Georgia On Our Mind

Richie and I went to Atlanta, Georgia two weeks ago for a short 4 day trip. We had both been looking forward to this trip for quite some time. I was excited to take a trip during this beautiful fall season that we are having out this way. I knew traveling through North Carolina, South Carolina, and then entering into Georgia would offer stunning views and I was right, they were breathtaking views. It made the 7 1/2 hour trip go by much faster.

Once we entered Georgia and checked into our hotel we headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe. We had definitely worked up an appetite and were ready to fill our tummies. As we got to the Hard Rock Cafe we began to realize that they had no parking as did most everything in downtown Atlanta. Grrrr! This was extremely frustrating and we just kept driving around to finally figure out YOU HAD TO PAY TO PARK, yes pay to park just to eat dinner or even walk around the downtown area. To me that was absolutely ridiculous but after riding in a car for almost 8 hours and being extremely hungry sometimes you just do what you have to do. We wound up parking in a parking garage (which wound up costing us $10) and walking about a block to the Hard Rock Cafe. The disappointing thing was that dinner wound up being a complete let down and Richie and I both felt like the dinner was way overpriced and didn't taste as good as something we would normally get from Chili's.

So after dinner we headed back to our hotel and retired for the evening. This mind you is no typical hotel.....there definitely is a story there! We did not know upon booking this particular hotel that you had to pay $15 a day for parking, which let me add is way up on the ninth floor. It almost feels like you are going up 39 floors, plum ridiculous! So after getting car sick every time we drove up to the guest parking I was definitely ready to get into our room. Oh getting into our room, that's another story in itself. We had to park on the 9th floor, walk down one floor, grab the elevator to ride down the last 8 floors, walk outside to enter the hotel, once inside the hotel grab the elevator up 5 floors to our room. In case you haven't figured it out by now the parking garage isn't attached to the hotel at all and is shared with an adjacent office building that was 25 floors. So needless to say the parking situation SUCKED!!!

On Wednesday, I took Richie to Toccoa, Georgia where I lived for a little over 3 years starting in March of 1994. I myself wondered how much that small town had changed but other than a couple of strip malls and a new supercenter WalMart everything looked pretty much the same. Richie and I ate at my favorite restaurant in Toccoa, Los Amigos. They still have some of the best mexican food on the east coast that I've ever had. Next we went to Toccoa Falls College where I attended briefly. The waterfall is still breathtaking and it was pure joy to walk that area with the love of my life holding my hand. The leaves were falling almost like snow and it was definitely a moment that Richie and I both wished we could have frozen in time.

After walking around Toccoa Falls for awhile we decided to head to what was one of my favorite malls while in living in Georgia for those few years, the Gwinnette Place Mall in Deluth, GA. It is a 2 story mall and has just about everything you could imagine. When I first moved to Toccoa, GA I wondered where the local malls were. Well it didn't take me long to figure out you definitely had to drive to find a mall, almost an hour to be exact. I always loved this mall and it has a lot to offer. It was fun walking it again after almost 13 years and to be walking it with Richie made it even more special. After walking around for several hours and picking up a few packages here and there we decided to head to dinner. We were both in the mood for a glass of wine and a nice italian dinner. Thanks to the GPS system we found an Olive Garden and after getting an intimate booth we enjoyed a nice meal together and then headed back to Atlanta.

Thursday Richie and I decided to go to the World Of Coca Cola. Richie had never been there and I had actually been to the old location back in 1996 when Heather & Linda came to visit. The new location is much more spread out and they have added a few different things as well as more drinks, tour guides, and a much larger Coca Cola store. It was a awesome experience to share it with my husband who is also a Coca Cola fan like myself. Very rarely do you see Pepsi products in our house unless once in awhile we pick up a pack of Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi. Other than that we are avid Coke fans all the way!! There definitely were some nasty tasting coca cola products from all over the world. Probably the most disgusting was the Beverly from Europe. Oh man it made the hair on your neck stand up! I myself like the traditional coca cola products like regular coke, diet coke, vanilla coke, and cherry coke. I always know what I am getting in the traditional flavors and their taste never changes. The one thing that I thought was absolutely cute was that the Coca Cola bear was on site and it was so cute to watch the kids take pictures with it. I have always loved polar bears and the Coca Cola bear is sure to bring a smile on anybody's face. What a cutie!

After Richie and I tried every single Coca Cola product there was we headed over to grab some dinner and relax by watching a football game where the Jets played the Patriots. We found a local ESPN zone, yay! Just our place! So we kicked back and took in a game while munching on some delicious food. We of course were rooting for the Jets as my husband and I can't stand the Patriots! I was actually surprised because there were quite a few Jets fans at the game with much less Patriots fans so that made for a wonderful evening! The Jets won the game 34-31 and it was a really good game! By that time we were tired and ready to retire for the evening but I wasn't looking forward to the drive up 9 whole floors just to get to our room, ugh!! Ready or not here we come though...

Friday Richie and I ate lunch at The Varsity, one of the famous places to eat in Atlanta, Georgia. The Varsity isn't a place you go to often because I'm sure the calorie count is through the roof! They do have the best chili cheese dogs, fries, onion rings, coca cola products and old fashioned milkshakes. The Varsity is still the world's largest drive-in restaurant and has been serving customers since 1928. People from all over the world come to experience The Varsity because there is nothing like it anywhere! The World's Largest Drive-in sits on more than two acres and can accommodate 600 cars and over eight hundred people inside. On days of Georgia Tech football games up to 30,000 people visit The Varsity. It sells more than two miles of hotdogs daily, a ton of onion rings, 2500 pounds of fresh cut potatoes, 5000 homemade fried pies, and 300 gallons of chili, all of which are made from scratch daily. The downtown Varsity is also the world's largest single outlet for Coca-Cola. This is where the now famous cry of The Varsity started "What'll Ya Have".

After lunch we headed over to the Georgia Aquarium. Richie & I love touring aquariums. Together we have been to 4 different aquariums in 4 different states. We've been to the Long Beach Aquarium in CA, the North Carolina aquarium at Fort Fisher, Ripley's aquarium in Myrtle Beach, SC, and now the Georgia aquarium. Can you tell we like to look at marine life? The Georgia Aquarium is the world's largest and most engaging aquarium. With eight million gallons of fresh and marine water and more aquatic life than found in any other aquarium, you are sure to see things you have never seen before! Richie and I got to see whale sharks, beluga whales, stingrays, horseshoes crabs, sea stars, and tons of different freshwater fish as well as saltwater fish. It was just an incredible day at the aquarium and we got to see so many different animals upclose. This by far was one of the best aquariums I have ever been to!

Well until our next endeavor stay tuned for more Fender Chronicles. Also keep a lookout for more vacation slideshows coming soon!! May God bless you all and may you have a wonderful holiday season!

Blessings,

~LF