November 2-6, 2011 | Birmingham and Auburn, AL
On November 2, I flew home to Birmingham to spend a couple days with my family before heading to Auburn for a friend's wedding. On November 3, my mom and I went to the BJCC (Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center) for the annual Christmas Village Festival. Admission to the festival is $10, and there are literally hundreds of booths set up with everything from clothing to candles to Christmas wreaths and anything you can possibly imagine in between. It's pretty overwhelming, but in just a couple hours we were able to check out nearly all the booths. Most of the booths are filled with homemade trinkets, and while some of it can border on a little junky, there were some really great booths with delicious samples of teas and snacks, and I actually did purchase a wonderful scented candle and picked out a pretty handmade scarf that was later gifted to me at Christmas. If you are going in with plans to buy lots of things, this would definitely be an all day event, but we took the more casual approach of just wandering around and looking at the booths without actually purchasing that much. There was also a food court set up on the lower level of the village, so we ate lunch and then headed home.
On November 4, I drove down to Auburn with my friend Mark for a good friend's wedding. It had been two years since I'd been to Auburn, so just wandering around Toomer's Corner, grabbing a drink at Bodega and showing my New York friends around campus was a breath of fresh air! And of course we got giant margaritas at Acapulco's, where so many of my Auburn nights began, before the wedding and went to the War Eagle Supper Club (rated one of the Top 50 CollegeBars by Playboy) after the wedding and reception...there are some things that just can't be missed when I'm in the Loveliest Village! The weather was warm and breezy in Auburn, so everything from the pre-wedding brunch out on the patio of the Johnston's home to the outdoor wedding reception at the Jule Smith Collins Museum was lovely.
The Jule Smith Collins Museum at sunset:
Miles Traveled Today: 2,140 (in black on the map)
December 21, 2011 - January 2,2012 | Birmingham, AL and Atlanta, GA
On Wednesday, December 21, I flew home to be with my family for the Christmas holiday. While we had a few things planned for our time at home, this was primarily a trip for relaxation and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather down south! On December 22, my mom and I had a fun girl's day that began with a lunchtime tea at the Townhouse Tea Shoppe in Mt. Laurel. It was actually so unseasonably warm on this day that there were tornado warnings all over town - crazy! The restaurant requires reservations, but as we discovered when we arrived, this is not due to overwhelming demand or a lack of seating, but rather so they know how many scones they are making for the day. Although Mt. Laurel is still several miles away even after turning off Highway 280, I thought the tea shoppe was quaint, quiet and exactly the kind of experience you are looking for when you sign up for a traditional English tea and would certainly recommend it for someone looking for an afternoon tea in the Birmingham area. While there were people who arrived after us just ordering a proper lunch (all light fare: salads, soups and sandwiches), we were there for the tea, scones, little sandwiches and sweets!
With our three-tiered tea service:
On December 23, my best friend Tiffany came down from Huntsville for our annual reunion which always consists of Mexican food (this year we went with Superior Grill) and then decided to try out a relatively new (at least to us) "girl's night out" activity called Sips 'n' Strokes. Because we had to be at S&S at 7pm, dinner was an early affair this year, and we just happened to luck into 2-for-1 margarita happy hour...just what we needed! When we arrived at Sips 'n' Strokes, we chose the painting each of us would be doing, were instructed on how many 'squirts' of each color of paint to put on our cardboard, got an apron and some tips on how to start and then got to work! The uncorking of the bottle of wine we brought was in there somewhere. :) There are these sort of painting classes all over the country (none in New York of course), but I would recommend it to anyone! I don't consider myself even remotely artistic, and I was thrilled with how well my angel turned out...getting to down a bottle of red with my friend while painting made it all the more enjoyable:
On December 26, I decided to make a quick drive over to Atlanta to see some friends who would not be in town when I came back for New Year's Eve. I stayed with my best friend Nicole, who recently moved into a house right next to Piedmont Park in midtown (read: close to everything!). We first made the short drive to Decatur for dinner at the Iberian Pig, which was a delicious Spanish tapas restaurant. I had never been to Decatur before, but it is such a cute little town! It is very young and reminds me a lot of Hoboken with the music venues and trendy restaurants and bars on quiet sidewalks. We ordered pitchers of sangria and tons of food for the table to share - it was a delicious meal in a beautiful restaurant...perfect for girls' night out! We then walked a couple doors down to the Square Pub for a few drinks, where one of Nicole's friends was having a beer tapping for Free Spirit, a beer created in honor of his sister who was murdered this past summer. Bars close at 2am in Atlanta (never thought I'd miss that!), so it was a relatively early night.
The girls at Iberian Pig:
The next morning, I took my time getting ready and then met Sean at the Varsity for lunch. The Varsity is a must-see if it's your first time in Atlanta, as it is the world's largest drive-in restaurant. I've been here a few times, and while it's really just a dirty Atlanta diner, it's a fun spot with a lot of energy, especially during the fall, as it's situated right on Georgia Tech's campus. Inside, it's much a sea of total chaos, and you'll want to know what you are ordering before you get up to bat (think Soup Nazi with hot dogs and burgers). My personal favorite is the orange slush drink they serve! Finding seating is no easy task, but if you keep walking all the way to the back of the restaurant, something will usually open up. After lunch, I headed back to Birmingham, which is really more of a 3-hour drive than the 2-hour drive I've long considered it to be now thanks to all the construction on I-20.On New Year's Eve, I returned to Atlanta once again, this time with my family to watch my Auburn Tigers take on the Virginia Cavaliers in the Chick-fil-A Bowl at the Georgia Dome. After grabbing a quick bite to eat at the Varsity (of course), walking around the fan area outside the Georgia Dome for a while and discovering there were no TVs for my dad to watch the Georgia Tech bowl game (major error on the part of the Chick-fil-A Bowl, we all agreed), we headed to a nearby Taco Mac at the CNN Center where we could get some drinks and watch the other games on TV.
The game was lots of fun, and Auburn came away with a dominating win just before midnight: 43-24. As soon as the game was over, we raced back over to Nicole's house where we'd left the car (knowing parking at the stadium would not only be insanity, but also expensive) on the Marta and got back just in time to countdown to midnight and grab a glass of champagne! I also bid my parents adieu, as they had decided to just make the trip back to Birmingham that night with the complete scarcity of hotels in the area. After a little while, the party began to wind down, so I went back with Sean to the Four Seasons Hotel, which is a truly luxurious hotel situated in midtown Atlanta. The New Year's Eve party was winding down in the hotel bar, so we were able to go in and get a few drinks before heading up to the room and crashing.
Four Seasons lobby:
The next morning, we ordered some room service (I had the Belgian waffle with peaches...delish!), and a few hours later met up with my brother who had stayed with some friends across town. We grabbed a quick lunch with them, and then made the drive back to Birmingham. And the next afternoon, I flew back to the frozen tundra that is New York in January!Miles Traveled Today: 2,506 (in grey on the map)
January 13-16, 2012 | Atlantic City, NJ
Just like last year, my MLK holiday weekend was once again spent at the Borgata in Atlantic City. And like last year, the bus out of New York on Friday after work was the mode of transportation. We arrived at the hotel a little before 10pm and after our quick VIP check-in to our suite (upgrade from last year!), immediately went on a hunt for dinner. After a quick loop around the casino floor, we settled on Izakaya, which was a delicious Japanese restaurant with dark lighting and a very modern feel. We ordered several rolls for the table as well as some tasty cocktails. The next night we had a sold out shows at the Event Center, so although most of the afternoon was spent getting organized and set up for the show, we did find time to escape away from the Borgata so I could show Sean the boardwalk and grab some drinks at Caesar's Palace. We also tried our luck with the slot machines, but I think at best we came out with net winnings and losses of $0. We also hung around the casino in their sports bar for a bit watching the New York Giants beat up on the Green Bay Packers...and then it was time to head back to the Borgata for the show.
Sunday was a lazy day of sleeping and eating with another sold out show. After the show, the promoter and some of the comics, 'friends of the show' and I went over to the more luxurious hotel on the other side of the Borgata, the Water Club, to the Sunroom lounge right off the lobby. This was actually my favorite part of the Borgata that I've seen. While it is indoors, it gives the illusion of being outside in a lush tropical forest with waterfalls. It was also a welcome reprieve from all the smoking and the loud music in the main casino room, so we had a few drinks here before heading off to bed. We were up very early on Monday morning to take advantage of my boss' offer to drive us to the train station that we could take back to New York. It should come as no surprise that most of that train ride was spent dozing off, and the rest of that day is a little bit of a sleepy-eyed blur.
Sunroom at the Water Club (in the light of day):
Miles Traveled Today: 254 (in red on the map)
My trip(s):
Total Miles Traveled: 29,000
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