The winter vacation begins early Saturday morning; Christopher, Matthew, and I are heading south with the car. Suzanne and Kevin will follow via plane on Tuesday. The long drive is for a couple of reasons; rental cars are very expensive in Florida….Suzanne and Kevin could work more (that didn’t work out for Kevin, but, ok). Van is packed to the brim; hindsight says we should have had more of Christmas at home instead of carting gifts south. Oh well.
But, the driving part works out since I can stop in Atlanta and see Melanie and bring her the few items she asked for; the coffee grinder, a small glass boot, and Dad’s Army Jacket. There was more in the box, but, those three were the highlights so to speak.
The drive was uneventful; I guess the most interesting part was that Google Maps had suggested taking the back roads through Tennessee to Alpharetta instead of I-75. Melanie and Jennifer had never heard of this, but, it was much shorter and by the time I hit Cleveland TN I was more than happy to get off the interstate for awhile. Was a good move; very pretty drive and made really good time.
Arrived about 6 pm. Was a quiet night but a good night; boys enjoyed the menagerie of dogs and cats and we watched football and Penn State volleyball before calling it a night.
(still fascinated by the police SUV….)
Sunday the boys and I headed to the Georgia Aquarium….before returning to Alpharetta for the Steeler game. A good time had by all at the Aquarium….topped off by revealing to Cpher that Mom had arranged for a Christmas surprise for him (and us)…..an up-close encounter with the sea otters!
(The boys like these pop-up areas to be close to the penguins…)
(like this photo a lot…)
(we got a lot closer to the rays later on in this trip…)
(the big attraction here are the giant whale sharks…)
(this is probably the best picture of the aformentioned whale shark. Like Fric and Frac here as well)
(one more of them in front of the tropical fish)
After lunch at the Varsity (what’ll ya have!) we drove back north to watch the Steelers dispatch the Chiefs
(Steeler Photo. Matthew I guess should have been wearing his Seattle jersey(?))
After dinner we headed out to Main Event…..Dave & Busters but with laser tab, bowling, ropes course, etc. Didn’t understand the whole pricing structure and spent way more here than I wanted to, but, it was a fun night out.
(watching Matthew bowl is fun; like most athletic things he is a natural at it. And for the first time ever he whupped my ass at it. Only Matthew and I bowled without bumpers….the rest of the scores are rebound-aided!)
Continued our journey south at 6 am Monday morning…wanted to (and did) beat the traffic through Atlanta.
