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My Trip to Atlanta

I don’t know if it is because I am getting more sentimental in my old age (I Turn 30 next month) but I don’t think I use my blog to chronicle my life (outside of money) as much as I would like.  I think it would be amazing to have a place to turn back to and say “Remember that trip?”  or “Remember that event?” I am going to fix that right now creating a new tab titled “Evan’s Journal.”

As I write this post The Wife is sleeping next to me, my son next to her in a pack and play and both of our mothers in a connecting room; I am in Atlanta for another 12 or so hours most of which will be spent sleeping.  To succinctly sum it up this trip has been amazing.   The Wife and I talked about this trip way over a year ago and started to financially plan for the trip accordingly.

We planned our flight in and out to coincide with our boy’s nap.  He is an amazingly happy child except  when he gets a bit overtired, but even then he has such an amazing disposition.  So The Wife and I arrived about 1pm on Thursday (The Mother and The Mother-in-Law meeting us on Friday) and checked in early to the Marriot Marquis.  Really cool hotel.  We had to book the hotel with my father’s help as there was a conference which he was invited to (although he didn’t attend) that gave him a much lower price then what rooms usually go for.  We paid about $155/night for 4 nights which is a really good deal for this particular hotel.

Thursday

I couldn’t believe how well my son did on the plane.  The Wife nursed him on take off and then he slept for about 45 mins.  When he woke up he was the happiest boy smiling and “dancing” on my lap.  Upon landing it was pretty much a calm rest of the day since we had gotten up pretty early to travel.  The Wife and I didn’t know where to go to dinner so I went to Twitter.  My fellow blogger, Jeff from SustainableLifeBlog recommended Max Lagars so we said why not and went for it. I was really impressed with the beers but the food was just eh.

Friday

This is when the fun really started! The Wife and I got up and asked the concierge for a place where I can get Biscuits and Gravy Breakfast:

Biscuit and Gravy in GA

I am not a breakfast guy but jebus was this good but HEAVY! Not sure how anyone can eat this more than once a month lol.  After breakfast we met up with The Moms who got to town and then went to my Graceland THE GEORGIA DOME HOME OF THE FALCONS.  We got an insane tour of the Georgia Dome for next to nothing ($4 a person).  Note: if you are a football fan and you are visiting another city you’d be shocked how many stadiums do this.

The tour took us from the luxury boxes down to the locker room down to the field.  I actually have a picture of The Son and I in Matt Ryan’s Locker!  I think the most amazing thing was getting ON TO THE FIELD!  I was literally on the 50 yard line.

50 Yard Line GA Dome

After the tour we walked to Glady’s Knight Chicken and Waffles.

Chicken and Waffles

After Lunch we walked over to the World of Coca-Cola. I have mentioned it in passing but since I was about 11 I have collected Coke Bottles; I must have a thousand, so going to the Museum (which I have been to when I was much younger at the old location) was a very cool experience.  I think my favorite thing there is the room where you can try over 60 Coke Products.  Grossest one hands down: Beverly from Italy.  For dinner we tried to go to a few different places, but it didn’t work out and we ended up at Benihana.  I was a little bummed that I was eating at something other than a local restaurant, but there were very few options considering the urgency and how much we had already walked.

Saturday

Friday was a lot of walking…about 5.5 miles (not counting the walking at each event) and we were all sore but we persevered! Saturday we headed to Georgia Aquarium.  AMAZING.  They had so many different areas to visit and while I liked seeing the Cichlid tank (I have a 90 gallon Cichlid tank at home) my favorite had to be the penguins.  My son went absolutely ape shit for them.  His reaction was worth the admission which was not cheap at $24 per person.  After the aquarium we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to Underground Atlanta.  I went to Underground Atlanta when I was younger, but it was much different!

The stores were not what I expected at all!  You know when you are watching VH1 and think to yourself, “Where the hell could a woman get an outfit like that?” or where do strippers shop? This is the place.  I rushed us out of there.

That night The Wife and I went out to dinner by ourselves while the moms watched the kid.  We called 5 or so local restaurants but everything was booked! I was shocked no one wanted to take my money lol.  We finally found a place, Teds Montana Grill, that would let us put our name down for an hour wait.  Food was pretty good, but our waitress sucked.  She left our bill when The Wife still had a half a glass of wine left, and didn’t even offer me another scotch (which I would have taken lol).

Sunday

THIS WAS THE DAY I HAD BEEN WAITING AN ENTIRE YEAR FOR! I was going to an Atlanta Falcon Home Game.  I have seen the Falcons play before but always away and always in a place I thought I might get my ass kicked (Falcons vs Eagles / Falcons vs. Giants / Falcons vs. Jets).  This was completely different experience not only because I was in the safe majority but because it was warm and in a dome.

The tickets were expensive, but so worth it since I have no intentional plans of seeing a game here for another couple years.  We were 17 rows from the 40 yard line on the aisle seat.  I think next time I could buy cheaper seats since the stadium feels like everything is close (think it is an illusion that has to do with the dome).  If you do follow me on twitter (and you should because I am awesome) you may notice that I am all for partying…so boy was I shocked when The Wife and I went to go a sports bar while The Moms watched the boy and someone told me that Georgia doesn’t sell alcohol before 12:30pm.  Didn’t they know this was a 1pm kick off! I ended up finding some nice tailgaters and literally buying beer from them as The Wife shook her head in horror at the disaster she married.

In between the first and second quarter The Wife had set up a very cute surprise. The Falcon came and visited us!

My Son and Freddie the Falcon

Do you see how close to the field we were?!

 

Overall the trip was amazing and I can’t wait to share this post with my son when he is old enough to understand it!

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26 COMMENTS

  1. We lived in Atlanta for a few years. I miss the place (and the cost of living). Glad you had a good time.

    PS: I never actually saw a Falcons game though…

    • Where do you live now? The cost of living has to be a mere percentage of what it costs to live on Long Island!

  2. Thanks for sharing your amazing weekend with us. Now I want to go visit my best friend (who lives outside Atlanta) and go to the aquarium!

  3. I’m hungry just looking at the pictures of the food. I might have to consider Atlanta as a vacation destination.

  4. I took the Princess and a friend to the World of Coke this summer when we went to ATL to see Britney Spears at the Philips Arena. We had an absolute ball —I agree with you on the tasting center — there are some truly icky ones out there and you have to wonder HOW people drink that stuff. I wish I could remember the name of the one that tasted like Jaegermeister. We were all like “gross” and when I said I thought it tasted like Jaeger, the Princess said “Well Mom, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about me doing Jaegerbombs when I get to college.” Gee, thanks honey, because honestly that possibility had not yet crossed my mind!

  5. Sounds like a great weekend! We’ve been to the Aquarium a couple of times – it’s a big hit with my kids!!

    • That Aquarium was AMAZING. I really like fish so if I wasn’t with The Wife and The moms I could have easily spent another hour or two there…all by myself like the creepy guy.

  6. Looks like you had a blast. We just recently went to our first NFL game. Being in Canada this is a feat. We really enjoyed ourselves and like you managed to score some great seats.

    • What game did you go to? Buffalo they are right over the border…

      The NFL sometimes does random games in Toronto.

  7. Silly Evan, in Atlanta for 4 days and you didn’t even come visit me! Haha, I TOTALLY could have told you it’s impossible to get a table at a restaurant on a Saturday night without a super-advanced reservation. I’m calling an Atlanta restaurant that I’ve always wanted to try today (Tuesday) to try to get a table on WEDNESDAY night.

    Anyway, Evan, next time you come to Atlanta, give me a call and let’s get another 8,000-calorie breakfast! (By the way, where did you go for those biscuits and gravy?)

    • I had no idea that you were in Atlanta, I would have met with you and any other blogger!

      I got them at the Metro Diner by my hotel.

      I really wish I would have known!

  8. Sounds like you had an awesome time. Sorry I forgot to warn you about the city pass – it was like 70 bucks and gave access to the aquarium, coke world and a few other things for like 60 bucks. As for the georgia law, that’s totally ridiculous – something like that would be unacceptable where I come from.
    probably my fav quote of the post “I ended up finding some nice tailgaters and literally buying beer from them as The Wife shook her head in horror at the disaster she married.” you forgot the #winning

    • TRUE! Atlanta played well and kept The Cam at bay. It was a really good game which is always a nice thing.

    • Thanks! We are also going to do the friends/family dinner around my actual birthday. I like to get at least 3 celebrations per year lol

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