Zac and I had been to Atlanta, Georgia multiple times.  Maybe even dozens of times between the two of us!  But it was in the airport.  During a layover.  Does that count?  No?  That’s what everyone else said, too.  So we made sure that Atlanta was a destination on the map so that we could officially check it off of the list. 

I wasn’t entirely sure what we were going to do when we got there, but I knew that Atlanta was home to two of my favorite things: Coca-Cola and Chick-Fil-A!  Apparently, Atlanta is quite fond of both the letter “C” and hyphens.  Who knew. 

I was pretty excited about our campground.  I had booked a stay at Stone Mountain State Park’s campground and their website was really nice and it appeared that they had a lot to offer.  It did not disappoint! 

The site we had was one of our favorites to date and they had a ton to offer that we didn’t even get around to!  In case you’re unaware, Stone Mountain is a large granite deposit and has three confederate “heroes” carved into the side of it.  I thought it was pretty funny that they kept referring to them as heroes as that would never fly back home in the North!  Also, streets named after Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis… scarce up North!  Go figure. 

But they had two movies that showed the making of the carving and also the history of the civil war in Georgia.  Did you know that Atlanta is the only US city that has been completely destroyed by war?  I guess it makes sense, but I had never thought of it like that before.  Their little village area was all decked out for Christmas and they had a historical village section, too.  We really enjoyed our time there and barely scratched the surface of all they had to offer.  So, Stone Mountain will rank high on the list of places we would sometime like to revisit!

Now, back to more important things: deep fried food and sugar.  Ah, yes.  Our love affair with Chick-Fil-A goes back quite a long way.  Zac first discovered it on his way down to college in Orlando.  It was love at first bite.  And then they began slowly creepy up in Ohio.  That’s when the overnight campouts to obtain free chicken sandwiches for a year began.  I believe between the two of us we attended at least 10!  It was a no-brainer that we would be visiting the original! 

It was a totally different CFA experience!  It was a sit down dinner that had a much bigger menu than your typical CFA.  They had waffles and collard green and MAC AND CHEESE!!!!  The Mac and Cheese was to die for!  I wish that they offered it at all their dinning establishments!  If you are a fan of Chick-Fil-A, you really must make your way to Atlanta for this treat at some point in time.  

Are you a fan of tremendous flavor?  Sappy videos that make you cry?  Docents who speak multiple languages fluently?  Then The World of Coca-Cola is for you! 

Your tour begins by being greeted into a big room with Coke antiques and advertisements covering the walls.  Our guide then gave us a brief history of Coca-Cola and then asked where everyone was from in the room.  There were of course people from multiple states.  He was really knowledgeable.  When Brody told him we were from Cleveland, he said, “Oh, that’s Eerie!” (Melanie’s inner dialouge- ‘Clever play on words, Coke Man.  You have my attention’)  THEN, he asked what other countries people were from.  A man raised his hand and said “Germany”.  Our guide then not only said Guten Tag, he proceeded to have a conversation with the man!  (‘Interesting…. he must have studied abroad or something’) Again, someone raised their hand.  “India!”.  Fluent…. whatever they speak in India.  (‘What.  Is.  Going.  On.’)  Another, “Japan!” Then he was speaking to them in JAPANESE!  Then to another person in Chinese, or Mandrin?  Not sure.  There were at least two others as well!  (‘That’s it.  He’s a droid.  We’re being lead around Coca-Cola world by a robot.’)  I don’t know how he knew all of these languages given that he couldn’t have been older than 25.  But needless to say, everyone in the room was super impressed.  Then he took us into the theater to show us a exclusive to Coca-Cola World video.  That’s when the aforementioned crying happened.  After that you were free to explore the rest of the museum by yourself and, of course, have your picture taken with the Coca-Cola polar bear!  We had a blast!

To round out our time in Atlanta, we enjoyed an evening at Medieval Times.  I had always wanted to go to a dinner theater/jousting tournament!  There’s not much explaining I can do.  It’s pretty self explanatory.  But if you ever find yourself near one of these establishments, GO!  We had SO much fun.  Our kids will remember it a long time.  Probably because Mommy made a fool of herself screaming and cheering for the Green Knight….

We got to enjoy some much needed time with friends in Atlanta, too!  We realized that our good friend, Tyson was only three hours away from us on business so, naturally, we each drove halfway to meet each other!  It was his birthday so the kids made him a card and a crown which he gladly wore at dinner. 

The last day of our trip, we went to North Point church (Amazing!) and had lunch at a delightful little place called Scratch with our old friend Susan Winnett!  She used to work at our church in Ohio before moving down to the Atlanta area.  We are so loving connecting with old friends who we haven’t seen in years!  Maybe YOU’RE next!  🙂

 

PS- Best Mexican food we’ve EVER HAD was at La Parilla!  Maybe we were just really hungry.  Maybe it was just a long time since we’d had Mexican.  Maybe all the rumors are true and Mexican really IS better in the South.  Or maybe it really was just that good…. The world may never know.