Well, it’s taken me forever to finally wrap up my Atlanta Staycation posts, but I’m finally getting to it. Yay!! If you recall, this year instead of doing our typical mountain trip we decided to stay closer to home and just spend a couple days in Atlanta. We stayed busy the 2 and half days we were there.
The last of our stops on our Atlanta Staycation was at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. It’s quite impressive when you walk around the corner from the parking lot when you see the Dinosaur Plaza that shows off 3 dinosaur replicas.
Another item on our to do list in Atlanta was the zoo. We’ve never been to Zoo Atlanta, well Rob has, but it’s been years ago. We thoroughly enjoyed it. Here’s some highlights from our afternoon there. The zoo covers 40+ acres of which most of it is has nice shaded areas with lots of trees. I enjoyed the fact that many of the exhibits could be viewed from several different angles. That’s always important when you’re trying to find where some of the animals may be hiding.
Another excursion on our City Pass while in Atlanta was a CNN Studio Tour. We knew that this would be a great activity to squeeze in between other events. They start a new tour about every 10 minutes and they last about an hour. Up until a few years ago they didn’t allow small children, but we found out while on the tour that they have lifted that restriction. We kinda wished for our tour, they’d bring it back.
While we were on our little staycation trip in Atlanta, one thing on our list to do was ride the Skyview Atlanta, ferris wheel. Its located right in the heart of Atlanta on Luckie St. beside the Tabernacle. Although, a bit pricey, its one of those things you say you could live without doing, but it’s well worth it. You get beautiful views as you leisurely, move through 4 complete rotations of the wheel.
encounWe recently took a trip to Atlanta over the 4th of July weekend for a little staycation. We got the City Pass, which kept us busy the 3 days we were there at a discount rate. Our first attraction was the Georgia Aquarium. We went to the Georgia Aquarium back in 2007, but that was before they expanded so it was exciting to see all that has been added. Places like the Aquarium of Western Australia offer school excursion and educational activities for your child.
A few weeks ago, we got given tickets to the Braves game. Our seats were behind homeplate in the players’ family section. Really good seats! Drew couldn’t go because he had a soccer game. Since we had six tickets we invited Rob’s Step Dad, David, his brother, Nick, and Alex brought a friend along. We had a great time even without a win from the Braves.
A few weeks ago, we left work early, checked the kids out of school, and drove up to Atlanta for a night at the Fox. After getting up to Atlanta, we parked and decided to walk around a bit before figuring out where we would eat dinner. We walked by this beautiful church, All Saints Episcopal Church and decided to go inside.
Last Saturday, our friend, Chris, invited to us to go with him to Callaway Gardens to see the FSU Circus.
Over MLK weekend we went up to Blue Ridge, Ga with our friends the “S” family. We left Friday night after loading up the car. We arrived about 9ish, just in time to set up our air mattresses and hope in. Saturday morning we awoke to Mr. S cooking bacon. Rob got up and started cranking out waffles. After that we got dressed. The Drew went outside to see our dogs playing with the beautiful husky, Beckham, from up the hill who came to say hi. Once we packed the coolers for the day, we loaded up and headed to…
Sunday we headed out to the Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area to see petroglyphs made by Native Americans. Most of them were so weather-warn you could hardly make out the shapes, but I just stood there closed my eyes and imagined the Natives pounding away at the rocks to make those carvings. Amazing! We left there and drove over to the John C. Campbell Folk School, which is a school that allows a non-competitive, adult learning community offering classes in art, cooking, craft, dance, gardening, music, etc. that vary in length.
Saturday was kind of a lazy day, much to Rob’s chagrin. He and my FIL, David, ended up going to the store for steaks and also to check out a couple spots. After they got back we ate lunch and decided to go tubing at Pappy’s. Every time we left the cabin, we passed this place and it piqued our curiosity. It was like $6 for an hour of tubing, but it ended up being nearly 2 hours on the river. Really great for the money! Then, when we got done tubing we walked around Pappy’s. There’s a general store…
Friday we got up, had a quick breakfast, and headed out to see if we could get any fish to bite. Since we needed to find out a good place to fish and get some bait, so we stopped at Paradise Bait and Tackle. We saw signs for it as we drove toward the river. Turned out to be a little building on someone’s property. My MIL had to use to restroom, so the man called up his Mama and asked, “are you dressed? cuz I gots a young lady customer who needs to use the facilities.” There were several…
Day 2 started with some homemade waffles and jambalaya quiche and some web surfing while surrounded in the beauty of the mountains. Soon after, we threw on our swimsuits and hiking boots and headed to Helton Creek Falls Daisy usually travels in a travel crate, but with 8 people in the Pilot, there’s was no room for her crate. All the pics shown on this post are of the upper falls at Helton Creek. On the way back to the cabin for lunch. Quick dip in the hottub. After lunch, several of us decided to hike at Dukes Creek Falls.…
Our first day in the mountains, we were busy unpacking, grocery shopping, and enjoying the 4th of July festivities. Here we are making fools of ourselves enjoying ourselves at the festivities at Vogel State Park. Dizzy fun! After our equilibrium returned, we enjoyed some egg tossin’ and some balloon throwin’! The greased pole competition was fun to watch. None of us participated in that. We made a stop on our way back to the cabin at Booger Hollow for a couple odds and ends. Chatting on the deck while enjoying the beautiful scenery. My little Ham anxiously awaiting burgers for…
Here’s the cabin, we stayed in for the 4th of July trip this year. It was hands down the nicest and biggest cabin we’ve stayed in. It’s a 3 bedroom 3 1/2 bath with a large playroom on the bottom floor complete with games, foosball, and air hockey. Sleeps 9-10. It’s located in Blairsville, Georgia, which is just the location we’ve been trying to stay in since we started this tradition. The views from the cabin are amazing, but I’ll warn you that when you turn on the the street where the cabin is located it’s extremely steep; To say…
Yesterday, we dropped the kids off so that they could hang out with their Uncle Nick while Rob and I escaped for a date night in Decatur, GA. One of Rob’s buddies from high school, Jason Passmore, had a CD release party at the Java Monkey. After finding a parking spot and locating Java Monkey, we walked around to find something to eat, as the Java Monkey just sells drinks, appetizers, finger foods and desserts. Nothing real substantial. We ended up eating at a little spot right around the corner called Noodle House. It’s a locally owned, Atlanta Chain, that…
A few weeks ago, actually it was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we got up and decided to go over to Pine Mountain for a day hike. We packed up Drew’s backpacking backpack with water, stuff for lunch, sun screen, and other necessities. Gentlemen, discover a collection of men’s handbags at Vintage Leather. Our range combines style and functionality, catering to your unique needs. We hopped in the car and headed to FDR State Park Office to get a map and go to the restroom one last time before venturing out on our day hike. We decided to try…
Saturday we dropped Drew off at a friend’s house as he would be riding up with another player for the 3rd game of state cup. The rest of us ventured over to Columbus, GA for part of a day. It was the 2nd Annual Scout Expo. Pack 29 didn’t have a booth, but we wanted to go check out the expo. Lots of fun activities, from mystery boxes to making carpenter bee houses. Aubie showed up to join in on the fun Life size Angry Birds Miniature size Angry Birds Making rope Cool car Although, Drew wasn’t able to attend…
Drew had an all day soccer clinic in Atlanta this past Saturday. We decided to make the most out of it and go up as a family. It was on the campus of Oglethorp University, which is a beautiful campus. In between games we got to see a free baseball game there as well.