Margaret Mitchell House and Museum & Gladys Knight's Signature Chicken and Waffles

Hi, everyone!
Today I noticed my blog has been visited over 40,000 times! Maybe that's not a lot in the blog world, but for this Mom, who can hardly spell and writes exactly how she talks (can we say "grammar errors") I am pleasantly surprised! 
My blog originally started as a way to share with others my incredibly stressful pregnancy with Sophia and an outlet from the changes that soon followed.  2 years later it has morphed into a creative place that gives me the opportunity to share my stories of raising my family and trying to find the special moments in the day to day. Thanks for reading,friends! :) 

Miss Jenn came for a visit over the summer and Atlanta we did explore. One thing that totally caught me off gaurd was just how beautiful Atlanta is at night. I had never actually driven into the city in the evening, and was blown away when I did. The skyline just gleamed as you came over Spaghetti Junction! Driving through the city you got to see lively crowds enjoying the summers night around town. It really is beautiful.

This isn't the best quality photo, but gives you an idea. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to go back at night in the near future. 

While in Atlanta we were able to visit the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum. Miss Jenn loves Gone With The Wind, so I'm glad we stumbled upon this while walking around.

Margaret Mitchell House and Museum
990 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/mmh

Via Wikapedia:
The Margaret Mitchell House is a historic house museum located in Atlanta. The structure was the home of author Margaret Mitchell. Located in Midtown, at 990 Peachtree Street, the house was known as the Crescent Apartments when Mitchell and her husband lived in Apt. 1 on the ground floor from 1925 to 1932. While living there, Mitchell wrote the bulk of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gone with the Wind.^[2] The house also contains a Visitor Center, and a portion of the museum is wholly devoted to the filming of the 1939 film based on the book. 

Docents guide visitors through the house and the apartment to learn of Mitchell's life in Atlanta, of facts surrounding her writing the novel, and of how the book advanced toward publication in North America and in non-Anglophone countries.

A "Making of the Movie" museum, included in the price of admission, is located in an adjacent building. Several collectors of "GWTW" moviememorabilia have donated parts of their collections for display in the new museum. Among these artifacts are photos taken during the movie's 1939 premiere in Atlanta; the original entryway to the Hollywood movie set of the O'Hara home, Tara; and, recognizable to the movie's aficionados, the portrait of Scarlett O'Hara from the Butler Mansion.

The Museum is owned and operated by the Atlanta History Center.

Sophia exploring with us

Also, there was a whole lot of talk about "Chicken and Waffles" during this visit. A simple google of where to find such southern cuisine led us to one place... and one place only... its pretty obvious, actually:

Gladys Knight's Signature Chicken & Waffles

529 Peachtree Street NE

Atlanta, GA 30308

http://gladysandron.net/

Now, We stumbled upon GOLD in the form of golden waffles and golden fried chicken in this place! Who knew the two together could be so great? The line was out the door when we arrived but the wait was not too long. Inside its a lot smaller than I expected, so it gives you a real diner feel.

Across the walls were pictures of celebrities with Gladys Knight and Co-owner Ron Winans. We gazed at them while we stuffed our face. And of course there were many moments of butchering the song "Midnight Train To Georgia" in between courses. 

Miss Jenn's Daughter was so happy to have some
Chicken and Waffles!

Till next time!

The Varsity & The World Of Coke

Its been pretty cold here is Hotlanta....
While its made for a pretty eventful winter (they shut down the whole city, TWICE!) I'm so over the cold temps....
I'm aware that Hotlanta living up to its name is right around the corner.... and I will look back on rushing this season with regret. That's how that usually goes!

So I was thinking about this coming summer and things I would like to do, and then I began reminiscing about last summer, and THEN it dawned on me... I didn't blog about me and Ms. Jenn's Atlanta adventures!
*GAHSP!*

Oh, Ms. Jenn... She is the Ethel to my Lucy,

the Shirley to my Laverne....

The Michelle to my Romy....

She's probably the only friend who has weathered every life change I have gone through: The wild phase. The dirt poor phase. The "I got a man and cant hang right now" phase. The pregnant and mean phase, (multiplied by 4). And The move across the country phase.

:(

She's not a friend for a season, but for life. With that said, trouble seems to find us everywhere we go. No, seriously. EVERYWHERE. And of course it makes for hilarious stories for the future. No one can make me laugh like this chick!

The Varsity:
61 North Avenue
Atlanta GA 30308
Website (Click here)

"It's the Worlds Largest Drive-In
Our Downtown Atlanta location is on more than two acres and can accommodate 600 cars and over 800 people inside. On days when the Georgia Tech Yellow jackets are playing a home game, over 30,000 people visit The Varsity."
(From The Varsity Website)

After picking up Ms. Jenn and her daughter Sonya  from the airport, we headed over to this local gem for lunch, called The Varsity. Us girls enjoyed some old fashioned burgers, shoe string fries and chili dogs. Yumm! Afterwards we walked around and checked out the memorabilia and the different pockets of the diner. This place is huge! Soon the chili dogs kicked in and it was time to run home like a Kenyan on methamphetamine.

Main entrance

Me and Lydia and our cute hats!

We are in Coke Nation!

Some of the memorabilia

The World of Coke
121 Baker St NW, Atlanta, GA 30313

I was excited to finally go check out "The World of Coke" here in Atlanta. They call the ATL "Coke Nation" for good reason, "coke-a-cola" propaganda is everywhere, and rarely can you order a Pepsi, or as us northerners call it "The right stuff," anywhere.

Everyone knows Ms. Jenn loves her diet Pepsi. And oh man, Mt. Dew is my vice. But for the sake of all things Atlanta, we checked out the museum. Ain't gonna lie, it was pretty cool.

Who doesn't love the Coke-A-Cola Santa?!

Lydia tagged along

Memorabilia through the years

The World Of Coke

Pretty sure the Brown's drink Pepsi!

I'm telling Ms Jenn to get the sign above us in the picture. Obviously.

Now for the BEST PART! There is a room in museum where you can drink all the pop you can ingest without your heart exploding in one sitting. That's right, all the Coke-a-Colas from around the world in one room. I knew the pop was kicking in when our group broke apart, and we were individually meandering from fountain to fountain, twitching.

Taste It, indeed!

-

Lydia, CRANKED UP

I think the funniest part was smuggling in a bottle of PEPSI and getting a shot of this gem:

We are rebels to the core.

...Atlanta adventures to be continued....

P.S. Ms. Jenn is a real person.... she would just have my behind if I put her pictures all over my blog. Still love ya, Jenny!

The Georgia Aquarium

Waiting for the show to begin!

The Georgia Aquarium houses 120,000 animals, representing 500 species, in 8.5 million US gallons of marine and fresh water; it was the world's largest aquarium when it opened in 2005.

Daddy and Roman 2008

My boys!

The stage for "Dolphin Tale"

What was suppose to be a trip to the childrens museum, turned into an impromptu trip to the aquarium. We were headed for a free target tuesday at the museum, but because it was spring break, there was an actual line around the block to get in! Panic set in as Roman realized we might not go to the museum, so we crossed the street and headed to the aquarium  The last time we were here was back in 2008, while I was pregnant with noah, just a few short later we were back, with 3 more! WEIRD! Also, the last time we were there was while we were visiting my husbands family, but this time we were actually living here as well. So strange how things can change so much in such a short amount of time!

Roman

The Georgia Aquarium

One of the stars of "Dolphin Tale!" 

225 Baker Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30313
(404)581-4151

Beluga whales

We started our day at a new show called "Dolphin Tale." It was very cute, but I did kinda wish it had more dolphin/audiance interaction. For the really little crowd, it kinda drug on with a little too much dialog. When the dolphins did come out and do their tricks durring the musical numbers Noah found it to be quite hysterical. It was sweet to watch! There were some tears shed when the house lights would go dark during the "stormy" scenes. But they were quick to recover :)
After exiting the show you come into the main floor of the aquirium. There are different areas sectioned off by theme. There is also an interactive play yard for the kids where you can even pet stingrays :) 

Noah and Sea Otters

Watching them take penguin vitals

Walking through the tank

Lydia

One of the highlights of the visit was the large aquarium that has a long tube that runs through the center. As you look up you see over a thousand different underwater species swimming over your head. There is a conveyor belt you can stand on as it slowly guides you through so you can take it all in. Its pretty cool!

Whale

Noah

3 amigos

Daddy

Admiring the sea life

 My personal favorite part is the observation area, where there is a stadium style seating and an aquarium that goes from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. You instantly feel 2 feet tall as you just gaze into the water. From the seating area you can sit there for quite some time and just watch all the animals swimming around as majestic music plays overhead. Sting rays, whales, sharks, and thousands of fish, swimming in schools, it really is beautiful.

Look, a shark!

up close 

They Look so small compared to the tank!

Roman, Lydia and a Tuna!

Noah and some tropical fish

My family, minus 1 

Theres another part of the aquarium where they have the same type of set up as the observation tank, just on a smaller scale. Because these fish are all tropical, they are bright in color and most small in size. Noah and Lydia seemed to like this themed aquarium as these fish were quick moving, zipping all over the tank...

So colorful

My boys!

Noah

Small, medium, large

What a fun day!

We will be back again, maybe in a couple years when the littler ones grow up a bit more. Tickets are pricey in my opinion, but I do see specials on groupon during the colder months. I would make this one of my top spots to check out when visiting Atlanta, even if you don't have children. Fun for any aged animal lover!

Time to go home!