For Chris's Grandparent's anniversary, we joined his family and headed to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens as a group. The gardens are located next to Piedmont park, and I honestly had never known they were even there. The facilities were amazing. We began our self guided 'tour' by visiting all the outside area's, and then working our way into the buildings with the more exotic plants. One even had birds running around among the foliage. The highlight for the group was the large room with more varieties of Orchids than I thought ever existed. One of my personal favorites was the children's garden area. (I will always be a kid at heart) and that the entire facility had large wooden 'sculptures' of insects scattered around for photo ops. The $12 admission might be considered a bit steep, ... read more

Since myself and Chris had plans to see Savannah for the day, we also decided to see the Lighthouse as well. It was an additional 30 minute drive, but was nice to have another area to see since we were already looking at a daytrip involving 4+ hours of driving each way. (We later decided this wasn't the smartest of day trip decisions.) The lighthouse is set back from the beach, where suprisingly, many were sunbathing this day. I had only been to the area once, when I was in 8th grade, and my memory just held a cold windy day - not one fully of warmth and sunshine like this new day provided. A structure sits between the lighthouse and the ocean, it's an old fort, with a portion of it currently used as a ... read more

Please see my other entries for further details on my Cruise to Mexico: ... read more

This entry will be a combination entry from 2 different trips. May 2006: World of Coca-Cola / Olympic Park January 7, 2007: Georgia Aquarium / The Varsity / Random Atlanta Pictures. ...and so I begin, with the recent trip being the first I will talk about! The Georgia Aquarium is an AMAZING facility! There are touch pools where you can get 'hands on' with Sting Rays, Shrimp, StarFish, and other critters. (I declined on touching the shrimp... that's just gross!) There are areas where you can watch sea otters and sea lions at play. You can stick your head into a dome in the penguin exibit. Not to mention Beluga whales! There are currently 3... one passed away last week unfortunately. (It had been rescued from unfavorable conditions as a part of a theme park in ... read more

In North Georgia there is a little Alpine Village called Helen seemingly lost in America, but full of good times - partly because it hosts the popular Oktoberfest festival right in the backyard of many other major cities. Walking down the streets allow for many opportunities to duck your head into Northern European shops, get your fill of fudge and other sweets, and of course digest quite a few wursts! Myself, my boyfriend Chris, and my newly married best friends, Kevin & Brittany headed up to North Georgia for the day looking to enjoy the honored tradition of Oktoberfest where it is a requirement to drink beer out of oversized cups and enjoy fellowship with complete strangers (which we did!), but along the way, we had a quick detour... Cleveland - Home of the Cabbage Patch ... read more