Hello Atlanta.

A couple of weeks ago Josh and I took the kids to Atlanta for a long weekend. The 9(ish) hour drive was surprisingly bearable with two babes in tow. I suppose it would seem easy after a 27(ish) hour drive to Chicago a couple years ago when Zoey was 2 months old and eating every 3 hours. haha!

Georgia is one of those places that some people just fall in love with. Country singers and other varieties of southern culture enthusiasts all seem to fall into this category. We were there in January, which admittedly is probably the ugliest time of year, but I just don’t see the grand appeal. Georgia is okay. Mountains are beautiful no matter where they are, so obviously those are lovely. But Atlanta doesn’t have any mountains, and it is the weirdest city I have ever explored. Atlanta brings all new meaning to the term “urban sprawl.”

ANYWHO, it was a fun place to visit for the weekend. It wasn’t too cold, about the same as the weather had been in Florida that week, or just a little colder. One night was pretty cold, and of course we chose that evening to just walk around and see everything.

I ate my first ever macaroon. These things look like little cartoon hamburgers, I don’t care what anyone says. They were okay, we ate the flavors that we purchased, but we all agreed that we probably don’t care enough for them to buy them again. The weirdest thing about Atlanta is that everything in the city closes at like 7:00pm. So there was pretty much nothing to do once it got dark. There was a Macklemore concert that night though, so there was still plenty of traffic to go around. el o el.

Of course we had to visit the aquarium while we were there. Or, the “water zoo” as my kids do lovingly call it. Atlanta boasts the largest aquarium in the world.

Zoey had talked for DAYS about seeing the penguins when we got there. So she was pretty thrilled that the penguins were also pretty happy to see her. They have the really cool tunnel thing where you can crawl under and through the penguin tank.

Yeah dude, they have WHALE sharks. SOOOOO cool. It was nearly impossible to get a good shot with its whole body in the photo.

The kids were pretty excited about the fact that you could stand beneath most of the big tanks. I was partially in awe, partially fighting back fits of claustrophobia. Awe won out in the end though, I’m sure my fellow guests were thankful. 😉

Because claustrophobics LOVE traveling through enclosed tubes surrounded by millions of gallons of water. GAH.

I think that the coolest place was the Children’s Museum of Atlanta. SO cool. If you’re local, it’s similar to the Imaginarium in Fort Myers, Fla. Only a bit more intense. Every couple hours they have shows where the employees engage the kids in learning through theater,music, and dance. I don’t know how that man maintained his level of enthusiasm for so long, but he never faltered. Zoey was more into it than Jace, but then again, Jace would always rather have busy hands than a show.

And there were trains. Trains upon trains. In which the train tables were all modeled after different continents. And there were HOLES in the MIDDLE OF THE TABLE! So Jace could literally SURROUND himself in train-age. OH, and buttons! Buttons that made lights and sounds happen! (Channeling his enthusiasm here. 😉 ) Basically, this is Jace’s idea of heaven (and mom thinks the map theme was pretty cool too.)

My absolute favorite was this paint wall. It was really just a wall covered in a layer of hard plastic with metal gutters at the bottom to catch the water and paint. It was SUCH a cool idea. And my kids looked adorable in their little aprons. I’m still trying to figure out how I can build one somewhere in my house. haha. Also, further confirmed that Zoey is likely going to be a lefty like Daddy.

We strolled around Centennial Olympic Park, where Atlanta hosted the summer Olympics in 1996. I think we might have to make visiting Olympic parks “a thing” that we do. We visited an old Olympic stadium while we were in Germany last year too.

We were even touristy enough to ask locals to take photos for us. HEY, we hail from one the tourism capitals of the US, I’ve taken my fair share of photos for visitors too. 😉

It was a really fun weekend trip. I am always down to explore somewhere new. We missed out on the World of Coca Cola while we were there, but there is always next time. The kids are still talking about the “hotel with the white beds” like we stayed somewhere fancy and amazing. When in fact we stayed in the cheapest place I could find on the side of town that the internet suggested was the “good side.” haha! It was nestled right next to a lovely establishment called The Pink Pony. It was a strip club, we got to jam out to their bass in to the wee hours of the morning overnight. Woo.

Make sure you check out my other travel adventures here!

Munich, Germany (video)

Munich, Germany 

Salzburg, Austria