Or at least stop and look at some incredibly real-looking photographs of flowers from the “Les Fleurs Photographic Collection,” by Georgia artist Barry Taratoot.
To photograph the plants, Taratoot placed them against solid-black backgrounds and “without trickery or modern technical manipulation,” somehow made the plants look like paintings. But they’re not.
Go see for yourself. The exhibit is on display in the ATL Airport Atrium through May 16, 2012.
No matter what type of car you drive, if you travel to or from Atlanta, you’ll be pleased to know that on Thursday, February 16, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (finally!) opens its first cell phone lot for drivers waiting to pick up arriving passengers.
The 160-space lot is along South Terminal Parkway at the east end of the Park-Ride Reserve lot and has no flight monitors, portable toilets or other amenities.
Refrigerators at AUS
At the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, six decorated refrigerator doors are on display in the baggage claim area, at carousels two and four. The doors were used as canvases by high school students as a way to promote the importance of recycling and will be on display through the end of February.
Where to go for Presidents Day
And, if you’ve got Presidents Day off you may be trying to figure out where to go to get in touch with a presidential past. Here are some tools and tidbits that may be helpful.
From Friday, February 17 through Monday, February 20, the Presidents Gallery at Madame Tussauds in Washington, D.C. is offering free admission to anyone who shares a birthday with a U.S. president.
The folks at Roadside America, keen collectors of odd travel destinations, have just released a Roadside Presidents app for the iPhone. They’re charging $2.99 for it – but you can bet that it’s full of all manner of oddball Presidential landmarks and museums.
And, from my post on msnbc.com’s Overhead Bin, here’s a list of some towns and attractions with special Presidents Day events on tap:
Washington, D.C.
In Washington, D.C., Ford’s Theater, the site of the April 14, 1865, assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, is hosting a Presidents Day open house on Feb. 20. Among the free activities scheduled are storytelling, Civil War-themed ranger talks and a presentation by costumed actors that includes a reconstruction of Lincoln’s assassination.
Every Four Years: Presidential Campaigns and the Press, a new exhibit opening at the Newseum Feb. 17, traces the way the media has covered presidential campaigns from “William McKinley’s 1896 front porch campaign to Barack Obama’s 2008 Internet campaign.” In addition to notable TV campaign ads, the exhibit includes campaign artifacts such as handwritten notes taken by John F. Kennedy during a 1960 presidential debate and the “Florida, Florida, Florida” white board used by NBC’s Tim Russert on election night 2000.
Virginia
As the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents, Virginia proudly calls itself the “The Mother of Presidents” and has dozens of historic sites paying special Presidents Weekend tribute to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson.
There will be free admission on Feb. 20 at George Washington’s estate at Mount Vernon, where a costumed General Washington will be on hand for activities to include the traditional wreath-laying ceremony at Washington’s Tomb, music and military performances and a (shh!) surprise birthday party.
During Presidents Weekend, actors portraying founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison will be visiting Colonial Williamsburg.
Alexandria will be marking the 280th anniversary of George Washington’s birth with a celebration that includes a Birthnight Banquet & Ball (Feb. 18), a Revolutionary War Reenactment (Feb. 19) and the George Washington Birthday Parade (Feb. 20). Historic sites around Alexandria, such as Gatsby’s Tavern Museum, where early patrons included George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe, will offer free admission on Presidents Day as well.
Bonus: A free, self-guided walking tour of 21 of the 140 sites in Alexandria associated with George Washington is available (PDF).
Massachusetts
In Boston, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is celebrating Presidents Day with discounted admission from Feb. 18-26. An activity-filled Family Festival Day on Feb. 21 includes the opportunity to meet actors playing presidents and first ladies such as Thomas Jefferson and Dolley Madison.
Sleep like a president
Presidents Day weekend activities can include sleeping where a past president got some shut-eye.
“Every president from Eisenhower to George W has stayed at the Greenbrier in West Virginia, a historic hotel that still brings in weekend splurgers,” says Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet.
Another option: the Presidential Suite at the Waldorf Astoria New York. Every American President since Herbert Hoover has stayed in the suite, which is decorated with the personal desk of General Douglas MacArthur, one of John F. Kennedy’s rocking chairs and other presidential artifacts.
Presidential treatment doesn’t come cheap. A weekend night in a two-bedroom executive suite at the Greenbrier is about $900, while nightly rates for the Waldorf Astoria’s Presidential Suite begin at $10,000 – and include a background check.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s Black History Month music series is in full swing. The weekly concert program features soul, jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues and takes place Friday evenings during February from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the airport atrium.
Here’s what’s coming up:
February 10: Charles Marshall “The Jazz Ambassador”
February 17: The Sounds of Essence
February 24: Satin Finish Band
While you’re at ATL, be sure to take a moment to visit the airport’s exhibit honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Located on Concourse E, the exhibit features photographs and artifacts, including the suit King wore when he met with President Lyndon Johnson, a radio he used to listen to news reports while on freedom walks and the robe he wore to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
First introduced in 2009, Coca Cola Freestyle machines are touch-screen, self-serve soda fountains-in-a-box that let consumers choose from among more than 100 mixed-to-order sodas, juices, teas and other beverages.
This first machine is at Famous Famiglia, by gate T6. Four more machines are scheduled to be installed at the airport by the end of the year: three by Gate A11 and one by gate D30.
Kids (of all ages..) will no doubt love this machine. And with 100 choices, there’s no reason you have to ask the machine to make you a sugary soda.
Drink up!
For more on what to do when you’ve got a few hours to spend at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – or 49 other airports – see the airport guides I created for USA TODAY.
If you’re traveling through Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport this summer, keep in mind (especially during long layovers) that there more than 250 works of art and several history displays throughout the airport.
there’s an impressive of collection of more than twenty sculptures by a dozen of Zimbabwe’s top sculptors.
There are also a variety of colorful large format murals and, to honor the International Year of Astronomy, an exhibition of out-of-this-world images marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first recorded observations through a telescope.
