nooga & atl

Roooad trip! Mom, Dad, Tate and I continued our tour of the USA with a 13 hour road trip to:

Destination #2: Chattanooga, Tennessee 

Shawn is playing AA baseball for the Chattanooga Lookouts, and Lynley joined him in Tennessee after she was finished teaching in June. Considering we hadn't seen Shawn in 4 months, we were very excited to see him! And although we just saw Lynley weeks before, we were looking forward to seeing her too. The team was on a home stand so we got to see 5 games in 5 days.

We got there and pretty much went straight to the game. We made the most of our time there in the first few innings by purchasing enough Lookout paraphernalia to open our own store: 11 Lookout t-shirts, a few hats and a magnet. Go Lookouts, Outlooks, errr, whatever! We were now appropriately dressed to cheer on Shawn. We saw him pitch twice while we were there.  Despite my hesitation to distract and/or embarrass him, I couldn't contain my enthusiasm and blurted out, "WOO HOO, GOOOO SHAWN!!" at first sight of him running from the bullpen to the mound. It was all so exciting! Also exciting was the addicting kettle corn at the concession stand and the fact we had a personal usher, Paw {aka the sweetest grandpa-of-a-man ever}. Paw showed us to our seats every night. I guess arriving to the games with a player's wife has it's perks.

When not attending Lookout games, we could be found at the Imax theatre across from our hotel. We went twice. We also hit up {and got hit on} the Duck boat tour, best freshwater aquarium in the world and Ruby Falls.

We had a good time exploring Chatanooga with the Tollesons with plenty of time to still take daily naps at the hotel. At the end of our stay in the 'Nooga, it was time for Shawn to hit the road for his away games in Jackson, Tennessee. The rest of us were on the road again, and on the way to:

Destination #3: Atlanta, Georgia

As many of you know, my parents lived in Atlanta for almost two years. At the time, it was a complete shock they were moving, but they really enjoyed their time being in Georgia and Lynley and I loved visiting. Since it was only a few hours away from Chattanooga, we decided to visit the ATL for a few days. 

Considering Tate had never been before and no one Mom didn't want want to deprive him of a true Atlanta experience, we Mom had lots of places on the itinerary. Lynley and I quickly voted against Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthplace and the World of Coke {don't judge}; however, were overruled on the latter of the two. Don't get me wrong- both are great places you must see ONCE in your lifetime. However, we had seen our fair share in the past 2 years. Despite our party-pooper outlook on life, we had fun anyway moseying through the World of Coke and tasting the thousands of yummy and repulsive products alike in the Coke Tasting Room. Tate loved it! I lost him a few times on the self-guided tour, later to find him double-fisting a Vanilla Coke and a Beverly. Bottoms Up! 

Also on the itinerary- Georgia Aquarium. You know there was no way we could go to Atlanta with Tate {Enviro Cop}, and NOT see the "world's largest aquarium." So, we made it our first priority to visit Niko the beluga whale, pet a few sting rays, and watch the giant whale sharks swim by. No matter how many times you visit this place, it is still pretty amazing. All that sight seeing made us hungry, so we also made sure to grab some Atlanta grub while we were in the area.  

Two days only gave us time to eat at a few of our favorite places: Roasters, Fellini's Pizza, Flying Biscuit and Bacchanalia. As most of you know, Bacchanalia is where we had our celeb sighting. As Lynley and I were finishing dessert, I looked up to see two men walking by our table. The second man looked vaguely familiar. As I studied him very intently I realized...It was...that guy...from 7th Heaven...the Minister...Mary and Lucy's dad...REVEREND ERIC CAMDEN! I looked at Lynley to tell her, but couldn't get the words out fast enough. Luckily, she saw him too. As we made eye contact she burst out in laughter. Apparently I looked in awe, eyes wide and mouth open. In my defense, I was just worried that Annie {his TV wife} was home alone with their litter of children, unaware of his whereabouts. That AND it was my first celeb sighting ever. In addition to dining with TV stars,  we also ate dinner with normal people, catching up with good friend-shout out to Erin, Diana and Cole! It was a great week in the dirty South spending time with my homies. 

Up Next: Destination #4: Santa Fe, New Mexico