Atlanta with Chrissy and Allison 2014

We went to Atlanta! Chrissy has been nursing Owen back to health since April 2013, so she was overdue for some relaxation and girl bonding time. Coordinating was a little tricky but Allison, Chrissy, and I could all get a direct flight to Atlanta, so off we went!

Allison, me, and Chrissy- together!

We decided to stay in the Buckhead area close to our hotel to make the best use of our 36 hours together. Allison and Chrissy arrived before I did on Friday so they had dinner at Cook Hall and drink on the patio, and when I got in we had drinks in the W's lobby, affectionately called "The Living Room." We were off to a good start. 

First order of business the next morning was sleeping in late. This was super exciting for me, and I suspect for Chrissy too since she also has two kids. Allison was an angel and kept quiet for as long as she could handle and then ran out to get us coffee and breakfast goodies. Also, we had to Facetime with all our husbands and kids before we got going, which was actually pretty fun as we crossed over into each other's conversations and Allison and I got to see Owen, Hailey, Jason, and Dan, and vice versa with all our families.

So we missed brunch where we were going to go, it was late and the place was overrun with football fans. But we did a little walking tour of Buckhead and a local Uber cab driver recommended a place to us. It turned out to be one of the best tapas place in Atlanta, Eclipse di Luna, and the music was all Cuban salsa. We were beyond pleased.

Allison and Chrissy with a Palm Tree hat at Eclipse di Luna

Somehow we ended up at the mall which was not the original plan, but it kept us out of the rain. Allison and Chrissy had big frozen yogurts and I saw my first ever cupcake ATM. I almost took a picture of it, but it's one of those things... it looked like a pink ATM, the picture wouldn't do justice to the genius of the idea.

It was time for more lazing about. We went to check out the hotel pool, but the people there were all quiet and intense, and we're loud and relaxed so we passed. We sort of nap-rested, which was necessary after sleeping in(!) and then got ready for dinner.

Buckhead Diner- Actually an upscale restaurant

We had dinner at the Buckhead Diner which does look a diner from the outside- and how appropropriate to our Jersey roots!- but is actually an upscale restaurant on the inside. Apparently, celebrities are seen there all the time, but we didn't see any. So we pretended with the celebrity photo wall. And we had lots of delicious food and drinks.

Chrissy, Billy Crystal, and me

We walked to and from dinner, so I'm sure we burned off all the calories from dinner and our after party. Right? We went to Whiskey Blue which ended up being kind of clubby bar with nice views of Atlanta on its porch. We even made some friends. Then it was back to Cook Hall so we could sit on the patio and have loud inappropriate conversations by ourselves. Definitely some quality bonding! Time to plan our 2015 getaway!

Porch at Whiskey Blue Bar- tried and failed to get Atlanta's skyline in the picture

Happy birthday, Chrissy!

• Last visit with Chrissy, August 2014
• Last visit with Allison, June 2014
• Last visit to Atlanta, May 2012 family roadtrip!

SE Roadtrip Days 5-6: Atlanta, GA 2012

Group shot in Piedmont Park, Atlanta, GA

One thing we have learned immediately on this roadtrip is that you can take in much fewer sights with a baby, and Monday night I saw Christina's Facebook message that our motto should be "Survive!" so we paced ourselves on the first day in Atlanta.

We took recommendations on where to go, and everyone agreed we should try Varsity, a drive-in chili hot dog place.  The chili hotdogs were okay (a little small), but the place itself was awesome. They gave James a server's hat that we put to good use.

Varsity for chili hotdogs

Varsity hat for James

Beyond food, people we asked had no consensus on what we should do in Atlanta. The top guidebook recommendations are the Aquarium, Coca-Cola World and Centennial Park, but the Aquarium is prohibitively expensive if we're going to make it almost 3 weeks on the road, and we couldn't stomach paying to be advertised soda in 4-D.  We put Centennial Park on the list, but left it for day 2.

So we started at the Martin Luther King National Historic site in the Auburn section of Atlanta. The visitors center is a pretty small but interesting museum, and you can also go see MLK's grave at the Center for Nonviolence, his childhood home, and Ebenezer Baptist Church in the immediate area.  I thought the most moving part of the exhibit was seeing the very modest wagon that his coffin was carried in when he died. I've seen Presidential funeral processions in D.C., and the comparative modesty for a man who was a national hero is sad.

Outside the MLK visitor center

A civil rights march exhibit where you can join the march

The MLK Memorial at the Center for Nonviolence

Then we head over to Piedmont Park which James loved because the Active Oval had a huge section of grass he could run in without hurting himself.  After we saw how happy this made him we tried to fit in a park during as many days of our trip as we could. We liked it too because Piedmont Park is really beautiful with the city skyline overlooking lush green fields.  And that was it for me and James for the day. Kevin really wanted to see an Atlanta Braves game and see the stadium.  It was a night game and we don't think James is stadium-friendly even if it were a daytime game so James and I stayed behind while Kevin checked it out.

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James gives Piedmont Park his vote

The Atlanta Braves

For Day 2, we started with the more touristy Centennial Park, designed as the Olympics town square during the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, but now more well-known for the terrorist bombing that took place there during the Olympics.  It was nice, but it wasn't as good for James to run around in, and apparently that's how we judge parks now.

James, stroller-bound in Centennial Park

Afterwards, we went for lunch at Fat Matt's Rib Shack, and wow, did that make our day.  We had the most terrific BBQ of our lives. Delicious! And everyone who worked there was really nice to us and asked us a bunch of questions about James. 

At Fat Matt's (notice James is about to steal my sandwich)

After lunch, we got one more site in-- the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. The guide books aren't big on this museum, but I'm a big fan of President Carter.  I think he really stuck to his ideals in Washington, even if it turns out that it doesn't work-- I think he was our one "Mr. Smith" president. More importantly, the work he's done through the Carter Center after leaving the presidency has been really impressive. Anyway, I enjoyed the museum a lot because I'm a fan, and James enjoyed the museum because it wasn't crowded at all and it was largely child-proof and he got to run around.

Jimmy Carter museum Oval Office recreation

Things My Husband Complains About #2

Kevin documented our ride home from California. Reposted here from his Customer Service Circle of Hell blog:

They Call It Hotlanta Because It Is in Hell
The last two times I’ve flown, I’ve spent an unscheduled night in a city unrelated to my destination. My first impression of Atlanta was that a disproportionate number of people there wear shirts with unintelligible mottoes like “If you are giving one hundred percent, give ten percent more!” or “I look like I care but I don’t.” My theory is that these shirts are designed for the Rapture, so the Divine has clear instructions on whom to take, and who can stay.

Of course, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to conduct this sociological experiment had my Airtran flight not landed fifteen minutes after my connecting flight departed. A wise man once told me that it’s important to fly early, so you can take a later flight if your scheduled one is delayed. Unfortunately, on Airtran, the noon flight is the last of the day.

When the delay first snuck onto the screen, I scuttled to a checkout counter, where a woman informed me that the weather was not Airtran’s fault (indisputable) and, accordingly, Airtran had no responsibility to get me to my destination that day (disputable). Time: 11:00 a.m. Post-wedding hangover: violent to very violent. When I asked if there was anyone else I might speak to, she told me I could wait for her manager, a man whose plan was to first avoid me, then avoid eye contact, and ultimately intimate that I was lucky to be speaking to him at all. But I did not feel lucky.

Still, I might have made my connection had Airtran not spent so much time ushering people onto the plane who did not, in fact, have seats. Or, more accurately, people who had the same seat. The man next to me, for example, had the same seat as another man. They were both large men and had never met each other and, as progressive as San Francisco is, it seemed unlikely they would share a seat for five hours. Nevertheless, they were better off than my wife, who did not actually have a seat. Instead, she had a hole where a seat was supposed to be (see above). The first flight attendant greeted my wife’s request for a seat as though this was wholly unreasonable, but the second flight attendant helpfully ripped a cushion off someone else’s seat.

Airline seat without seat part

In Hotlanta, a kind but painfully slow man confirmed that the next flight left in the morning, but not before a little comedy routine with the other kind but slow people at the counter. This is how the routine went: my program won’t refresh, and we can’t make reservations—wait, just kidding, the program doesn’t have a refresh function! This routine was so funny, he called in his boss to get in on the joke, who agreed that suggesting the program could refresh was outrageous. Then there was some light banter about how cold the fan was. Then he told me he couldn’t offer a hotel on account of the weather—airtight Airtran logic—but he could give me a phone number, where I could talk to somebody who would give me a reduced rate.

Customer Damnation in Atlanta

I called the number, spoke to a human being, and hoped against reason this would work. This did not work. I walked to the busy area where shuttles arrive. The first driver with Comfort Suites painted on his van assured me that he was not going to Comfort Suites and, in retrospect, I should have taken this as a dark omen, as my wife did, who was convinced the driver had no idea where he was taking his van. I had a good feeling about the second van with Comfort Suites painted on it, even after the driver was assaulted by a man in one of those people movers that only GOB from Arrested Development uses. Alas, this driver was also not driving to Comfort Suites. At this point, I called the hotel and asked what, exactly, was painted on his driver’s van. He said, unsurprisingly, Comfort Suites. After asking each arriving driver where his van was going, I finally identified the correct van. This is what was painted on his van: Econo Lodge, Ramada Inn, Country Inn.

Comfort Suites is a bit of a misnomer, as it’s difficult to feel comfortable when you’re using every last bit of energy not to attack the man who doesn’t know what is painted on his own van, and it’s sort of a stretch to call a room a suite when it’s made entirely of bathroom tile. I don’t recommend staying there, or flying Airtran, or flying, but I do recommend Jeff and Inga, whose beautiful wedding made the trip well worth it.