Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Atlanta, GA: Sept. 17-21, 2014; Things to do if you aren't a Walking Dead fan..

Hey everyone! 

I hope you enjoyed my last entry on The Walking Dead and some of the places you can see if you want to make the trip to Atlanta and Senoia. 

This post is going to be about everything else we did during our trip. We ate tons of great food and explored some of the city. I actually really like Atlanta! It reminds me a lot of Houston. 

For our trip, we drove from Arkansas to Georgia. This brought us through Memphis, Tennessee, which is the home of Elvis! 

We decided to grab dinner in Memphis at a place called  "Marlowe's". This place is known as "Elvis' favorite BBQ joint". It is located just a few miles from Graceland.



 They even have the pink limo outside!


 The inside is decorated with all kinds of Elvis decor. It was really cool.



 We tried to capture as much of the inside as we could, but there were things everywhere!
 The dinner was amazing. It is some of the BEST BBQ we have ever eaten!
 If you're in the south, you HAVE to try fried green tomatoes. They were very good!
 We ordered a half rack of ribs and pulled pork. It was so MUCH food! We could barely finish it!
 For our sides we had coleslaw, baked mac and cheese, and biscuits. VERY GOOD!
 A full view of the food. Like I said, it was so hard to finish it!

 These are a few pics of the outside of the restaurant.


Unfortunately, we didn't have much time to spend in Memphis. I would love to go back and take a trip to Graceland. From here, we headed to Atlanta. We didn't arrive until about 1 a.m. the next morning. 


 I apologize for the poor quality of the next few photos, but the skyline was beautiful as we drove into Atlanta.




We decided to sleep in the next morning since we spent most of our previous day traveling. For our trip, we decided to stay in Norcross, GA, which is north of Atlanta. After doing some research of the safest areas to stay (us being two girls traveling alone), Norcross was on the top of the list. And it didn't disappoint! It was beautiful there, and it felt very safe. We stayed at the Mariott hotel, which was a great hotel for us.


 When we finally got up and around, we decided to eat at "The Flying Biscuit Cafe" in Norcross. I have one word to describe this place.. WOW!!!



 The place has good reviews online, and that's why we decided to try it. I am so happy that we did!
 It had cute decorations and colorful paint. And the service was fantastic!



 I was pretending to drink hot coffee with a straw. :P


 A few photos while waiting for our food.



 My mom texted me this while we were waiting to eat. She's funny. And she knows me too well!

 When our food came, we were so excited! We ordered the grilled salmon on grits and eggs benedict.
 This is the grilled salmon on cheesy, creamy grits. It is topped with a black eyed pea salsa. The salmon was cooked perfectly, and all of the flavors complement each other.
 This is the eggs benedict, served on top of their freshly made honey biscuits and wrapped with bacon. It is served with a side of cheesy, creamy grits. SO GOOD!


After brunch, we decided to drive around and explore. We were mostly looking for Walking Dead locations, but we snapped some photos of the skyline and architecture.













 As you can see, it's very pretty. I feel like it's all very well put together. The traffic is no joke, but what large city doesn't have traffic?


After driving around, we headed over to the Coca-Cola factory. Unfortunately, we didn't get there in time. It closes at 5.
 It's next to a nice park, so we just walked around there. It is right next to the aquarium, but it was already closed too.


 Eyen posing with Mr. Pemberton. He invented Coca-Cola, which is Eyen's all time favorite drink!



 Some of the buildings around the area.
 This is what I liked about Atlanta. Even though it is a big city, you still see A LOT of greenery. There were trees everywhere. 

We decided to go to a mall to kill some time before dinner. We went to Lennox Square Mall. It was great. I didn't take any photos, but it was one of the nicest malls I've seen in the U.S. 


For dinner, Eyen decided she wanted crab legs. We LOVE crab legs. We always look for affordable buffets that have unlimited crab legs. Usually you go to a buffet to have a variety of food. NO. Eyen will eat ONLY crab legs. It's great!

We ate at a place called "Tokyo Bay". It was a hit! Their buffet was only $23 after tax (with a soda), and they had all you can eat crab legs, fresh sushi, korean bbq, soups, desserts, etc. AND it was CLEAN! That is a big plus!
 I like buffets for a variety! So, that's my plate above. haha.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to rest. We went to a grocery store near by to get water and snacks.

 Eyen came back with these! My favorite chocolates and a bottle of bubbly wine with a red rose. Sadly, my allergies were killing me, so I didn't enjoy the wine until after we got back to Houston.


 The next day is when we made the drive to Senoia. We had breakfast and lunch there. I won't picture it since it was in my previous post.

 For dinner, we decided to try Taiwanese food at a place called "Bento Cafe". Unfortunately, this place was a miss. The service was great, and the place was clean (it looked a little industrial, but clean nonetheless), but as far as just food, it wasn't tasty.



 The tea with tapioca was probably the best part of the meal. By this time, I was not feeling well at all, so all I wanted was soup.


 Eyen ordered their special, the Bento original chicken drum. It came with a side of rice, potatoes, and corn. Honestly, you could find the same kind of chicken at any chicken restaurant. I would suggest trying something else if you decide to eat here. I ordered the seafood noodle soup. I was hoping it would satisfy my need for soup, but it was very BLAND. We even had to ask for garlic and chili sauce to put in it just to give it some flavor. 

I wouldn't tell anyone not to eat here. I would just suggest ordering something different off the menu.


The next day was our sneaker show! We were really excited to be in Atlanta for the first time. Here is our display for the show. The show was held at the Cobb Galleria Center in Atlanta. It was a nice venue. My favorite part about it was the Espresso stand downstairs in the main part of the mall. The guy who owns it was so friendly, and the coffee was GREAT!






 This is what Eyen and I wore. She wore the Asics "Pink Flamingo" (left), and I wore the Nike SB "Mork and Mindy" (right). Each shoe has a different name with a different meaning. Some people think it's crazy how much people will spend on shoes, but it's a culture and a way of life. Just like some people collect coins or guns or stuffed toys or china sets, we collect sneakers.



After the show, we decided to have dinner at a place called "Varsity". It is modeled after an old time drive in diner. It was cute.


 We ordered a slaw dog and chili cheeseburger with fries. It was a HIT! It was so good and flavorful! Eyen especially loved the slaw dog. It was warm and cold, sweet and salty all at the same time! 



 It was decorated cute with old pictures and things. We wanted to buy a can of the "Varsity" chili to bring home to our parents, but it was $6 for ONE can! That was a bit too expensive for us for a can of chili. 

 The next day we left Atlanta to head home to Houston. We drove through Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The pictures below are some snacks I found that I thought were interesting. Crab seasoned potato chips. YUM! And a nutrient enhanced Caramel iced coffee which was fantastic!


 Here are some photos of the sunset in Louisiana I was able to capture. I thought it was very pretty.





All in all, our trip to Atlanta was very fun. I would love to go back and visit again. There are so many food options I would love to try. If you are making a trip there, I would just do some research on best areas to visit. I know some of the places can be dangerous for people who don't know how to handle certain situations. Fortunately for us, we just stayed away from anywhere that looked sketchy.

Stay tuned for my next blog post!

We made another trip to Washington D.C., and this time we had company! 
COMING SOON!

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