The Masters, part I

My husband came up to our bedroom last August to wake me up to share that he was selected in a lottery to attend a practice round at The Masters. We were headed to Georgia in April!!

The day was nearing on Monday of our travels as we packed up our bags in Atlanta, stuffed them into the back of our Chevy Malibu rental, and drove two hours East to Augusta. We were finally headed to The Masters. We were all so excited!!!

The plan for the last six months of preparation was that the two tickets my husband was able to purchase would be used by him, and my daughter. While my son is "the golfer" between my two children, we all knew that my husband was going to be on the move around that course trying to get every good photograph of the event. The idea of keeping up with dad was going to be more of a challenge for my son than for my daughter (personality wise, not physically). 

Therefore, the idea was that my son and I would hang back at the hotel in the outdoor pool during the day, and then meet up with my hubby and girl before The Masters' gates closed for the day, swap out the tickets, and my son and I would go in "to look around" (the tickets are transferable but only good for the date on the ticket). 

We left Atlanta early and drove uneventfully to Augusta. We knew going into the adventure that our Augusta hotel was highly overpriced during this week due to the golf event - but when we opened our hotel room door and saw the interior quality, it really hit hard on how much we were being ripped off. 

I will admit it put me in a bummer of a mood for awhile. It really was criminal as the room was one of those that you had to just put on blinders and ignore a lot. When I booked this room, it was pre-2012 and I was lucky to even get this room that was only 1.3 miles away from the gate to The Masters (we would need to share our one car rental, so that was important in the carpool factor bright and early when it came time to dropping off my family attending). 

To kick-off the bummer reality of our hotel rip-off, the pool had not been serviced, nor open for the season. Georgia hotels typically don't open the pools until mid to late April, regardless that this year they were having unseasonably hot temps. 

Now what?!

We spent the rest of Monday driving away from the strip of Washington Blvd where all-things The Masters reside and headed across the river to downtown Augusta. It was really cute, a sweet older building community that was spread alongside the Savannah River. Super cute. But there! was! nothing! there!

Deep sighs were flowing through the car as our family was trying to figure out a plan for our son and myself on the day of the practice round tickets for the other two. We stopped into a very cute place to eat lunch - Boll Weevil Cafe right next to the Riverwalk.  We enjoyed our first sip of Sweet Tea and Fried Green Tomatoes. YUM for both. We were in the South and we were enjoying some traditional food fare. 

We warmed up our bones with the heat of the afternoon sun along the Riverwalk. Checked out additional housing developments, churches, and the ins and outs of the town.

So far the idea was that my son and I would return to the river to just hang out and chill at the park and find "something" to occupy ourselves in that area the following day. Spirits were picking up, and I kept telling the family to keep praying for the pool to be open - not to give up hope. 

My son found this fountain and pretended to swim - it was the closest thing to a pool that he had seen yet on his vacation. 

But not to worry ~ our prayers had paid off! We returned home after spending the day walking downtown Augusta and dinner to find the pool ... open!!! Spirits were up and we had a plan! My son and I would drop off hubby and girl at The Masters' gates at 6:30a, and once the sun was up, we'd sit and play poolside until it was ready to shower and return to swap out tickets. We went to bed happy that we finally had a plan. 

To be continued ... 

The World of Coca Cola

After our Georgia Aquarium adventure we walked across the park to The World of Coca Cola. We originally thought it would just be something to do since we were right there, but in actuality it was super fun and we were all so glad that we joined the fun at Coca Cola.

While the pop is not bottled there, we each received a complimentary glass bottle of coke. We are using the rare glass bottles, bottled in Atlanta versus China, as flower vases now. Kinda neat.

The premise of the building is a Coke Museum with a fifteen minute tour guide showcasing the generations of their products. Yes, it was like being in one giant commercial of marketing their products, but they did it in such a way that was fun and enjoyable. A 4-D movie, a giant screen showcasing all of their commercials throughout the world, a museum, the giant polar bear icon wandering about, and our favorite - The Tasting Room.

My girl is All-About-Africa so when she saw the circle showcasing the Coca Cola products sold in that country, she had to take a sip. She is not a pop drinker (okay, Orange Fanta only, and on rare occasions) so she jumped at the chance to sip Fanta as sold in Uganda. It had a unique flavor, but we all gave it a thumbs up.

I was surprised to find the Coca Cola sold in the European countries to be so different and oh-so-not my style. My husband could tolerate that, but not those sold in South America. The Asian countries were tolerable. It was fun to sip away and see what others find pleasing in their country.

Of course the "Coke" side of Coca Cola is the same formula throughout the world. What we were tasting were their Fanta-like products.

We enjoyed our two dinning locations in Atlanta while we were there; Nava in Buckhead, and The Varsity in downtown. Given our two-night stay in this city, we were happy with our selections.

Yummy fish and calamari Taco's at Nava - I could have returned for a second night.

The Varsity is the largest Drive-In in the world (and we ate inside as the Drive In line was around the block). Food selections were of the smaller portions that were common years ago with the "real" taste of burgers and fries.

The night adventures for us took us driving through neighborhoods in the suburbs of Atlanta. We fell in love with the brick buildings - something that is only seen in select portions of neighborhoods in the big city where we live. Coming from wood-built developments all over, it was fun to see different textures and styles of the South. We loved it! Even a run down house can look more charming in brick than wood.

And the Church's - everywhere and large! Gorgeous landscaping and architecture.

A thumbs up to our short stay in Atlanta!

Georgia Aquarium

During our Spring Break this year we enjoyed an eight day excursion to two Southern States, and it was fabulous. What a wonderful week of sunshine and family togetherness. It was just what we all needed after a hectic school year thus far, and unseasonably cool temps for much of our winter season at home.

Of course the next series of posts will be about our vacation in order for me to fit it all into our history book that we make from this blog. However, it may take extra days between posts to get this done the way I imagine it to be in the end. My husband is a hobbyist photographer who documents our trips amazingly well. Trying to filter through all the photographs to select for my posts is a huge undertaking; there will be too many good ones to pass-by in order to accommodate the space here, but eventually I select my top picks to help tell the story. In addition to my husband's photos, the photos taken with our Lumix by me and the kids are tossed into the mix too.

Our flight cross country started in the wee-hours of the morning. We woke by 3:30a in order to leave the house by 5:00a. Our son came home from 5th grade camp the night prior, and while he was so excited to share all the details of his experience, I did have to eventually put the stops to his sharing and send him to the shower and to bed by 7:00p. By the time he truly settled down it was closer to 7:30p and he was out.

Rising in the dark to rain and cold sure made landing in full sun and mid-80's a perfect welcome to Atlanta! My son has always been an animal-enthusiast, and when we heard about the Georgia Aquarium as it was nearly completion a few years ago, we put it on our vacation bucket list. Not really knowing when or why we would go to Atlanta (other than the aquarium), we just kept it on the list but never made a plan.

Well, this was the year we got to attend. Something had "come up" that ventured us to Georgia (saved for another post), so justifying a visit to the Georgia Aquarium was now a reality. We were all so excited that this bucket list item was going to be settled for my son. It was everything he thought it would be, and the touch tanks were his biggest hit. We visited this area multiple times during our day.

The enormous underwater walk-through was fantastic. This was my favorite location. Being able to see the fish from underbelly and under the depths of the tank was a great sensation and new perspective. The glass was three feet thick and the width of the tank was half of a football field.

We enjoyed lunch in the atrium - being silly and taking in our first day of Atlanta. The giddiness of being on vacation had hit us and inside jokes and laughter were flying. I like that. Those things that others wouldn't get, but we do - so I'll just keep it at that.  Posting the moment here for our memory.

We visited a solid five hours in the aquarium before we headed outside to walk the park and enjoy the sun. Aww, the sun!