I was very excited to give it to him. I kept it a secret for so long and if you know me at all that is a very hard thing for me to do. I had to tell him about it a week before his actual birthday because he kept trying to plan a trip for our 1 year anniversary and that just would not work. So Benjamin somewhat ruined the surprise factor. I was planning on making him breakfast in bed and placing the tickets on the tray for him to find, instead I had to hand him the tickets and say….”thanks for ruining your surprise.”
(Fast-forward 2 months to Friday, July 18th 5:00 am)We get up a leave for Hotlanta.
We arrive in Atlanta (I slept some of the way) around 2:30(ish) and head straight for the Georgia Aquarium. It was pretty much the most stressful place I have ever been up to this point in my life. I have never seen so many ill behaved children in one area. While the aquarium was nice and had some pretty awesome displays, Benjamin and I could not wait to leave. (Note to those wanting to go to the aquarium, the slowest day is Monday…not Friday afternoon). We grabbed the token souvenirs of coffee mugs and magnets and were off.
Than we head towards Buckhead to stay in our fancy-dan hotel that we got on Priceline.com. It was nice to be in a quiet place where there was not a screaming child or a rude person shoving you around. We stayed in a corner room that was spacious and clean.
We got ready for our dinner (I took a bath even though Atlanta is under a critical water shortage so please don’t tell anyone).We went Sotto Sotto and to anyone in Atlanta or planning on visiting Atlanta, Benjamin and I highly recommend this restaurant. It was amazing Italian and well worth it. Although we did have to put up with a waiter who obviously thought we were not good enough to eat their food and seemed quite upset that we were sitting in his section. We sat next to an older couple who were very nice and had only the greatest things to say about the food (they were quite entertaining). Although I almost threw up because the man ordered the fish and they cut it up at the table in front of you and so here they come with a whole fish (head and everything) and begin to just slice it up right there…blah.
We got back to the hotel and went for a swim and to dry off we went into the sauna (they had separate ones for men and women) and Benjamin and I both did not last very long in there due to larger people who were VERY proud of their bodies and felt the need to show them off from EVERY angle.
We woke up Saturday morning and started the day at Lenox Mall where we were a part of the Grand Opening of the largest Pottery Barn in the nation as well as the flagship store. It was very exciting (for me). I then went into Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel, Urban Outfitters and many other stores and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Benjamin tried to be excited for me but that just really wasn’t working. He was just ready to get to Turner Field, I think if I had been wiling he would have slept at the field all weekend.
Justin Metcalfe than took us out to lunch to the Mellow Mushroom which was delish. It was very nice to see Justin and catch up with him. We returned Justin to his car, which he left in a nearby lot as we ate, only to find it booted and a fine of $50 waiting for him. Apparently you cannot park and leave you car in that lot unless you are shopping in their stores. It was posted in the lot but on very small signs and with very small lettering. So went sent Justin on his way and began to make our way to Turner Field.
On our way there we were encountered with awful traffic and at one point had people turning around on Highway 75/85 (going the wrong way) to make it back to an exit due to gridlock traffic. So we journeyed off the beaten path and a little man tried to encourage us to take some train and then some bus and who knows where we would have ended up…so we bought a map. While Ben was getting the map some man came up to me to see if I would buy him a gallon of gas. I just told him he would have to ask my husband and ran to the car and locked the door. Poor Benjamin, I guess we know that I am willing to sacrifice the safety of my husband to protect myself.
It took a little while but we finally made it to the field. Where we had to wait 45 min b/c they do not open the gates until 4:30. While we were waiting a worker there was trying to start a game with some of the fans to pass the time and guess which couple was chosen to play…that’s right US! We had to throw baseballs into a bucket and I won! We got this little weekend bag with the Braves logo on it. It was very exciting. After the gates opened we ran down to get autographs and we were able to get (2) signatures, Yunel Escobar and Brent Lillibridge. Ben was really excited about Escobar’s and we just really liked Lillibridge b/c he is somewhat new and stood out there and signed stuff forever. Those were the only 2 players who came over and signed stuff and Escobar only signed like 10 things.
Then came game time. I took a million pictures and may put some up later. The game was fun. We had a hotdog which was also delish and cotton candy (a must for me at a baseball game). I also got my first Braves shirt and I have to say it is very cute. The Braves lost but it was still so much fun to watch a game.
When the game was over we went to the parking lot and thanks to the advice of our dear friend Justin to park in a certain lot, were able to leave the parking lot almost immediately. But due major construction on the hwy the ramp we need to take was closed which then led us on a long detour that didn’t even take us back around to the hwy. So out came the trusty map and we were off. It took us over an hour to get back to the hotel but we made it.
We woke up Sunday and went to eat breakfast at a place called The Flying Biscuit. Again delish. I forgot to tell Benjamin that it was a popular place mostly because it draws a large vegan crowd. He was not happy about the chicken sausage but was willing to try out the feta, mushroom and basil omelet and loved it!
We than began our journey to IKEA (quite possibly one of my favorite things we did this weekend). We bought a lovely bookcase, some storage items and a new bathroom rug,jammed in into our car and left for home. Of course it was not that east to get home b/c (notice the common theme here?) traffic was awful and it took us forever to even find the hwy much less get on the highway going in the right direction.
But we made it safe and sound and that is the story of our action-packed weekend in Hotlanta
