THE ATLANTA BUCKET LIST: ALL THE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE
1. Go roller skating at Cascade Fun Center
They shot ATL there! Also, every year they have events that bring all sorts of folks out to slide around on that slick, shiny floor. Word of advice: you might bust your ass trying that old reverse-in-motion trick you used to do in middle school, so don’t get too "turnt."
2. Find and visit the Land Trust
Although it’s pretty easy to locate online, part of the fun is accidentally discovering this completely hidden commune near Candler Park and Lake Claire. The other part include an emu named Big Lou who lives on the property and the monthly "drum circle" performances.
3. Visit MLK’s home
Damn you if you don’t stop by and at least see the porch swing in front of the Auburn Ave house where the greatest Civil Rights icon the world has ever known was born. Damn you in the most nonviolent way possible (“darn you”?).
4. Walk the entire BeltLine
They have tours, and you can break it into sections, but why not spend a day going all the way? Or if you're like us, maybe make a week of it.
5. Eat wings at J.R. Crickets
They’re nationally famous now, thanks to Donald Glover, but they’ve been famous in ATL much longer than Atlanta’s been on-air. Plus the fries are delicious and the prices are still reasonable.
6. See an Alvin Ailey show at The Fox Theatre
You have to pay homage to one of Atlanta’s greatest performance venues, and to better way to do that than buying a ticket to see one of the world’s most famous dance troupes. It’s a great date night, and there're people in tights. Also, you know, the culture and thangs.
7. Take the Coca-Cola Tour
According to the FDA, we’re all going to die of diabetes anyway, so you might as well celebrate Atlanta’s thick, syrupy blood by going straight to the heart that feeds the city’s financial arteries. For extra fun, ask your tour guide what they do in Rahway, New Jersey.
8. Visit the College Football Hall of Fame
It’s time to walk inside that half-built football on Marietta St erected in honor of young athletes who spent spend their college years earning major cheddar for "educational" institutions, and then pray to Joe Namath that your future son or daughter can be the next Cam Newton.
9. Hang in Southwest Atlanta
You can’t pretend to know your ITP if you don’t know what’s in the area (Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, prominent soul food restaurants, golf courses, high schools that produced some of the music industry’s biggest names, etc.) or what SWATS stands for (Southwest Atlanta Too Strong). As Dungeon Family rapper Cool Breeze once said, “These grounds are holeeeey!” Get out from under your elitist nose and go check it out.
11. Drink beers from every local brewery
This is still actually doable since Atlanta’s got a lot more craft beer than it did five years ago, but it isn’t nearly close to its Northeast neighbor Asheville in terms of catalog. If you give it the whole seven days you might be able to knock out the entire list simply by hitting all the Taco Macs in town.
12. Take a selfie at Headland & Delowe
If hearing Andre 3000’s opening bars to "Elevators (Me & You)" doesn’t make you love East Point, you suck. Go there. Take a picture of yourself at the intersection. Leave before you start looking like a mark.
13. Have Blondie crush beer cans for you
It’s crazy. It’s weird. It’ll make you feel alive. And like Blondie, it’ll never get old.
14. See a famous rapper at a local restaurant and let it be no big deal
Waka Flocka Flame is known to have sit-down business meetings at Whole Foods. As Slick Rick would say, this type of s*it happens every day.
15. Go to Flux Night
It’s once a year, and it’s crazy. There are a lot of light-based art installations, plus filthy hipsters, old weirdos, and actual cool people who are all drinking out in the open in Castleberry Hill until the morning’s wee hours.
