City Adventure - Part Four

Good Thanksgiving (Thursday) morning!

We've already had our Thanksgiving with Mikie's family, and that was a lot of fun. I have to admit, the whole holiday "thing" has been re-energized by having a new baby in our midst. Thanks to our niece and her husband (Brandi and Jared), we now have Matthew. We haven't had a baby for 11 years (Roxie was the last one). And Matthew is not only the first grandchild and the first great-grandchild... he is also our first great-nephew. Which means I am officially a great-aunt. (I've always been a great aunt, but now other people have to admit it!) Matthew is pure enjoyment... happy, beautiful, animated and at almost 11 months old, he can read. He points to a picture, makes sounds and is ready to turn the page. He's brilliant, I tell you! Having a baby during the holidays makes it so much fun, and he is at the top of our list of what we're most thankful for this year.

By the time you're reading this, we will hopefully be on the road to the mountains. (Maybe not. We're notorious for leaving later than planned.) If things go as planned, we'll be having a candlelit Thanksgiving dinner tonight, and Mom requested we all dress up... ties and dresses. It should be fun.

Thanksgiving has turned into one of my favorite holidays as I've grown a little older. When I was a kid, it was just another thing I was trying to get through to get closer to Christmas, but I think we get a little more reflective the older we get... maybe a little wiser. I want moments to last a little longer. I not only want to record them with 1,000+ pictures, but in my memory as well. I want to remember the conversations around the dinner table, the fight over the last roll, and the inevitable, "I ate way too much." I want to remember people's faces... gangly teenage boys with braces and too long hair, teenage girls who have been in the bathroom WAY too long fixing hair and applying make-up, boys AND girls being naive enough to think Thanksgiving just "happens" or just "appears," not realizing all the work and preparation that takes place ahead of time.

I listed one of my favorite movies of all times is Cheaper By the Dozen. I like the whole movie, but my favorite part is the end when Steve Martin is sitting at the dinner table and his 12 kids are all talking, eating, etc., and Bonnie Hunt is at the other end of the table. For a moment, just a moment, everything for Steve Martin's character stops and he takes everything in... the chaos, the laughter, the noise, the fact that everyone is gathered together once again around the table. He shares a look with his wife, Bonnie Hunt's character, and then he enters the moment himself. The fact that his family is together and happy and healthy isn't taken for granted or lost in the shuffle. He gets it. He appreciates it. (I know, I know. This is a corny holiday movie, but I really like that part.)

I try to do that when we're all together now. It doesn't come naturally for me to stop (even for the briefest of moments), and breathe it all in. To make the mental picture instead of the camera picture is difficult for me. But when I've been able to accomplish this small feat, it has certainly been worth it. I can think back and there will be a smile on my face. That's what life is really made of, you know. Moments... good and bad. Some memorable, some forgettable, some extraordinary, some etched in our minds whether we want them to be or not. I hope you and your family enjoy so many good moments today. From our family to yours... Happy Thanksgiving!

Now, we have a little business to take care of.

City Adventure - Part Four

Okay. I think I've covered most of the questions regarding how to plan a City Adventure. We've been on two, so we are by no means experts.

Our first City Adventure was Atlanta, and although we had been there many times (Stone Mountain, Six Flags, Renaissance Festival, Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta, etc.), there were a couple of things we had not done before, so we began planning.

Since this was our first City Adventure and we were just going for a Friday and Saturday night in November, we took advantage of a couple of seasonal things.

We planned the following:

Tour of the new Coca-Cola Factory
Tour of CNN
Ice Skating in Millennium Park
Christmas Laser Light Show at Stone Mountain
Lunch at the Varsity
Lunch at Miss Pittypat's Porch

We didn't plan as much, nor did we plan anything free. However, we had saved the money, and we were well within our budget. This is basically how it played out...

Tour of the new Coca-Cola Factory - Great! We stayed about two hours more than they tell you to allot time to visit. We enjoyed everything from the movie to the old factory display to the polar bear to the tasting area. (We LOVED the tasting area.) It was great fun.

Tour of CNN - When we asked around to see what people thought about the tour, we could not find anyone who had actually been on the tour (including people who lived in Atlanta). "No reason," they would say. We decided to do the tour, but the reason no one goes on the tour with kids is pretty obvious. First, you do need to go during a weekday when it is much busier. There were very few people working the weekend shift and no one "famous." Two, it is definitely geared for news-loving adults more than teens or younger kids. I would not say "Do not go," but keep in mind who the tour is really for, and how expensive it is for younger people who are not "into" news or news coverage.

Ice Skating in Millennium Park - So much fun. It would have been even more fun at night with the lights, but it was a crisp, cool day and all of my kids love ice skating, so it was a big hit.

Christmas Laser Light Show at Stone Mountain - We have seen the Laser Light Show many, many times and absolutely love it. However, I think this was the first time they had a "Christmas" Laser Light Show. It lasted exactly eight minutes and the visuals weren't very good, and the music wasn't loud enough. I have a feeling they will tweak this in coming years, but it was not what we expected. We didn't pay to go into Stone Mountain itself (which was so beautifully lit) because of our budget, but if we go again in November, we will definitely go into Stone Mountain for the Christmas activities.

The Varsity - Eating at the Varsity was a treat since it is so old and so famous. We enjoyed our food and the atmosphere, and we wore our hats a lot longer than we needed to once we left the restaurant.

Miss Pittypat's Porch - We decided not to eat there since we were staying on the other side of Atlanta, so we will eat there on another occasion.

There was a Greek Diner across the street from our hotel, and it was a wonderful surprise. We all tried something a little different, and because the owner of the restaurant thought Roxie was cute, he let her pick out two huge pieces of cheesecake (she hates cheesecake) for us to take back to the hotel for later (a savings of $6.95 a piece)!

After taking the Atlanta trip (and enjoying it very much), we decided to plan a City Adventure once a year. For the year 2009, we will be going to Nashville, Tennessee. I have already started researching and we have already started saving. It's going to be a wonderful trip... I just feel it in my bones!

Book

I said I would throw in another favorite book for today. Actually, my favorite book for today is a set of vacation guides. The Family Fun Vacation Guide to (fill in the blank). They have New England, Florida, Southwest, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic and California. For example, the New England book includes six states, day-trip itineraries, family-friendly restaurants, fun museums, age-by-age-advice, etc. They have maps, places to stay and they rate everything by the star system for specific ages. They are absolutely wonderful, easy to read, and have more information than the Internet. (I don't know that for a fact, but they are really, really good books.)

You can find them at Books-A-Million in the travel section. They are in paperback and cost $17.95, but I think they are well worth the money, especially if you are going to be able to use the book more than once.

Remember, I'll be gone for the next few days, but there will be a post bright and early Monday morning with a Christmas party or event. Have a great weekend, and take care.