Atlanta

       I figured I mine as well keep up the blogging, I’ve blogged more this month that the last two combined. And this is only post #5 of the month. Woops. So if you read what I wrote last, it was featuring the celebration of our second wedding anniversary. However, I never really got into detail about how we did so.

    Graham and I, as you might have guessed, love to travel and experience new places. We had previously decided that my birthday (in October) and our anniversaries (in April, obviously) were just far enough apart that we would try to plan trips around those time frames. Originally we discussed Vegas or Anaheim as a few get-away options. After contemplating even more, we remembered (insert embarrassed emoji) about our trip to Salt Lake City in June! And two huge trips less than 8 weeks apart didn’t make sense, so we scrapped those plans to look for new ones. We threw out other possibilities: Tampa, Panama City, but finally Graham said, “Well hey, what about Atlanta?” I grew up in Georgia, but never really experienced the touristy things in the ATL, so the more we talked about we decided: why not?

    Two days before our anniversary, Saturday morning, we left. Our plan was to arise at 5am, leave straight for Stone Mountain. Of course though, we slept through our alarms and finally got on the road at 9am. We downloaded an audiobook to keep us occupied and loaded the car down with snacks before we left. After getting stuck in traffic right as we were on the outskirts of the city, we finally made it at 3pm.

    The actual fee to enter Stone Mountain was the $15 parking fee, not too shabby. There were lots of different excursions going on, but we decided to keep it simple by only purchasing tickets to ride the sky lift. I, being a person of questionable character, was completely comfortable with going in the lift right until it came time to step in the doors of the claw-like contraption. Naturally, everything was fine, the view was beautiful and I was happy to forgo the 1.3 mile hike to the top. From that vantage point we got a spectacular view of the tops of Atlanta, we ran into a couple of rebel flag wavin’ folks and Graham marveled at the greenery growing from this humongous rock. After a decent amount of time staring of from afar, we ended up catching a ride back to get ready for the lasershow! Realizing we waited too late to get really good seats (and that we didn’t come prepared with blankets, chairs, coolers and the like) we finally sat down on a large boulder (haha) which wasn’t too bad. So for whatever strange reason, when Graham told me there was a lasershow, I thought he meant a fireworks show, and I didn’t figure it out until the words “LASERSHOW SPECTACULAR” was broadcast over the rock’s carvings of the Confederacy in colorful lasers. Woops! The show was extremely good, very different from anything I had seen and it kept a nice theme throughout.

    After more crazy traffic as we attempted to leave, we worked our way deep into the heart of downtown to our hotel. Graham was bursting at the seams to get to the place he booked- the Ritz Carlton. Typically we wouldn’t splurge on a very pricy hotel but he managed to get a fantastic corporate deal from his work. It was extremely nice! We did feel sort of out of place because it was so flashy. At one point we sat in the elevator wondering why the door wouldn’t close when, after we walked in and out of it two different times, a doorman showed us that we had to flash our room card towards the controls to prove that we were supposed to be there. Very fancy, but we felt like dorks! Graham informed them of our anniversary beforehand, so we were placed on the 17^th floor (the highest I have ever been), were give a bottle of sparkling cider and had 4 chocolate covered strawberries with a congratulatory note from the hotel. It was very, very nice. Thanks Ritz!

    On Sunday we (guiltily) decided to go to a Braves baseball game due to their weird scheduling. Graham and I are both fans of the team, but really it’s more like supporting them without having watched a game in fifteen years (insert second embarrassed emoji). After getting on the Marta, we were transferred to a bus, then finally delivered to Turner Field. We had decided to scalp tickets, to see if we could get them any cheaper than the online purchases. After battling it out with three crazed scalpers, including me nearly hyperventilating as two fought over selling us seats, we had bought 2 seats in the top section for $25. Not too shabby. As we entered the stadium (it is called a stadium right? Ugh) I retold Graham the story of my first Braves game experience, which happened in 3^rd
grade where my school had sent me for reading so many books, with a glint of admiration in my eye. It seemed like so long ago, I was really gearing up for another good time. They were playing the New York Mets for the day, which was fine because like I mentioned, we don’t keep up with baseball. We cheered when a lucky homerun was scored, we hissed when the Mets were at bat. After 7 great innings with a tied score, a newbie pitcher allowed 3 walk-ons which ultimately led to a 4-3 win for the Mets but we were not dismayed, after all we had pizza, cotton candy and a jumbo hot dog! It was so fun that we kind of decided to start watching baseball more consistently.

    Later that evening we decided to go out to eat but couldn’t pick a place. Eventually we decided to get something local and walked across the street to Meehan’s Public Place, an Irish restaurant. Let me tell you, if you’re in downtown- go. It was so yummy!! We started off with the tiniest slivers of fried pickles (currently still dreaming about). Graham had a huge burger and I had some yummy mashed potatoes. Since it was more of a pub there were several large televisions showing the Yankees vs the Red Sox that we watched. We were so into it that we went back to the room and finished it up. So, irony, we watched 2 professional games in 1 day- while we hadn't watched even one in over a decade.

    As we woke up on Monday we were like “wow, two years today, just wow.” Because time flies, ya know? So as we checked out of our hotel, we decided to keep our car in the valet since there is usually lots of traffic downtown with little parking. We planned to walk but the valet insisted that get a ride with them in their Cadillac. Well, if we must ;) So they drove us straight to the true heart of downtown. We decided on the Georgia Aquarium over the Coke Factory- though one day I shall go- since an overwhelming amount of people voted we go there instead. It was sort of expensive, I thought, $40 bucks a person. Now that I have went, I can say it was so worth it.

    There is way too much to list that we actually did, but our favorites included: riding on a conveyer belt as a Whale Shark swam over our heads, getting splashed by dolphins following their show, the sea star touching station and, my most favorite, the interactive penguin exhibit! Seriously, ya’ll, those penguins were so sweet!

    After spending several hours lurking around the aquarium, at 3 we decided to head home. We voted against the valet service, no cash on hand, and  ended up getting caught in a downpour! Eventually we arrived at the Ritz, aka the classiest place ever, looking like drowned rats as we asked for our car with no way to tip. Hashtag fail. After a smooth drive we arrived in Jacksonville at 8 o’clock, decided to grab a good old anniversary meal at Carrabba’s and were home by 10. Ugh, every single time we travel somewhere I find it amazing how much the world has to offer. And now, the countdown is finally on for both of us to go to Utah and Idaho together!