some of the cooler living walls murals in atlanta are downtown. the size and scale of these projects was only possible on such large buildings. i will start off my downtown coverage with this great alligator mural. you can find it at the corner of mitchell & forsyth on the side of the old star hotel. i’m not sure when the star hotel was functioning, but it lists rates of 50-75 cents a room. wow!

the mural is by roa, a street artist from ghent, belgium. his black & white depictions of animals can be seen on the sides of decrepit buildings all over the world. roa’s alligator in atlanta is awesome, especially how its tail follows the old fire escape. it’s really cool he painted such a big mural here in town! be sure to visit his blog for lots of other works.

check out our previous coverage of living walls atlanta and also a great google map of the 2011 living walls murals.

– ryan

living walls: roa

201 mitchell street southwest
atlanta, ga 30303

have you ever noticed the skatepark right next to the masquerade on north ave? it has a sweet view of the city and an above ground pool with a slide, although the barbed-wire fence prevented me from getting a photo of the pool.

there was also a mural by atlanta artist hense, which is pretty awesome!

– ryan

after talking about it for ages, i finally cooked some popcorn in bacon fat with our whirly pop stovetop popper. i have to say, it was quite amazing! it was not an overwhelming bacon flavor, but it was definitely there and added a lot.

just throw a little salt on top and serve with cold beer or cocktails, highly recommended! bring some to your next olympic party and you will be a big hit!

– ryan

– don’t forget to try bacon fried pumpkin seeds as well!

i celebrated a nice birthday on saturday! i had a relaxing afternoon off followed by dinner at d.b.a., our new favorite bbq restaurant. besides having great ribs, their deep fried bacon is pretty ridiculous!

gub also got me these amazing vintage snow globes! they will look great in our collection!

– ryan

d.b.a. barbecue

1190 north highland avenue, suite b
atlanta, ga 30306
404-249-5000

we are huge fans of the npr program wait wait…don’t tell me! in fact, most of our saturday mornings are spent with a cup of coffee and the radio turned to 90.1. for years we’ve talked about making a trip to chicago to see a taping of the show. well, we waited long enough that wait wait…don’t tell me decided to come to atlanta!

mark your calendars, on thursday, september 20th at 7:30pm, wait wait…don’t tell me will be recording a show at the fabulous fox theater!

what a perfect venue for the show, we are so excited!!!

tickets are available here.

– ryan & gub

a big staple of our holden beach trips is eating lots of seafood, especially local shrimp! we generally have a low country boil on at least one occasion and often have seafood for other meals as well.

we were very excited to discover capt’n pete’s seafood on our recent trip! it’s on the island, so you don’t have to go far, and it has a restaurant and a dockside seafood market, both of which are outstanding. it quickly became one of our new favorite places!

our meal at capt’n pete’s seafood restaurant was very nice! gub had the best shrimp & grits she’s ever had, and my fried north carolina seafood platter (shrimp, oysters & flounder) with homemade fries was superb. here is the menu!

we also bought fresh north carolina shrimp from capt’n pete’s seafood market on numerous occasions! they had all sorts of wild caught seafood available, from flounder, snapper & grouper, to pre-made goodies like crab cakes and hush puppies for baking at home. you could order entire fish or just filets and everything was very affordable. they also had various seafood spices and accessories available and a great selection of bottled sodas, including ibc root beer and mexican coke.

we will definitely be heading back on future trips! you should do the same if ever visiting holden beach.

– ryan & gub

captain pete’s seafood

103 south shore drive
holden beach, nc 28462
910-846-9988 – restaurant
910-842-6675 – market

there was an amazing handmade sign on our way into holden beach for a pro-wrestling event at the civietown fire department. we can only imagine the awesomeness we missed out on!

pro-wrestling
civietown fire depart.
sat. july 14 7pm
tickets $8
children 10 under free

– ryan & gub

although clementine was a little fearful of the ocean and sand at holden beach, she was definitely a huge fan of eating watermelon in her kiddie pool!

go figure!

– ryan & gub

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in the end we found one that was really amazing at the north end of the island, although it didn’t appear to be a rental. it was super cute with great nautical decor, and it was right on the beach! the other few we found weren’t anything to write home about. they had potential, but weren’t really our style.

– ryan & gub

check out the amazing sneaker coloring book by designers henrik klingel & daniel jarosch of pknts! it’s fun for both adults and children!

– ryan & gub