Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Summer Adventure

Last month, we took a family vacation to visit my family in North Carolina. After a relatively short thought process, we decided to make it a road trip instead of taking a flight. It was fun for the most part and actually went better than we could have imagined.
We left Texas on a rainy Friday afternoon - after Wynne got off work, so really more like early evening. We arrived in New Orleans around midnight.
We spent Saturday in N.O. sightseeing. We had breakfast at Mother's, a popular local eatery, then walked around town. We hit up Cafe Du Monde, whose beignet equipment had stopped functioning!! "No beignets" signs were posted and people looked disappointed.
Luckily for us, when we stopped by later that evening, the machines were working. Their beignets are well worth the second trip.
We had lunch at another popular place to eat in N.O., the Palace Cafe.
All in all, it was a fun place to stop by and we may even attempt it again when Eliot is older and when it is cooler.


 

 

 

 
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Then on Sunday morning we woke up around 3:30...we got on the road at 4 am. After a slight delay on a bridge caused by an overturned 18-wheeler carrying hydrocloric acid and our subsequent detour, we were traveling at a pretty good pace by 5:30 or 6.

We finally pulled into my grandparent's driveway close to 9 pm. We spent most of the next day at their house. Then in the late afternoon, we headed out to my parent's place, where we spent the next 3 days.


 

 

 

 
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On Friday, we had our farewells as we got on the road to Atlanta. We reached Atlanta around dinner time and once we'd checked into our hotel, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. We could barely get Eliot to stop dancing in her chair enough to eat anything!
We walked to Olympic Park to catch a few minutes of their Movie at the Park, which was Footloose...we ended up watching the previews and only the first few minutes of the movie before making our way back to the hotel, exhausted.
The next day we got up and went out for breakfast. We ate at a diner in the university area, then walked around. Wynne had been particularly impressed by Atlanta's "Ambassadors" the night before, so during our walk, he made a point to stop and talk to the ones we would see. I wish I would have gotten a picture of some of the Ambassadors - they were all so friendly!
We went to the Coca-Cola museum, and we had a blast. As anyone who has been there can say, the best part is definitely the tasting room. We tried small sips of all kinds of different beverages produced by Coca-Cola that are distributed around the world (but unavailable in the U.S.).


 

 

 

 
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After a lunch break and nap, we went back out to the Georgia Aquarium. I'd heard about it from some friends of mine, who were also able to meet up with us. It was a blast and we were all so amazed at how cool the aquarium really was!


 

 

 

 
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We decided NOT to wake up at 3 for the last leg of our trip, and so we got up and got on the road around 9 or so that morning...finally arriving safely home close to midnight. I don't think we've ever been happier to see our own house and sleep in our own bed as we were after being in our car so much!