Atlanta 2010

 

I moved to Vegas in 2003 and kept meaning to go home and visit but just never had the time. In 2010, my mom and I did a big East Coast trip with our first stop in Atlanta. It was my first time home since the move and we were only there for about 48 hours. I guess this post is basically my tourist trip to my hometown and the places I would highly suggest visiting!

We took the redeye and arrived bright and early at about 6AM. Eek. We cabbed it straight to our hotel, Stonehurst Place (I'd found a great deal on Jetsetter) in Midtown. From here we walked to the Marta station which was just down the street and went to Buckhead for our Enterprise reservation.

Being the massive geek that I am, I wanted to drive out to Convington for the afternoon to see where they film The Vampire Diaries. We figured a rental car was the best bet. The drive was about an hour or so. We got to see the town square, Elena's house, Mystic Grill, and a few other places. A large truck was unloading huge lights near one of the locations so it's safe to assume they were getting ready to film again soon. Cute little town!

Once we returned the car and went back to the hotel, we changed and headed over to the Margaret Mitchell House. We had never been there which I always thought was a bit strange given my name. The house is small but the museum shop was all kinds of adorable.

We grabbed dinner at our favorite Cajun place before heading back to the hotel. One of my best childhood friends met up with me that evening for a quick drink and some catching up. The next day, my mom and I hit up the World of Coca Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. If you're going to both, get the Pemberton Place Pass since it saves you a little $$$.

I had never been to the new World of Coca Cola and while it was definitely cool, I really miss the old building by Underground Atlanta (and was also bummed that I didn't get to go to Underground). The tasting room is still just as fun, the movie was interesting, and the memorabilia is still the same; however, there's just something more nostalgic and less commercial about the old building. The Georgia Aquarium was all kinds of awesome! It's quite large and the layout is pretty neat. It is literally right across from World of Coca Cola.

The way downtown Atlanta is set up now is fairly convenient. Most of the tourist attractions are clustered together making it easy to get around. The Marta station is fairly close by too (it's really not as creepy as people make it sound). We made a stop at Centennial Park and visited the bricks we had purchased back during the 1996 Olympic games. The park was a lot bigger than I remembered and so pretty.

After a short stop back at the hotel, we walked over to Virginia Highland. The walk was long but so awesome. Atlanta has a lot of history so getting to walk past old parks (especially the beautiful Piedmont Park) and houses was really scenic in itself. Virginia Highland has a ton of cool restaurants and shops so if you're looking for a fun place to shop that isn't a mall, check it out.

Later that night I visited with another childhood friend close to the hotel. My mom and I had visited just about everything we wanted to see in our hometown so it was time to head off to NYC for 24 hours...