A Trip to Atlanta

This past weekend we took a much needed trip to Atlanta to see Mike's family. We have never been so excited to travel before, but when the weather has been in the 20s for weeks you really look forward to a trip south.

We had such a great time with our family. It was nice to be able to spend the time hanging out and just being with one another. We also really enjoyed the 60 degree weather and the sunshine! Mike and I both kept saying, can we move now? It was so nice and so clean (something we are not used to in Philly). We now both see that while Philly is an awesome city filled with culture and history, we would prefer to raise our family in a place more like Atlanta (clean, new, safe). It reminds me of how I grew up and thats what I want for my own children.

Here are some highlights from the weekend:

• Mellow Mushroom Pizza! You may think that because we live in Philly, we can get great pizza at anytime. But do you know that we have yet to find a great pizza place? When we lived in Sarasota we went to this awesome place every Monday night. We thought for sure we would find something similar or even better, but no luck. There is a chain called Mellow Mushroom and it really has great pizza. I was talking about it for days before we went there and I was so excited to eat some Friday night after we got home.
• Manicures and Pedicures: we always do this when we visit (we being Mike's Mom, sister and me) and I love the tradition. Its so nice to get pampered!
• The World of Coke! Awesome trip! I LOVE coke, its the best drink ever invented and if it weren't so bad for you, I would probably drink a couple a day (right now I limit myself to 1 every other day). Coca Cola was invented in Atlanta, so they have this great museum dedicated to the invention, production, and culture of coke. It was very fun to see all the memorabilia. They also had a mini bottling factory that you could walk through and then at the end get a free bottle of coke. The best and the worst part was the tasting room. They have soda from all over the world to taste. There were some really good ones (like from South America) and some really nasty ones (like from Italy). The man running the tasting room announces overhead, "Try all the flavors in the room, but you must try Beverly from Italy, its very good" So everyone rushes over to this fountain and fills their glass. Let me tell you, as soon as that junk touched my lips I started to gag. Gross is an understatement, it was so bitter. I spit it out and then quickly found something sweet to get the taste out of my mouth. That Coke worker was really mean!
• Sundial Room at the Downtown Westin This is a restaurant that is on the 72nd floor of the hotel downtown. We rode a very fast elevator to the top floor and then the restaurant is circular and revolves (one revolution per hour) so you can see a panoramic Atlanta skyline. It was a very cool place to eat and because it was a clear day we could see forever.
• Swallow at the Hollow I finally got my long-awaiting southern biscuit! This restaurant is a bar-b-q place with all the southern fixins that we have missed for the past year. We both had bar-b-q with biscuits, mac and cheese, baked beans, coleslaw, and fried green tomatoes! All soo good!!
• Fast & Testimony Meeting We attended the sacrament meeting at the church near Mike's mom's house. She came with us too, which was so great. The meeting was very good, one of the best I have been to. We really enjoyed being there and I will always remember the way I felt as I sat and listened to everyone's testimonies.

Now that I have taken up tons of space to write all of this, I think I will wrap it up before this becomes a book. We had a really great time in Atlanta and we can't wait to go back. Of course we took our camera, but took no pictures, so sorry for the very pictureless post!