We took our first road trip as a three-membered Team Smith this past weekend. Obviously I didn't want to post anything about the trip before we went because of safety reasons ("Hi, strange person who reads my blog. Just wanted to let you know that we'll be out of town for a few days. The key is under the mat. ")
I love Food Network. We're talking,
love. I love all the chefs (except for Sandra Lee - she bugs me ... why does she insist on matching her KitchenAid [and the rest of her kitchen] to her outfit?). One of my favorite shows is Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. Guy Fieri travels around the country specifically looking for non-descript, hole-in-the-wall places that happen to serve amazing food. Lee and I had been talking about making a DDD road trip for a while, and the MLK holiday seemed like the best time to do it. So Lee and I planned our road trip around the restaurants Guy visited in Atlanta
Lee and I are way excited to start our trip
Natalie could care less
We left after Lee got off work on Friday evening. Our plan was to leave at night, so Natalie would sleep the whole way. Riiiiight. She slept off and on. And once she fell into a deep sleep, we had to stop for gas. Of course. And the bright lights of the gas station woke the sleeping beast up. Thankfully we didn't have too much farther to travel after we filled up, because there was no getting her to go back to sleep after that.
We got to the hotel around midnight and she went to sleep a little while later. We booked a hotel room that had a bedroom and a living room, so we put Natalie in her Pack-n-Play in the living room and Lee and I got the bedroom (duh). This arrangement worked out great because we could put her to bed at night, close the door to the living room, and Lee and I could stay up like adults for a few more hours.
We kept Natalie on central time the whole trip, so she went to bed at 8pm instead of 7pm, took her naps at 9:30am and 2pm instead of 8:30am and 1pm. The trip itself was enough of a shock to her system, so we didn't want to mess her up even more by changing her sleep schedule.
Thankfully she cheered up when we woke up the next morning
3-toothed redneck baby
So silly
Our hotel had a continental breakfast, so our first DDD meal was lunch the next day at The Collonade. Lee has a friend who lives in Atlanta, so he and his wife met us at the restaurant. The food was good, but nothing that Guy tried was listed on the menu. I was really disappointed. And our waiter had no clue what I was talking about when I mentioned that I was hoping to try some of the choices from DDD. Finally the manager came over and explained that the restaurant has weekly specials, but when Guy visited, they made all of their specials for him to try. Bummer. I got roast chicken and Lee got chicken fried chicken. Both were really good, but neither was mind-blowingly good.
After lunch and a nap, we went to IKEA. We hadn't been there before and we were both amazed. It's one of the coolest stores I've ever been to. Some of the stuff is a little too modern for my taste, but most of the stuff is sa-weet! And to top it off, they have cinnamon rolls! For $1! Hot, delicious cinnamon rolls for $1!! It was pure heaven, I tell ya.
Natalie was grumpy when I took this picture,
so I blocked her crying face with my big head
Hello, beautiful
The carts at IKEA are great -
you can parallel park your kid into tight spaces!
Lee made a note of every department we needed to see
Not amused at all by the trip to IKEA
Thinking Lee and I are laaaame
So sullen
For dinner, we went to This
Is It BBQ. It wasn't on DDD, but Lee and I had eaten at one before on a previous road trip through Atlanta. It is, hands down, the
best BBQ I've ever eaten. I got roast chicken and Lee got some ribs. They were both amazing. And the sides they have? Oh my GOSH. The best black-eyed peas and the best collard greens in the history of the world.
Cheerful bedhead!
A cuter picture has never existed.
Me and my little love
The next morning, we met Lee's friends again for breakfast at the Silver Skillet. It's a greasy spoon-esque diner (though surprisingly my food wasn't greasy at all). It was busy and crowded, and our waitress looked to be about 412 years old, but the food was amazing. A-maz-ing. Guy had the ham, so that's of course what we wanted to get. They marinate the ham overnight in a magical concoction of something like soy sauce, Coke, and brown sugar. Oh. My. Gosh. It was the best ham I've ever eaten. I'm sure I had my sodium intake for the entire year in that one slice of ham, but it was worth it. The ham, paired with my two over-hard eggs, and homemade biscuits made for an awesome breakfast.
Yay for Silver Skillet!
Team Smith!
All hopped up on ham and eggs
After breakfast and a nap, we set out to find our next DDD restaurant, Cabbagetown Market. It took a while, but we finally found it. And found it to be closed on Sundays. Ugh! So we went down the street to a little pizza place. Lee and I weren't tremendously hungry, so we split a delicious piece of Greek pizza and a bowl of some strange chicken curry soup.
So bummed it was closed!
Boo!
Ooooh ... somebody got in trouble!
For dinner that night, we tried to go to the Varsity. The lines were really long, we couldn't find a place to sit, and we couldn't find a highchair. So we decided to try some other place. We went to Five Guys. Again, it wasn't on DDD, but we thought we'd give it a shot. It's a small hamburger place that only sells burgers, hot dogs, and grilled cheese sandwiches. I ordered a cheeseburger with sauteed onions, sauteed mushrooms, tomatoes, and mustard. I'm not normally a fan of hamburgers, but this one? It was probably the best cheeseburger I've ever had. It was juicy and flavorful without being greasy. Lee and I split an order of fries (which was, by far, the largest order of fries I'd ever seen). They were Cajun fries, and they were goooooood.
The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and then got ready to check out. We were going to see some of Lee's friends in South Carolina later that day, but we wanted to make a few more stops before we left Atlanta. We went to Trader Joe's - what a fun place! It's like a cross between Apple Market and Everman's in Pensacola. And I got some of their famous 2 Buck Chuck (wine for $2.87!). We had some of the wine later that night, and it was really, really tasty. I wish we had a TJ back home!
For lunch, we went to our final DDD restaurant, The Highlander. We didn't realize it until we got there, but they don't allow anyone under 18 in the restaurant. The customers can smoke inside, and I guess there's a law about not letting minors into a place where others are smoking. Or something like that. They said they'd serve us, but we'd have to sit outside. It was really pretty that day (the previous two days were rainy and cold), so it wasn't a problem. Their menu already marked what Guy tried, so they made it really easy for us to pick what to get. We got their cheese sticks appetizer. And this wasn't just any old order of mozzarella sticks. These were mozzarella cheese, wrapped in a thin layer of pasta, then deep fried. Guy highly recommended them, and he was right - they were incredible. For my lunch, I got a spinach salad and a cup of Jerk chili. I remember Guy commenting on how spicy the chili was, so I knew I had to try it. He didn't lie, that chili was crazy hot. But it was also crazy good. It had really great flavor (if you could get past your eyes watering and nose running).
We took a walk around Piedmont Park before we headed to South Carolina. The weather was perfect and we needed to get some exercise after eating nonstop for 2 days.
Me and my love
At the dog park (Natalie's listening intently to Lee give a
running commentary about a fight that broke out between
a few dogs)
Pretty park
I married a monument-plaque-reader.
He feels the urge to read every single one.
Every. Single. One.
Mr. Rule Follower
B-e-a-utiful
The trip to South Carolina only took three hours, and Natalie slept most of the way. We had a great time visiting with Lee's friends. I like hearing stories (and digging up dirt!) about Lee way before we met - they always make me giggle.
Our friends had to go to work the next day, so we hung around their house for the morning. We met them for lunch and then headed back home. The hardest part of our trip was the drive home. It took about 8.5 hours to get home, and Natalie became highly displeased with her seating arrangements after about the 2nd hour. We realized that she move a lot when she sleeps (turning over, rolling over, repositioning herself, etc). So when she would finally fall asleep in her car seat, she'd try to change positions, realize that her car seat straps prevented her from moving the way she wanted, pitch a royal fit, then fall back asleep. She never really got any good rest because of the sleep-cry-sleep pattern she kept doing. It made for a long trip, but we finally made it home around 7:30pm.
All in all, it was a GREAT trip. Now that we know how Natalie does on long car trips, we're planning another one!
Thinking she's big stuff
*splat*
Lots of fun things to point at
Laughing at the airplane that went by
She'd walk a bit, then have to stop to dance.
More dancing
I love, love, love this little face
My baby puppy
This is what happens when she has her head down while
Playtime with Granddaddy
Tutu Scruncher Bear #1!
Tutu Scruncher Bear #2!
So sleepy
Giving her neck a break from carrying ar0und her
This girl loves dishtowels.
She's a master squatter
