A Marathon of a Vacation

Georgia Trip 2010

Day One, July 15th:
After a good nights rest to re-coop from Wednesday's travels, we started our vacation out with a visit to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta on Thursday. It was a fun trip, we went with Nate, Mia, Kevin, and Mia's cousin John Luke. I have SO many pics from the trip, but rather than waste time uploading each and every single one, I've picked my fave's, as is my custom.

Nate pretending to be eaten by a giant clam shell?

Mike became friends with the stuffed turkeys

Kevin was suspicious of all the animals on display
in the glass cases, he kept thinking they were moving

Monkeys in their natural habitat:)

After the Museum we visited the famous Varsity fast food restauraunt... "What'll ya have?" (www.thevarsity.com). After that we went back to Griffin and I spent the afternoon with Mia while the boys went out and played some soccer. We enjoyed the rest of the evening with Mia at her house, getting to know some of her family.

Day 2, July 16th:
Mike and I were on our own all day, so we decided to go to Atlanta again and visit the World of Coke and the Aquarium. I made Mike go get our pic taken with the Coke bear... I thought he was cute. After the Aquarium we went on the most BORING tour of the CNN center in Atlanta, never again will I endure that!

We met up with Mia and Nate that evening for a nice dinner at an authentic Italian Pizzeria, Fritti's. Mike really enjoyed practicing his Italian on his trip to Georgia! He spoke Italian with the owner of Fritti's, the owner of another Italian bistro Bongiornos, in Birmingham, and then again at the Aquarium with an Italian tourist family. Anyways, after dinner we made our way to the Historic Fox theater in Atlanta, where I finally experienced "The Phantom of the Opera" on broadway! Words cannot describe how awesome it was... so I won't even try! Here is a pic of Mia and Nate before the show.
Day 3, July 17th:
What would a wedding celebration be without all the ladies going to get pampered before the wedding, and we did just that! Mia found an affordable nail salon and all the ladies went to get their nails done, and Mia suggested I get my toes painted green, so I did... Neon green. It was fun, my first professional nail experience. We then met up with Mia's family and close friends at a pre-wedding meet and greet. I snapped some good pics while there, here are a few:

Marge and Marty, chillin on the patio

Alyssa getting a pic of me

Mia was so kind to think of my birthday, and even got
me a birthday cake, which was yummy!

Day 4, July 18th (The BIG wedding day and my B-day):
The wedding day turned out to be overcast and cool, for a Georgia summer day, thank heavens! The wedding ceremony was nice, their vows were touching, I couldn't help but get teary eyed... you could feel their love for one another! Here are the pics of the wedding day:

This is the "Tea Room" in the reception house,
where little girls get dressed up and have tea...
Steve felt left out:)

The Kiss

The Groom's cake, pretty cool huh?

The Matusek Family (minus Kimball and Brandon)

After the wedding events, and seeing the Bride and Groom off on their Honeymoon, we followed Chris and Steve up to Atlanta to try Glady Knights Chicken and Waffles Restauraunt. The wait was super long though, 2 hours to get seated. Mike and Steve were soaked to the bone, from the storm that passed through while they were walking to the ATM. In lieu of this, we decided to forgo the wait and just get our food to go. It was interesting, to say the least, eating fried chicken and waffles in the same meal... We went to a movie that night, Inception, and if you haven't seen it you should go, you won't be let down. In fact, I want to see it again in theaters...

Day 5, July 19th:
Our trip was winding down at this point, and we really wanted to get home to our boys. But we decided to have one more day of fun, so we headed to the zoo. Right by the zoo was a Civil war museum, and this cannon out in front. I told Mike to go stand by it, and so he did, and this is how the pic turned out, gotta love my Mike!
I don't know why I posed in front of a Gorilla statue, but I did, and there you go:)

It was truly one Marathon of a Vacation, from which I am still recovering! I wouldn't change a moment of it, it was so fun to spend time with Mike, Mia, Nate, Marge, Marty, Kevin, Alyssa, Chris, and Steve, and also to meet Mia's family and friends and attend their wedding.