Eileen Thanner, VP Commerical Capabilities, Bridget McCarthy, VP, Cross-Franchise Brands Commercialization and Lauventria Robinson, VP, Diversity Business Development (don’t you love her title?).  These are women who love being mothers (McCarthy is not a mom) and love their jobs.  They agreed that women are really good leaders and collaborators and thrive in environments where they are supported.  They suggested keeping work and family life separate and to take time to enjoy your accomplishments, both in the work place and at home.  As a mom who quit her full-time job when my kids were very young, I found their determination and passion for their jobs both impressive.  It’s something that I want to have again. They suggested that focus, commitment and good childcare will help any mom with the transition.  All common sense, but great to see in action and very inspiring.

As for Coca-Cola, they have a number of programs in place to inspire their female employees.  Its 5×20 program is an ambitious effort to bring five million women entrepreneurs living in the developing world into its business by 2020.  They celebrate women as moms and as women.  Don’t you love the sound of that?

The rest of the conference was just as inspiring.  We went on a personal tour of the World of Coca-Cola. We heard from the folks at Wendy’s about their healthy initiatives. We learned how to make healthy lunches for our kids and heard about Coca-Cola’s advocacy and sustainability initiatives. Their most recent initiative is LivePositively.com, where you can vote for your favorite park that you would like to see Coca Cola help revitalize and more. You should check it out.  And on top of it all, I got to hang out with the other writers and staff at Coca-Cola, women I was happy to meet and get to know over the course of the few days.

The other bloggers invited were: Jamie Reeves from BlondeMomBlog.com, Jen Houck from OneMomsWorld.com, Jennifer Gerlock from HipAsIWannaBe.com, Jessica Shyba from MommasGoneCity.com, Jodi Grundig from MomsFavoriteStuff.com, K. Elizabeth McCoy from YUMMommy.blogspot.com, Lauren Jimeson from AMommyInTheCity.com, LeeAnn Hinken from TheLifeofRylie.com, Meghan Cooper from JaMonkey.com, Rebecca Levey from BeccaRama.com, Sarah Visbeek from SarahViz.com, Stacie Connerty from TheDivineMissMommy.com, Stefanie Fauquet from MommyMusings.com and Toni Patton from JustStopScreaming.com.

Am I glad I went and took time out of my family vacation?  You bet.  It was revitalizing.  I walked away with so many areas to focus on in my work: community, social good, engagement. And a new partner to boot.

Disclosure: I was a guest of Coca-Cola at this conference and my expenses were paid, but I was not required to post.  I really wanted to share my experience as it was truly unique.

I want my children to have the same knowledge, so on our recent trip to Atlanta, I took them for a visit to the King Center, an amazing museum dedicated to his life and work.  The complex which spreads over a few blocks  also houses the crypts with the remains of King and his wife, the house he grew up in, the church he prayed in and a Freedom Hall.

Established in 1968 by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (“The King Center”) has been a global destination, resource center and community institution for over a quarter century. Nearly a million people each year make pilgrimage to the National Historic Site to learn, be inspired and pay their respects to Dr. King’s legacy.

The museum is truly a living memorial filled with all the vitality that was his, committed to the causes for which he lived and died.”   There are photos, videos and living artifacts, like the cart that carried King’s coffin during his funeral.  It’s an excellent education on the civil rights movement, racial equality and the struggle of race relations during and since the time he was alive.  This was the first museum I’ve really ever visited with my kids, ages 7 and 9, where they paid full attention and were genuinely interested in the subject, particularly my daughter, who seemed to grasp the struggle that African Americans faced until MLK came along and how he changed the world.  My son was a bit more obsessed with the mock jail cell that they have on display (he likes doors, has since he was 2 years-old):

But that was fine, whatever it takes to get the point across.  We read about the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, he March on Washington where he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, the Albany Movement, “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, the Poor People’s Campaign, Rosa Parks, Gandi’s influence on his beliefs and more.  We watched a movie about MLK’s youth and learned about the first time when he realized that the white boy across the street was no longer allowed to play with him.  It was hard to hear, but it planted the seed in my children’s brains about how hard it is to be excluded and why it was so important for MLK to fight for civil rights.  It was the first time my son heard about the separate toilets and how African Americans were forced to sit in the back of the bus.  He was also obsessed with the image of Rosa Parks getting hand-printed after her arrest, but it got the point across.

By the time we got outside near Freedom Hall, home of the crypts, we had really gotten to know MLK and his life and my kids were humbled by the experience.  Nearby is the Eternal Flame which symbolizes the continuing effort to realize Dr. King’s dream of the “Beloved Community,” which was his vision for a world of justice, peace and equality for all mankind.

Most of the park is self-guided, however, you must register to tour the Birth Home of Dr. King.  We happened to be there on an extremely hot day in Atlanta, and my kids couldn’t do much else.  If you’re interested in seeing The Birth Home of Dr. King, it may be visited only with a park ranger led tour, which is filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Register for the tour at the Information Desk, located in Freedom Hall, in person upon arrival to the park. The tour is strictly limited to 15 people per tour. Tours fill up fast on weekends and holidays so plan accordingly.

The Georgia Commission on the Holocaust was established in 1986 by the General Assembly to teach the lessons of the Holocaust to present and future generations of Georgians in order to create an awareness of the enormity of the crimes of prejudice and inhumanity and to encourage vigilance to prevent their recurrence.  I was in high school at the time and I was invited to our State Capitol in downtown Atlanta to celebrate the Commission’s creation.  It was a pivotal moment in my life, occurring right before my first trip to Israel, where I visited Yad Vashem and got to know the country that saved so many Jews after the war, and one that continues to give Jews around the world a place to escape persecution every single day.

The Anne Frank Exhibit features 600 photographs and more than 8,000 words.  It is not only about Anne Frank and her story, but also about the events that led up to the beginning of the end for so many innocent Jews.  By tying her story into the history of the Holocaust, it helps put the experience in perspective.  It starts out with photographs of her and her family – how they lived a normal life in Munich in the 1920s before the trouble started throughout Europe and how they fled to Amsterdam, where they went into hiding in a secret annex above her father’s business, thanks to his beloved colleagues who tried so selflessly to save their lives.  She was a young, precocious girl who plastered her bedroom walls with movie stars, just as I did as a child and my own daughter does now.  She was not that different to my own daughter – curious, wide eyed, intelligent, social, brave, and beautiful.  She knew that the events taking place outside her window were beyond her control, but she never let go of the hope that one day they would all be set free.   Thanks to her father, who gave her the diary that would one day document her story for the world, her experience lives on in history and serves as a reminder of the terrible costs that unbridled prejudice, hatred and discrimination can impose upon a nation and its people.

The exhibit also reminds us that Jews were not the only ones discriminated during the War.  Handicapped people of all ages, gypsies, homosexuals, women, children were all targeted, too, and the nation’s people were brainwashed and made to feel that anyone who did not fit the Darwin equation were less worthy.  There were actually eleven million Jews and non-Jews perished during the Holocaust.  Think of all the music, works of art, medieval discoveries, acts of charity and other worthy contributions that perished along each victim’s future and what a different world this one would be if all of these innocent lives had not been so unnecessarily taken.

“First they came for the Communists,

and I did not speak up – because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I did not speak up- because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists,

and I did not speak up –because I was not a trade unionist. 

They they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up – because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me – and by that time,

Nobody was left to speak up.”

 - Rev. Martin Niemoeller, a Protestant Pastor who spent seven years in a concentration camp.

So, my dilemma is two fold: how do I help keep the message alive as hate crimes are on the rise.  Prejudice and anti-Semitism are still lurking in our midst and are not issues of the past.  Holocaust deniers are still running rampant, even with all the proof that exists in exhibits like this one.  Who will speak for the survivors once they are gone and who will teach not just mine, but all of our children to understand this important part of our history?  As I enter the second phase and final chapter of my life, I am determined to find a way into this mission, either on a professional level of as a volunteer.

Note: Admission to the Anne Frank in the World Exhibit is FREE and open to the general public.  It’s located at 5920 Roswell Road exit off I-285, exit 25 in Parkside Shopping Center in Sandy Springs, GA.  It’s open every day of the week except Monday.  For more information, call 770-206-1558 or visit Holocaust.Georgia.Gov.

Research indicates that attending a Jewish summer camp is a key factor in the creation of a Jewish identity.   I have wanted them to have this experience for some time, and now that they are ages 7 and 9, and I have more time on my hands than usual, it was time to sign them up.  They attend town camp at home, primarily because camp in the Northeast is hugely expensive and we take really big trips abroad every year.

However, my kids weren’t as excited about the prospect of going to a camp in another city/state as I was.  I’m actually from Atlanta, but we live in New York.  They don’t know a soul here, except for my mother and childhood friends.  For months, I think they thought I was humoring them when I declared that they would be going to MJCCA Summer Day Camps right after school ended.  The only glitch is that even though I knew we would be going well in advance, it took me a while to get my act together to register, and we didn’t make the yellow bus that I so fondly remember being dropped off at it.  It was a singing yellow bus.  We sang camp songs all the way to camp, down the 85 highway.  Instead of my kids hopping on that bus daily, I’d be the designated chauffeur.  The other glitch: the camp is 30 minutes away from my mom’s house – without traffic.  It’s a haul.  But in my mind, a worthwhile haul.  I wanted my kids to have this experience more than anything.

So, here we are.  Day #3 of the camp I spent my youth at.  How is it going? Well, it depends on the minute.  To date, it’s been hard to decipher their reactions.  Here’s the chain of events:

Day #1: After dropping the kids off right on time, we found out they are going to the camp in a trolley (fun, right?).  They found seats between kids they didn’t know, obviously, and proceeded to look straight ahead, not at me.  When I caught a glimpse of my daughter, there was a tear going down one of her cheeks.  Reality sunk in that my kids were not really into the idea of going to my childhood camp.  Seven hours later, after my return trip going 45 minutes back on the highway but not sick of the journey yet, my mom came along for the ride.  After 10 minutes of what seemed to be all positive feedback about the camp, they launched into a tirade of “how could I send them to a camp where they don’t know anyone?” There was no talk of Boker Tov (how they welcome the kids to camp) or Lehitraot (their send off) or the Jewish camp songs they sing while the flag is raised.  It was all, “How could you do this to us?”

Day #2: After waking up at 7am to make them breakfast, lunch, get their bags ready and push them out the door, we went back to the trolley awaiting their arrival.  My son informed me he was going to break into tears again.  I had told them camp is like a date, give it one more chance.  That afternoon, after driving back through Atlanta traffic, the response was better.  She had gone fishing and played tennis, and even made latkes in Kosher Cooking.  He had gone on a scavenger hunt and had gone up and down the water slide for what appeared to be hours.  We went for a frozen yogurt to celebrate.  I even got a few stories and heard the names of their fellow campers while looking at photos taken at the camp on Shutterfly of my seemingly very happy children.  Things were looking up.

Day #3: My son would not leave the house.  He declared he hates camp. It’s the worst camp ever!  Yet he got dressed, ate breakfast and got in the car.  Upon arrival we missed the first trolley and had to wait for the second. Seven hours later, after making the long drive back to camp through what appears to be 405 traffic, I picked them up, vowing not to ask about the day. And the words came pouring out.  We did this, we did that, I get to do this tomorrow, if I could only be here next week I would get to do this. Then as the evening progressed, I heard my son sing Hebrew songs.  We checked out tomorrow’s schedule together and discovered even happier photos posted by camp.  There are photos of my son with new friends, with their arms wrapped around each other.  My daughter has a smile from here to the moon, posing in what appears to be a lovely group of girl.  Now she wants to come back here next summer and to go the camp for two weeks….as long as she can bring a friend from New York.

Oh, and get this, he proudly wore his camp shirt home.

Whatever the case, this was an experiment with a good ending. As their mother, this was something that I wanted to do for them.  I knew in my heart that it would work out.

But now about the commute I’m putting in twice a day to get them there and back?  It’s just what a mom who loves her children does.

Before I continue, please note that this is a true story.  This happened to me last week while visiting my mother in Atlanta, in the house that I grew up in.  It has taken me a week to write about the incident, but it is still very fresh in my mind and very raw. It’s a strange one and I’d love to hear your thoughts at the end about what you would done in the same situation.

There was a howling at the other side of the front door.  A wailing.  A cry.  A young girl was asking for our help. She was asking to come in, to enter our home.  She told us she wanted to go home.  She needed to make a phone call. She wanted her grandmother.

Did I mention there was a thunder storm going on?  And that Atlanta was in the midst of a tornado watch?

My heart fell and I panicked.  My mom and I looked at each other in shock and torment.  How could we leave this young girl outside in the rain?  The crying didn’t stop, and she quickly asked us to call the police.  At that moment, I sped into action, searching for a phone.  I thought, yes, the police will come quickly and help us.  I told her we would call them immediately, to hang on outside. I saw her shadow slump to the ground and her sobs bolted their way through my heart.  The only thing I could think was what if she had been raped?  What if the attacker was still outside?  What if we found her dead 10 minutes later?

But something didn’t let me open the door.  I was born and bred in Atlanta, GA and have vivid memories of Wayne Williams in the late 1970 and the Atlanta Child Murders.  I was robbed at gun point at age 19 with my mother by a man who followed us to our car after coming out of a restaurant.  My mother recently had trouble when her wallet was stolen and the thief tried to break into her house several times.  I have also lived in NYC for many years and would never open my door for anyone.  I have two children that I had to come for and a mother who I loved more than life itself.

Plus, I think that when you hear a cry that is honest and in trouble, you know.  I wasn’t sure, but I couldn’t put my life or the life of my mother in jeopardy and something about this wasn’t kosher.

I had my mom call the police back when they didn’t come in 5 minutes after the first call.  They kept us on the phone and advised me not to say anything to the girl.  The crying persisted and it felt like eternity. I paced the living room back and forth.

Finally, the police came.  The girl told them she had been kicked out of a guy’s place after being brought here from Tennessee to record an album.  She was 16 years old and he had gotten her drunk.  She said he had lied to her and told her how he was going to make her famous.  The police told her to find her phone to call her grandmother and she started to look through her bags, taking out one article of clothing at at time.  At this time, she was sitting up and was sounding more coherent. But definitely drunk.  I now looked out the window and saw that part of her blonde hair was green and that she dressed like she was trying to sell herself on the streets of Atlanta.

Finally, after spending several minutes looking for her phone to no avail, a young guy walked up from out of nowhere and handed her a cell phone.  He told the police they had been together and she had run out drunk.  She yelled at him and called him a liar, he returned the insults and they went back and forth. When curse words started to be hurtled around, the cops intervened and told him that he was in trouble.  Not only had he illegally brought a minor across state lines but he had served her alcohol.

She then hopped up, obviously not even bruised or injured, and they all got in the police cars and drove off.

We were up for hours trying to make sense of the situation.  The policemen had never knocked on our door and we didn’t want to come face to face with the intruder.  But we were left with so many questions as a result.

Was she really hurt?  Had she really been tossed on our doorstep in the midst of a thunderstorm?  Or was it a scam and they were trying to rob my poor mother or hurt us?

Apparently, someone up the street had seen the two of them driving down our road that night and had seen them stop at another house before coming to ours.  No one had come to the door.

I have no regrets for not opening the door.  I think that I would have known if she was really in trouble and clearly some of it was a hoax.  But when you are in that awful situation, it is painful and difficult.

What would you have done?

Credit: Yelp.com

Our recent visit to the Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead, one of the premier luxury hotels in Atlanta was truly magnificent. Honestly, there is no other way to describe it. It was such a good family travel experience for all of us.  From the moment we arrived, we were treated like royalty by the staff and that treatment continued throughout our entire stay.

I had stayed at the Ritz in other cities, primarily for work, and had good experiences, but this was my first time with my children. We needed a diversion, and we needed to relax.  Our visit at the Ritz was exactly what the doctor ordered.

The hotel really knows how to cater to families.  First of all, they call kids V.I.K.’s. (Very Important Kids).  Gotta love that.  They think that families don’t have to give up the pampered treatment they can offer when they decide to not drive far for a vacation. They are offering their Family Getaway package through March 31st, 2012 for as low as $279/night.

This package includes overnight deluxe accommodations, American breakfast for two adults and two children in The Café or delivered by in-room dining, guestroom movie with popcorn in addition to dive-in movie at hotel’s pool, children’s self-guided scavenger hunt at hotel, ice cream for children at hotel restaurants, and overnight valet parking (a $32 value).  If you want to splurge a bit more, get a suite for $499/night.  These packages are valid only on Friday and Saturday evenings and of course are subject to availability.   As soon as we arrived at the hotel, the staff offered my children a wrist band so they could get free ice-cream, a small stuffed animal and a scavenger hunt form.  I knew that we would drop our belongings and quickly go on the hunt.

As soon as you walk into the hotel and get a glimpse of the incredible lobby, you know you are in for a unique experience.  The entire hotel is decorated with classic paintings, antique furniture, marble floors and fresh flowers.

Credit: Yelp.com

We were given the suite and it was stunning.  We had a separate bedroom from the kids, which is always a treat when you are traveling as a family.   As expected from a Ritz Carlton, the beds are lush and the room is spacious.  The bath is made of marble, the linens are Italian, the beds are made of feather and the pillows are goose-down, there are terry robes hanging on the bathroom door, there are flat screen TVs, internet access, free newspapers in the morning and an evening turn-down.  The room is really, really comfortable and totally luxurious.

As soon as we dropped our bags, we headed on our scavenger hunt. The hunt takes you on a serious tour of the hotel, answering questions, collecting stamps and gifts along the way.  Kids count the elevators in the hotel, the flags in front of the hotel, the rooms in the hotel (we had to ask someone to answer that for us – there are over 500).  Along the way, we stopped for our ice-cream.  We stopped to watch a pianist playing skillfully and spent a few moments talking to him about how he plays from memory. We stopped for a swim in the gorgeous pool and hot tub and stayed there for hours.  At the end of the hunt, we ended up at the doorman, where we had to find out how many bell carts are in the hotel and we received our last stamp.  I can’t rave enough about the hunt.  It occupied my children for a few hours and they derived so much pleasure from the experience.

The next morning we were all exhausted from a late night so we opted to order breakfast in the room, since we had the option and  I knew it would be a big treat for the kids.  When we called down we were given a zillion options –  grits or potatoes?  pork or chicken sausage?  coffee or tea?  We really didn’t expect the amount of food that came in and everything was delicious.  And the children loved lying in bed, watching TV and eating all their favorite breakfast item…even pancakes.

This package is really ideal for a family like ours.  The price is certainly right and you can take advantage of it this holiday season.  If you’re going during the holidays, you can make an “appointment” for your kids to meet Santa.He comes to your guest room to surprise your child.  You have to call the hotel to find out when that is taking place.  In addition, they also have their traditional holiday brunches and dinners for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as their annual holiday teas.  All their events are listed here.

To book your visit, call (404) 237-2700r book here.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary visit in order to facilitate this review, but all opinions expressed are my own.

I’m always looking for child-friendly deals, aren’t you?  That’s why I was glad to hear about little birdie, a newresource for insider tips for local, kid-friendly deals.  little birdie will be landing in two great cities – NYC (where I live) and Atlanta (where I was born and raised) – in early March.  Parents (expecting or with children 12 years or younger) in those cities will be the first to experience these deals with savings up to 90% off on kid-friendly activities, dining and so much more.

To celebrate, little birdie is holding the Feather Your Nest Giveaways.  Two lucky winners (one (1) NYC area and one (1) Atlanta area parent) will each receive a $4,500 dream nursery/kids’ room makeover from celebrity decorator, Sherri Blum.  A third winner chosen from anywhere in the U.S. will receive a $1,000 shopping spree.*  To learn more and enter, please visit http://bit.ly/esS9SN

Little birdie is also excited to announce that they are hosting a Twitter Party complete with door prizes for participants**!   Here is the info:

little birdie Twitter Party

When: Thursday, February 17^th from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET

Where: #littlebirdie tag on Twitter (use tweetdeck, tweetgrid or tweetchat)

How: To participate, follow hostess @ResourcefulMom, sponsor @littlebirdieUSA, @littlebirdieATLand @littlebirdieNYC and special guest @SherriBlum.

PRIZES

(3) Three winners will each receive a personalized wall art canvas from celebrity decorator and guest, Sherri Blum

(3) Three winners will each receive a $25 little birdie credit to be used upon the launch of the site landing soon in NYC and Atlanta!

*No purchase necessary.  Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. & D.C., 18 or older who are expecting a child (pregnant or in the process of adopting or surrogacy) and/or have a child or children 12 or younger.  Sweepstakes starts 3:01pm ET 2/15/11 and ends 11:59 p.m. ET 3/31/11.  Void where prohibited.  For complete details, see Official Rules at USE YOUR UNIQUE URL HERE, which govern.

**No purchase necessary.  Must be a legal resident of the 50 U.S. or DC, 18 or older.  Ends 9:00 p.m. ET 2/17/11.  Void where prohibited.  Winners will be selected on a random basis during the party by ResourcefulMom.com and will be notified via @reply @ResourcefulMom. Failure to claim via an online form within 48 hrs of notification will result in prize forfeiture.  Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible participants.  Credit is subject to terms and conditions specified by little birdie. Sponsor of Door Prize Giveaway: ResourcefulMommy.com

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.  I am being compensated by the folks at Global Influence to run to this post.

Being a Georgia native, I had to show my kids the showcase of the 100-year history of coca-cola with paraphernalia, documentaries and a 4-D film.  A self-guided tour starts with a mock documentary called the “Happiness Factory,” where animated creatures who live inside the Coke machine tell how they feel about Coke. We especially enjoyed the refreshment room where it’s possible to sample various coca-colas from around the world.  When we left, we were given a free bottle of coke as a souvenir.   Definitely make a trip to the World of Coca-Cola on your next visit to Atlanta.

Here are some photos from our visit:

The lobby area featured coke advertising from all over the world

Historic bottles of coke

One hundred bottles of coke on the wall, one hundred bottles of coke...

Coke is a big part of our pop culture

Old-fashioned coke machines

Sampling coke from all over the worldccc

Some interesting facts about the Center for Puppetry Arts before launching into what we saw and learned on the tour:

*It is the largest non-profit organization in the U.S. dedicated to puppetry.
*It teaches more than 500K people annually through its live performances.
*It is the headquarters of UNIMA-USA, the American branch of the international organization Union Internationale de la Marionette, the world’s oldest theater organization.
*It was chosen by MSN.com as one of the top 10 children’s museums in the country.
*It was picked as one of the top 25 experiences every Atlantan should have by Atlanta Magazine.
*It has educated more than 130K students and teachers through Distance Learning, an innovative teaching tool offered by a two-way interactive video conferencing network.
*It provides over 40K and 140K greatly discounted tickets annually to underserved audiences.

To sum it up, it’s an amazing place.

The Center was founded in 1978, when Kermit the Frog, accompanied by his creator, Jim Henson, cut the ribbon to officially open the Center (there’s a video in the museum to mark the ceremony’s significance0).  Founded by Vincent Anthony, it’s mission is to entertain and enlighten audiences.  Housed in a three-story building on Spring Street, the center is, indeed, magical.  When my children walked in, they were instantly intrigued and ready to roam the exhibits.  Underwood explained that historically, the center serves 3 functions: as a theater, as a museum and as an educational center.  First, we explored the museum.

The museum includes 2,000 objects from all over the world.  We saw all types of puppets in this exhibit from wooden to fabric to animatronic (remote control).  We went into a storage room and learned about string puppets, hand & glove puppets, shadow puppets and body puppets.  We saw old puppets, as well as more contemporary puppets.  Underwood explained that “anything can become a puppet in the right hands.”  He defined a puppet as any inanimate object that’s brought to life through human and mechanical means.” The kids loved activating “Trash Phoenix,” an animated figure that unfolds two “wings” from a heap of scrap metal and flashed red and white lights. They also enjoyed operating a large praying mantis with levers that made the creature disappear.

In the exhibit titled “Global World of Puppetry,” we saw puppets with intricate designs from Asia and India where puppets are sometimes used for sacred ceremonies.  We saw original versions of Punch & Judy.  We also learned how puppets are manipulated and sometimes take up to 3 persons to execute a puppet’s movements.  In addition, we learned that it can sometimes take puppeteers up to 30 years to learn to manipulate a puppet.  There are also original puppets on display from the first film ever to use puppets, Jim Henson’s The Dark Knight.

Henson is clearly a star that shines bright in this museum.  There are three fascinating exhibits that focus on his puppetry matery:

1. “Wonders from His Work Shop” features Big Bird, Fraggle Rock, his work with George Lucas and his use of technology in modern films and in PBS’ “Sid the Science Kid,”

2. “Jim Henson: A Man and His Frog” about Kermit’s humble beginnings in a 1950s show Sam and Friends

3. “Jim Henson: Puppeteer” – The exhibit features many puppets that Jim performed and created including Ernie, Rowlf the Dog, the La Choy Dragon, Dr. Teeth, The Swedish Chef, Bugsy Them and others. In addition to these puppets the exhibit features personal archival photographs, seldom seen designs and doodles, sketches, quotes and a behind-the-scenes video.

The museum really does a terrific job of celebrating Henson’s legacy.  I absolutely loved introducing my kids to the Swedish Chef, Dr. Teeth and all my favorite muppets from the series and films.  Underwood said that Henson was making shows primarily for adults.  This being said, I’m a big kid at heart and appreciate everything that he did for the puppetry world.  His vision shaped this museum, and I’m sure it shaped the history of the industry.

Cameras were not allowed in the Henson exhibit.  My children were pretty tuned in during the entire tour.  We didn’t get to see the current production, “Rumpelstiltskin” as we came off-season when all of Atlanta is back in school. It plays until September 12th on weekends.  After that, they will be showing “Wake Up Your Weird,” “Charlotte’s Web,”  “The Nightingale,” and “Rudolph and the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the timeless tale of Rudolph and his “misfit” friends.  The Center also offers programming for teens and adults, including puppet shows, workshops and films.   They offer Create-a-Puppet workshops, preschool workshops, shadow puppet invention workshops, as well as distance learning for pre-K to 12th grade.

You can order tickets online at www.puppet.org or by calling the ticket sales office at 404.873.3391.

The aquarium was founded by $250 million donated by Home Depot co-founder, Bernard Marcus.  He’s someone I’ve known about all my life as he’s a huge philanthropist and has given to many Jewish charities helping children and the elderly.  Leave it to him to create a place that provides so much joy to so many people.

The aquarium is unique in that it has five galleries, each hosting a form of sea life in various tanks.  The main event was Ocean Voyager. You actually feel like you’re going inside a tank, because you walk through a 100-ft.-long glass tunnel and gaze at all forms of fish swimming around you, over your heads.  We saw whale sharks (which scared my son), hammerheads, grouper, sting rays, zebra sharks, and many others.  My daughter pointed out a “school of fish,” a term I was pleasantly surprised to hear her use.  The exhibit also features a “Touching Experience” where the kids could touch fish on a screen to learn more about them; a theater to watch fish swimming (like going to the movies but seeing live fish in the screen) and a film about how UPS transported the whales to the museum.  My son was fixated on this film.  It is amazing to see how they got 25,000 creatures to the museum from far away places on a trip where no part of their body could be away from water.

A friend of mine actually told me to start our tour in the Georgia Explorer gallery, an area for children, which introduces them to some of the types of fish featured in the museum: sea turtles, sting rays, lionfish, starfish, shrimps and fish we’ve never heard of like robust red horse sucker fish.  It features touch pools for the kids to actually touch and feel some of the creatures, while learning what’s living on our won coast. It also features a playing area for kids to run around in with an enormous slide.  We started our tour there, and ended our tour there.  The kids loved the playing area, which thankfully they both reached the height requirements (up to 52″ only).  My friend was right.

The Tropical Diver gallery feature smaller tanks with more unusual fish that we had never heard of that live in coral reef. There is a fantastic recreation of a tropical Pacific coral reef, complete with an overhead crashing wave.  Ornate wobbegons, atlantic sea nettles, beautiful sea jellies with lacy arms and tentacles that glow in the dark, angelfish, sturgeonfish, exquisite wrasse, sea horses, zebra turkeyfish, scorpionfish, cherubfish, hogfish, seahorses, and a fish that we’ve seen so many times before, the clownfish that looks exactly like Nemo from Finding Nemo.  The aquarium’s mascot looks like Nemo.  His name is Deepo, and his voice narrated our walk into the aquarium from the parking lot.  It’s a shout out to Home Depot, a major sponsor of the Aquarium.

In the Cold Water Quest, kids can touch sea urchins, sea stars, sea anemones.  Through the glass windows, we saw spider crabs, ratfish, the beluga whale (which means “white” in Russian), sea otters, an octopus, sea dragons and one of our favorite parts of the museum, penguins.  They have a cave for kids to crawl through with peepholes to see the penguins.

The last gallery we visited was River Scout, which features fish from all over the world (Africa, the Amazon, Asia and right here off the coast of Georgia).  There’s a tank of fish from Africa.  Other tanks include eels, catfish, buffalo, sturgeon, piranhas, and otters.  The museum has a lot of information about all the fish, including a video about non-point source pollution. It’s clear that the goal is to better understand how these areas help us manage the world’s major fisheries and help them thrive.

They also offer a 3D film called “Deepo’s Undersea 3D Watershow” which we didn’t have time to see. It allows guests to experience the underwater world from a marine’s animal’s point of view.

A visit to the Georgia Aquarium is not cheap. An adult ticket costs $26.50, with children under 2 getting in free.  We managed to find parking for $5.  I did find a really good coupon offer for Mommy & Me here.  For $25, the Me & Mommy ticket includes Aquarium general admission for one adult, free admission for children age five and under (maximum four children per paid adult) and free parking ($10 value).  This offer is valid Monday-Friday through November 12th, 2010 and can only be purchased online.   The Aquarium is also hosting the same offer for dads.  It’s called Day with Dad.  This ticket has the same deadline and other rules as Me and Mommy.

Disclosure: Our admission tickets were provided to me free of charge, but no review was requested in return and the opinions reflected are my own.