A few months ago, my mom saw "The Lion King" in Nashville and has been raving about it nonstop. She scoured the Internet to see if there was a theatre within driving distance that would be playing the show before I left for Cambodia. She found out that it would be in Atlanta in April, so she bought tickets and planned a much needed girls weekend in Atlanta.
We arrived in Atlanta on a Thursday evening, staying in Midtown right across from the Fox Theatre. We stayed at a fabulous old, boutique hotel conveniently located within walking distance of a lot of fun sightseeing.
On Friday, we decided food was our starting point and made our way to the highly recommended "Flying Biscuit" restaurant. It was delicious! I decided to get the pimento cheese eggs Benedict with cheese grits, can't get more "Southern" than that, am I right? It was amazing, we had to force ourselves to eat at other restaurants throughout the weekend as I'm pretty sure we could have returned to this place over and over again. We also went to Margaret Mitchell's home, the house in which she wrote her famous novel "Gone With the Wind." About a year ago, I made a list of "must-read" novels for twenty-something ladies, and this novel was on the list. I spent about four months reading through it, and although it was a little long, I am glad to have read such an important classic. I think it's important to read those kinds of books, and hope to continue to read through them as the years go by. Anyways, we did the tour there and enjoyed walking around the home and gardens. It's kinda like the house in the movie "Up," right in the middle of all these skyscrapers, pretty neat. It was a beautiful afternoon and lovely for walking and exploring. That evening, I had made plans to visit some of my PASSPORT friends who attend schools in Atlanta. We decided to attend a Braves baseball game and eat at the Varsity. All in all, a very fun, very Atlanta evening.
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| Displaying my delicious brunch at The Flying Biscuit |
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| Historic Marker Outside Margaret Mitchell's Home |
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| Infamous Turner Field. Great seats at that! |
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| Love catching up with these forever friends. |
On Saturday, we decided to visit the World of Coca-Cola and explore the Olympic Park since it was so sunny and beautiful. We walked around the museum for a while, then tasted the "cokes" from different parts of the world (most of which were disgusting). I sampled some Asian-flavors to prepare myself for Cambodia, as well as sipped some Stoney Tangawizi which brought back so many memories from my time in Tanzania. After the World of Coke, we went to Piedmont Park, originally we had planned to visit the botanical gardens, but while walking there we noticed there were lots of people heading that way too. We were told that there was a huge art fair in the park. We decided to check it out, and literally there were hundreds of artisans as well as performing arts from different cultures. We browsed, ate some great food and watched some African drummers and dancers. It was a great afternoon and not something we typically get to do in the smaller towns/cities in Kentucky.
Saturday evening was dedicated to "The Lion King." We had the best night. We ate at a really great local restaurant, outside on the patio, and enjoyed some cocktails. And the show, it was pretty amazing. The creativity it takes to put a story like that on stage is pretty mind-blowing. The costumes, the singing…it was all so, so good. I had always wanted to see it, so it was great to finally watch it on stage. There is just something so fun and special about seeing live theatre.
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| Enjoying a Coke with the Founder of Coke, duh. |
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| 3D Coke Movie |
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| "The Lion King" at the Fox. Amazing. |
On Sunday, per my insistence, we did the "Walking Dead" tour. I am a huge, HUGE Walking Dead fan, and I knew that a lot of it is/was filmed in ATL and the surrounding area. Essentially, a former "Walker" from the show takes you around the city pointing out filming locations. We saw a lot, and I kinda nerded out about it, but I don't really care. I had never done anything like it before, so I was pretty excited. We also went to a place called the "Goat Farm" which is actually a place for artists to work, but they apparently shoot a lot of films/shows there. Most recently, it was used as District 12 from the movie "Catching Fire" so that was pretty cool to see as well. After our tour, we met my former youth ministers in Marietta, GA. We got to spend some time with them and their three fabulous kids. I was hoping to catch up with them before leaving for Cambodia, so it worked out well as they are now living around the Atlanta area.
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| With my boyfriend, Daryl. |
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| Season One: department store, where Glen and Rick meet, Sheriff's office, and hospital where Rick wakes up. All pretty important spots in Season One. Seriously fun stuff! Haha :) |
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| Where Rick rides into town….yeehaw! |
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| District 12 |
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| Farley Family. |
All in all, a great weekend. We did so much, but it was a much-needed weekend away for both of us.
