In the ATL

Last weekend, John and I spent 48 hours in Atlanta. Actually, it was less than 48 hours if you don't include flight time. It was a whirlwind trip but so worth it! The reasons for going were two-fold: a dear friend of mine was getting married and, my Grandad happens to live there also. I hadn't seen him in 10 years and John had never met him! Time to remedy that. We were considering driving, which would have been 9 hours each way. Because I loathe both driving and passengering on long rides, I wasn't really looking forward to this. As luck would have it, Airtran ran a sale earlier this summer. $40 tickets each way if you flew on certain days. The wedding was on a Friday night so we were able to fly in on Thursday and out on Saturday and take advantage of the sale. SOLD! When's the last time you flew somewhere for $100? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Unfortunately, since we had such a finite amount of time, we had to schedule everything pretty carefully. Luckily, we were landing on Thursday night and going straight to the hotel so the 2 hour rain delay and 30+ minute wait for the hotel shuttle didn't screw up any of those plans. That was really the only snafu of the weekend, thankfully.

Friday morning, after a short night, we rented a car and drove to my Grandad's where my parents were, having driven up from Florida just to see us! How nice. The house hadn't changed much in 10 years, just some shifting of furniture and rooms. I also got to see my parent's cats, Bubba Ray and Fat Winnie! I think they missed me. Haven't seen them in 6 years! We breakfasted at Cracker Barrell. Typically when on vacation, I don't like to eat in restaurants you can eat at in your hometown. However, my love affair with Cracker Barrell started in Georgia 20 years ago so we thought it only fitting to rekindle that flame. I had biscuits and apples. It was delicious. We're not going to talk about how much I ate in 48 hours. I'm considering those calories a distant memory. The scale remembers though. Oh, does she ever.

My stepsister (haven't seen her in 6 years either!) met us for breakfast was going to be our tour guide on the one thing we were able to squeeze in before the wedding Friday night. John has never been to Atlanta so I wanted to be able to take him downtown at least once to just see it. Which we had had more time to explore.

We settled on taking the CNN Behind the Scenes Studio tour. CNN is headquartered in Atlanta (thank you, Ted Turner). We were able to get discounted tickets through my stepsister's connections. The hour-long tour was interesting. We saw live broadcasts (behind glass) and learned about the innerworkings of what it takes to run the news juggernaut that is CNN. If you're wondering, the tickets for this typically cost $15. Parking is $10, unless you're on the street.

Half of these people were on Facebook instead of working

A little while later, John and I were experiencing our very first Atlanta traffic jam. Took about 45 minutes to go 4 miles and it wasn't even rush hour. Thankfully, John did all the driving this trip, as he usually does. They're not kidding when they say people drive crazy there. It was nuts! The wedding was in Roswell, north of Atlanta. It seemed like a really cute town that I would have liked to tour. Cute shops and restaurants. Not nearly enough shopping on this trip. And when I say 'not nearly enough' I mean NONE. Not even a magazine purchase at the airport.

We stayed at a Doubletree. The Doubletree is my absolute favorite hotel. My reasons, again, are two-fold: fresh cookies at check-in (and pretty much any other time you want) and the most comfortable beds you could ask for. I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the room. It was really nice! I have a feeling it was an upgrade although the price still reflected the lower level of room. It had a king-sized bed and a pull out couch. We were on the top floor = vaulted ceilings! Lots of room, sizeable bathroom.

The wedding was small and pretty. The reception was held at a historic mansion on Roswell. It was tucked back in the trees and provided an intimate space for parties. The appetizers were awesome! Southwest Pork rolls and cheeseburger sliders! I want to get married again just to serve fun appetizers. The cake? Oh, I thought you'd never ask! The most important part, in my opinion, is of course the cake. It did not disappoint. Buttercream frosting, vanilla cake and raspberry filling. Delicious! The bride was beautiful (haven't seen her since my wedding 3 1/2 years ago!) I've got to get down there more often, I think. We are so glad we decided to go to the wedding. I love weddings. I also don't have a lot of friends so I've got to hang onto the ones I do have, even if they're very far away.

Cute little house at the reception

The next morning we slept in without our Sadie alarm clock waking us up. It was wonderful. I ought to pay $100 to have this luxury more often. We missed her but relished not having her there in the morning to stare at us and lick our faces. We had breakfast at the Peachtree Diner nearby. The greasy food did its job of soaking up all the wine I'd imbibed the night before. Then we headed back south of the city for a couple more hours of visiting family and football watching for the guys.

Back to the airport to drop off the rental car, speedy security check and at our gate in no time. For being a large airport, Atlanta-Hartsfield moves pretty swiftly. An hour flight back to Dayton and it was all over. As I type this, we just got back yesterday but it feels like a couple weeks ago. It all went so fast and we packed in what we could so it really felt like days in between visiting family, the CNN tour, the wedding, and then leaving. It was a great trip! And a much needed long weekend.