Hope your not sick of changing leaves

I know most of you get to see this stuff every year...but I don't. So I take a lot of pictures of it. And then I share them with you. Lucky readers.

Our last day in Atlanta we arose shortly after the crack of dawn to drive Thatfamily back to the airport. Thatboy and I had scheduled a later flight so we could do more exploring. After we dropped them off, we headed to breakfast, another one of Josie's recommendations, Ria's Bluebird Cafe.

Once again, because of our early arrival, parking was easy and we were able to secure a seat without waiting. We were offered a giant table, but since it was the last open table, and there were only two of us, we felt too guilty to take it. So we plopped ourselves up on the counter. Which was perfect, because Thatboy had been dying for a counter service restaurant.

Thatboy instantly fell in love with the place. The music, the decor, the coffee...

Check out the beans!

On the menu, we noticed that the pancakes were declared the world's best pancakes by the NY Times. It was a challenge Thatboy was happy to take. Especially when he saw he could get a side of real bacon - made from real pork! Now here's the thing that gets me every time. These pancakes were light and fluffy and perfect. I love light, fluffy pancakes. Thatboy claims to hate them. He never lets me make them. Instead he only will eat gooey thin pancakes. So I was all ready for him to hate these. Nope. He loves them. He just lives to make my life difficult.

I ordered the omelet special of the day. It came with enough food to feed a small family. The bacon - which I gave to Thatboy, the biscuit - which was fabulous topped with their homemade raspberry preserves, and a sweet potato cake.

The problem with it being early on a Sunday morning is that nothing was open. Which was okay by us, because it gave us hours to spend in the Oakland Cemetery. I'd been dying to visit, but I wasn't sure we'd make it over there. Lucky for us, Ria's was located directly across the street.



The Oakland Cemetery is one of those cemeteries that traces the history of America. It has graves dating back before the civil war, through modern day. It's gorgeous and the day was perfect for meandering through. Cool, and slightly overcast, and the week of Halloween.

It's fascinating to walk and read through the tombstones, many of them bringing a tear to my eye as it described short lives, and people who were obviously loved.

For me, the most famous resident of the Oakland Cemetery was Margaret Mitchell Marsh. I mean, everything I know about Atlanta comes from Gone with the Wind. (I know, it's not much - but really I grew up in Pennsylvania, so our civil war history focused a lot on Gettysburg.

There's something so romantic about this tree which covers two graves. It reminds me of the tree that was supposed to have grown up over Tristan and Iseult's graves.

The thing I LOVE about old southern cemeteries is that they used to be a place of celebration in addition to a place of sorrow. It was a place the families would go on Sundays after church for Sunday supper. I can just picture a family sitting on a spring day under this gazebo which would probably be covered in flowers.

There is an entire section dedicated to the Confederate soldiers who lost their lives in Atlanta.

This gorgeous statute represents all the soldiers who got somehow disconnected from their friends, family, and any identification. So sad when you think about the age of most of the soldiers in the Civil War.

It's not hard to believe that the section for Confederate graves stretches past the eyeline. If you saw Gone with the Wind, you'd know that Atlanta, and its inhabitants were devastated by the Civil War.


After the cemetery, we headed over to Virginia Highlands which had a cute little collection of stores, and some gorgeous houses. We seriously considered visiting an open house, but then thought that we'd each have to take another Bar exam had us just walk by and admire instead.

We made friends with the people in the gourmet food store (surprise surprise) and they recommended we check out Piedmont Park. We did, and I am SO glad we took them up on their suggestion.

Piedmont Park is Atlanta's version of Central Park. The weather was beautiful, so there were so many other people (and dogs) out enjoying the day with us.

Thatboy aptly named the bridge "The Fairytale Bridge." I'm sure it has a real name, but frankly, I kind of like "Fairytale Bridge."

The view from Fairytale Bridge. Gorgeous, right?

More of those leaves I was telling you about. We're seriously going to have to take a trip to the East Coast every fall.

Anyone know what kind of waterfowl this is? It was so unusual I had to snap a picture. One of those birds that was so ugly it was beautiful. (*Super duper thanks to Jen who has identified this duck as a "Muscovy duck")

Our last view of Atlanta before heading to the airport and back to San Diego.

Wedding in the Woods

Saturday morning we did not wake bright and early. At 11:00, Thatboy turned to me and said "Don't be mad...but it's 11:00" I wasn't mad, but it did kind of jolt me up. I called Thatmom and we decided we'd have to wake Thatbrother up too, since he tends to take a while to get ready. I volunteered to make the call. And sure enough...he was sleeping too. We showered and stumbled across the street to get some food before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

Although the weather in Atlanta has been wet wet wet, the skies cleared up for First's wedding, allowing us to really appreciate the gorgeous setting Mother Nature provided.

Thatboy finally understood what I've been saying when I tell him the leaves don't change color in California.

Even though he claims to be from the land of forests, he's never seen woods like this before.\

But enough of the scenery - it's time for First to get hitched!

He looks a bit nervous, no?

First Child starting walking down the aisle so perfectly, but about halfway down she got stage fright, screamed "DADDY" and ran the rest of the way, leaping into First's arms.

Hmmmm it looks like First might have spotted something important. I know most people turn to see the bride, but I always love watching the groom's first look.



And what a look! How gorgeous does First Wife look?



Even though it wasn't raining, it was FREEZING out. I loved watching how First kept his arm around First Wife almost the entire ceremony.



My Great Aunt (First's Grandmother) gave a reading to the almost newlyweds.



And then it was time for the kiss!



I totally remember this move - it's called the "whee we're married" run down the aisle.



They settled down once we got inside where it was warm.



And the autumn leaves followed us in.



My favorite memory from my own wedding is the ceremony because it felt like Thatboy and I were the only two people in the world. I get the feeling First and First Wife experienced that feeling in their first dance.

Here's to many many happy years to First and my brand new cousin! (It's nice to have another girl since almost all my cousins are guys)

What we didn't do in Atlanta

We did not visit World of Coke. Thatboy vetoed it, and while I usually bypass his vetoes, I wasn't sure how long it would take to get through it and we were on a bit of a time crunch after the aquarium.

We did get to see all the Coke paraphernalia though.

And Thatboy found time to have a drink and convo with the founder of Coca Cola (who he found to be a little stiff)

Don't worry. He recycled.

Although we did visit Centennial Olympic Park, we did not visit the Children's Playground...

Mostly because of rule #1.

We did not visit CNN.



But I did get to experience one of the things I miss most about living on the East Coast.


All those things we didn't do worked up our appetite. Before heading to Atlanta, I consulted my local expert - Jyl from thepostitplace for all things Atlanta (including the weather). A couple months back she had blogged about a family tradition to visit The Varsity every time they made the drive into Atlanta.

The Varsity is to Atlanta what In-N-Out is to California. It's one of those places that you have to visit. Promising only fresh ingredients, and a special, select menu.

And boy is this place CHEAP! I think my hot dog cost a dollar and change. Cheaper than at a Padres game! And way cheaper than my beloved Nathans.

It's a total throwback to the old style cafeteria type places with plastic chairs and tables.

According to Jyl, the rumor is that the place goes waaaaaay back to those days. Started as a hot dog stand and now is a multilevel restaurant AND car hop that keeps people coming back.

Thatboy ordered a combo with a chili cheese burger and chili cheese dog and onion rings. The chili was really interesting - it had a dry quality to it which I wouldn't love as chili, but is perfect for topping a burger or dog since it doesn't sauce and leak everywhere.

I have a serious aversion to American cheese so I went with a slaw dog instead. I love the idea of coleslaw on a hotdog (or pretty much coleslaw on anything - burgers, sandwiches....).


After lunch it was off to the airport to pick up Thatfamily....and drive around the airport for an hour. Because that's how long it took for them to deplane. Thatbrother had called me while we were at The Varsity to let me know they had landed. So we headed out, expecting to reach the airport right as they grabbed their bags. When we reached the airport, they hadn't even gotten off the plane yet!

After finally collecting everyone, we headed to our hotel for a quick cleanup (and a much needed shower for Thatboy and I) before going to meet the cousins for dinner at TAP - a gastropub in downtown Atlanta.






The nice thing about a gastropub is you know you're going to get some good beers. Thatbrother went Belgian, while Thatboy and I stuck to some local brews.

Now eating with the cousins means a party of 11. And there was no way I was going to take a picture of all 11 meals. Besides, it was dark so pictures are horrible anyway.

I ordered what Thatmom calls "the typical Thatgirl meal" - tomato soup and grilled cheese. OMG can I tell you about this grilled cheese? Made with some kind of delicious ooey gooey cheese from Cowgirl Creamery I'm willing to bet was some kind of goat cheese. I literally passed this around the table for everyone to take a bite. And speaking of things we didn't do in Atlanta, I most definitely did not take a spoon to this sandwich to scoop out all the remaining cheese when I was too full to eat any more.

Thatboy had a trio of tacos - curry fish, fried chicken, and fire shrimp. You can take the boy out of California.......He thought they were alright, but we are very spoiled on the taco front.

After dinner, I packed our car up with all the cousins who were under the age of 30 and we headed to a ghost tour I had booked for us. It was supposed to start at 10:30, but we didn't get started till 11:10. It was supposed to be 90 minutes, but it didn't end until 1:30 am. It was supposed to be spooky, but instead we wandered around downtown Atlanta, watching drunk people stumble out of bars and hoping the homeless people wouldn't bother us too much. As we reached the turnaround point of the tour, UDubb was convinced we had already walked in a circle and MUST be back at the starting point since we had already walked so far and for so long. Our super late night kind of ruined all our plans for the next day. But stay tuned anyway, because we all managed to wake up in time for First's wedding!