I actually surprised him with tickets to the Atlanta Braves game a few weeks ago after I told him we were just going to stay with my family in South Carolina for two days. I wanted him to have time to be excited so I ruined my surprise, definitely glad I did though. He had never been to a MLB game either, and he had told me the Braves were his favorite team, which is why I had decided to pull that epic girlfriend move.
Last Thursday, we drove to South Carolina and stayed with my cousin, then we woke up early on Friday and headed towards Atlanta.
Surprisingly, the drive really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and neither was the traffic. Everyone and their mother told me that Atlanta traffic was horrendous and the roads were super confusing, and I guess since I was expecting the worst it honestly wasn't that bad.
I love going to new places, and I always have the travel bug (despite hating to drive long distances and my fear of flying), so it's always nice to see a new place. I was especially excited to visit Georgia, and obviously Atlanta for the first time.
Our first stop in Atlanta was this restaurant called Canoe. I picked it way in advance because it was ranked #1 out of over a thousand restaurants in Atlanta on TripAdvisor (I swear by that app). Every single review on this place was excellent, so I had very, very high expectations, which weren't entirely met. The only actual bad thing I could point out is that I was dressed for a baseball game, not a high end restaurant, so my jean shorts were not the best choice to wear to this establishment although I didn't feel too weird about it (Brian definitely did, and said he didn't like feeling out of place + some old man customer apparently said something under his breath about him wearing shorts and flip flops even though he looked more dressed up than me, what an asshole). I honestly should have thought about my outfit choice beforehand, but hey I was in a rush and even forgot to wear earrings which is one thing that I never forget, so I can't blame myself too much.
Anyways, the wait staff was superb. Our waitress, Jessica I think was her name, was super sweet and definitely knew her menu. The food itself was really good, but the portions of the entrees seemed pretty small compared to how big the appetizers were. We got the smoked salmon with potato cakes and goat cheese as our appetizer and I thought it was delicious, Brian, not so much. Poor guy doesn't like cheese nor fancy food in general, so I kind of felt like a jerk since I picked this restaurant. For our entree, we both got the cod with whipped potatoes, baby spinach, and caper brown butter, which we both agreed was delicious. It did look small at first, but I was stuffed by the time I finished it. Definitely a good choice to choose from their relatively small menu.
My favorite part was the view, even though we didn't get to sit outside, we go to walk around afterwards and the restaurant sits right on the Chattahoochee River. I'd definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Atlanta, plus they have complementary valet to every customer which is nice because parking in Atlanta isn't the greatest.
We strolled around the nicer parts of downtown before heading the aqaurium and looked at the World of Coca Cola, got milkshakes, and admired the view.
I mean really, how gorgeous is that?
This is one of my new favorite pictures, I love this guy.
My initial plan actually didn't include the aquarium, but I'm a sucker for animals (land and sea) and when I saw on TripAdvisor that the Georgia Aquarium was the biggest in the world when it was first built and they had whales I definitely wanted to go. When I knew we'd have time to go before the baseball game, I was super excited.
We got a milkshake in downtown before walking around a bit then going into the aquarium around three in the afternoon. Tickets are pretty expensive there, but they had a good deal going on that Friday so Brian and I got them for a little under $20 which was nice.
The layout of the aquarium was different then other aquariums I've visited, it had different entrances all throughout the main room and each had a different sort of animal. I suppose this is nice since it breaks it up, but at the same time it was kind of confusing and I wasn't sure if we were seeing all of the exhibits because some of the entrances were difficult to find.
The exhibits were all incredible, and what I liked best was that each ticket comes with a complementary ticket to the dolphin show, which was my favorite part of the whole visit.
Camera and video use wasn't allowed, but it was definitely a nice tough to end our visit. I could have done without all of the story like theatrics behind the show, because that part was definitely directed towards the children, but the show parts involving the dolphins and trainers was really great for only lasting a half our.
I definitely recommend the aquarium if you're ever in Atlanta!
The last stop on our mini vacation was Turner Field for our first Atlanta Braves game, which definitely didn't disappoint. I was so excited that I even read a MLB for dummies book so I would know what was going on. As someone who once though baseball was the second most boring sport on the planet (after golf and just before tennis), I definitely can say I enjoy it more than I ever thought I would.
MLB games are certainly more fun than high school, college, and minor league games, and the atmosphere at Turner Field was wonderful.
I enjoyed the whole game, and even saw Justin Upton hit a grand slam which led the Braves to a win over the Dodgers. So not only did I see my first MLB game, but I also saw my first grand slam at my first MLB game. Woo.
It happened to start raining around 10:15, which was about an hour before the game ended, but we stuck it out to the end to see the Braves beat the Dodgers. Then it continued to rain the whole ride back to South Carolina that night, the whole ride back home Saturday morning, all day Saturday, and all day today... But that's totally okay with me.
He is so handsome :)
Our seats were actually pretty good, for being dirt cheap.
