adventures in atl

Thursday night I had a work reception in Atlanta.
My best friend had to work the reception as well and she had a work conference the next day in Atlanta.
Instead of riding the work bus, we decided to drive up and stay overnight.
Oh the perks of working with your best friend!

We got to Atlanta early and ate a late lunch/ early supper at the Cheesecake Factory.
Always a big hit!
Then we killed time by browsing around the mall.
We scored some fab finds at New York & Company for 50-70% off!

S'mores cheesecake ... divine! 

The reception was long and we were both thankful that we could go straight to the hotel and crash.
Well, The Varsity was on the way to the hotel and neither of us could resist stopping for a chili dog.

We stayed at the beautiful Hotel Indigo.
I would recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Atlanta.
It is super unique and has excellent customer service.

Friday morning it was freaking freezing in Atlanta.
I mean it was 15 degrees.
That is COLD for Georgia.
Of course, A and I could not find the building we needed downtown and proceeded to walk around for 20 minutes in the cold before finally finding the right place.
We were popsicles!

Before leaving Atlanta, a stop at Chipotle for lunch was necessary.
That's two weekends in a row.
A girl could get spoiled!

I am moving into a new apartment this coming week/weekend.
D and I spent all day Saturday painting at the new place.
I need to find a chiropractor pronto.

First meal in the new place ... look at that fortune

On a non-weekend related note, the forecast is calling for SNOW this week!
I know not to get my hopes up and it is still probably wishful thinking.
But I really want snow!

SNOW!

weekend in savannah

D's birthday was last week 

and we celebrated by 

spending the weekend in Savannah. 

We had SO much fun 

and ate way too much! 

Friday: We ate at Chipotle! 

If you have read my blog for any length of time, 

you know Chipotle is my favorite restaurant. 

D is such a good sport about letting me eat here 

every single time we go anywhere that 

has a Chipotle in a 30 mile radius. 

Then we just relaxed at the hotel. 

Saturday: Was our busy day! 

We ate lunch at Molly McPherson's Scottish Pub ... 

D's favorite place to go in Savannah.  

D had the Scottish combo 

(Scotch egg, Guinness battered onion rings, & a meat pie) 

and the fish and chips. 

I had the shepherd's pie. 

Everything was delicious! 

Molly McPherson's

Then we walked around City Market and downtown Savannah. 

City Market

City Hall

We stopped in Lulu's Chocolate Bar for afternoon coffee and dessert. 

Lulu's is one of my absolute favorite places in Savannah 

and D had never been. 

It is now one of his favs as well! 

So much so, that we stopped by here on Sunday too. 

First stop at Lulu's
{white chocolate chip cheesecake & dark chocolate salted caramel almond cake}

After Lulu's we walked around some more, wasting time until our 

Savannah Walks Ghost Tour. 

If you ever visit Savannah, you have to do one of the ghost tours. 

There are a million different tours you can take, 

but we always prefer the walking ones. 

D and I had a great time on the tour. 

Our guide was very knowledgeable and kept it entertaining. 

Ghost tour

After the tour, we walked back to City Market 

and ate pizza at Vinnie Van Go Go's. 

We walked for 7 hours Saturday. 

I swear my hips were hurting Sunday morning. 

At least we walked off most of the calories we ingested!

Sunday: Was a lazy day. 

We ate lunch at Five Guys Burger & Fries. 

D had planned on eating at another pub for lunch, 

but they were closed on Sundays. 

We both decided a burger & fries sounded great 

after all the stuff we ate Saturday. 

Then we walked around downtown some more 

and stopped by the cemetery in the daytime.

   

Stopped by Lulu's again. 

Second Lulu's stop.
{Big chocolate chip cookie & chocolate espresso creme brulee}

Doing what bloggers do! 

D snapped this one of me! 

Lulu's has the BEST coffee! 

Then walked down River Street. 

Love this guy! 

River Street

We ended our Savannah weekend 

with Coldstone ice cream! 

I love living so close to Savannah. 

It really is a great city, 

with a ton of history. 

I need three-day weekends more often! 

I know, I know ... it's Tuesday! 

morning music

One of my favorite things is a 

long, hot shower. 

So much so, that I have to put a time limit 

on my showers on workdays. 

'Cause it is a little ridiculous to take a 

30 minute shower every morning before work! 

I time my morning showers with music. 

I am usually done after the first two songs, 

but I allow myself a four song time limit; 

for those especially sluggish mornings. 

I have a specific playlist that acts as my time clock. 

This playlist does change occasionally when the mood strikes. 

But I thought it would be fun to share 

the songs on my current 

morning playlist. 

Of course, the YouTube versions are a bit longer 

than the album versions. 

There are more songs on the playlist 

that I listen to while getting ready, 

but these are the first five. 

What are some of your favorite songs right now?

2013 holiday season

I had an absolutely fabulous holiday season! 

Christmas was great. 

New Year was great. 

And all the time between was great. 

Are you getting the gist?! 

I think I need to use "great" at least one more time in this post! ;)

One of the perks of working at a university 

is the 2 week vacation at Christmas! 

Of course, getting paid for no work is already a perk. 

But this was D and I's first Christmas season together. 

Our 8 month anniversary was on Christmas day! 

We spent the entire week 

between Christmas and New Year's Day together. 

I was a little worried that we would get sick of each other 

or that one of us would get tired of the other, 

but I worried for no reason. 

It was actually super relaxing. 

We did not make a lot of plans and just really enjoyed doing nothing most days. 

The weekend before Christmas, D and I 

went to my hometown and did Christmas with my family there. 

Then on Christmas Eve, 

I exchanged presents with my best friends 

and then went to D's extended family Christmas. 

Just a sampling of presents ...
I got a Keurig!!

Christmas morning we went to D's parents' house to open presents 

and then just lounged around in our pajamas the rest of the day. 

The week between Christmas and New Year was my favorite. 

We sat around the fire one night 

and roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, and drank coffee. 

D's fire pit

S'mores!

Mmmmm ... Coffee! 

We went hunting that Saturday. 

Neither D nor I killed anything but we still had fun. 

In the woods, waiting on the deer

Then Monday, we went up to Augusta. 

We walked along the Savannah River, donated blood, 

and ended the day with some Coldstone ice cream. 

Meet D! 

Random river walk shots

More river walk shots ...
I must have a thing for pathways

Donating blood

Reward for donating blood!

New Year's Eve we had a big fire at D's parents' house. 

Around midnight, we all set his parents' Christmas tree on fire. 

That will definitely make you more cautious 

about Christmas trees. 

That thing went up in a second and it was a huge flame. 

I was helping D put it on the fire, so I did not get a single picture. 

The New Year fire before the Christmas tree 

It was so hard going back to work on the 2nd. 

I still have not fully recovered! 

I am definitely looking forward to more weeks like that one! 

I hope y'all had a GREAT holiday season! :)

National Champions!

I cannot even begin to express 

just how excited I am! 

GO NOLES! 

super late vegas recap

Hey y'all! 

Remember that time I mentioned I was going to Vegas? 

Exactly a month ago today? 

Well, I am finally getting around to recapping the trip. 

I am just going to post all of the pictures at the end of the post; 

in case anyone just wants to skip those. 

This was a work trip 

and, of course, the days were filled with conference sessions, 

which were mostly interesting. 

But the evenings were free and I loved exploring Vegas. 

Now for me, 

any trip is going to revolve around food! 

I am a foodie and I love experiencing new restaurants. 

This is my fair warning, 

there will be many food pictures in this post. ;)

Getting to Vegas was a headache. 

Flight delay due to a brake line failure on the initial airplane out of Atlanta. 

I finally made it to Vegas 3 hours late. 

Granted I am thankful that they found the malfunction before takeoff. 

I am sure that would have been an interesting landing! 

I stayed at the Mandalay Bay Resort. 

I really enjoyed the Mandalay! 

My favorite part was probably the Shark Reef Aquarium. 

They also had a ton of great restaurants on site. 

One night I just wandered the Strip, sightseeing. 

I stopped in M&M world. 

I am talking 4 floors of M&M stuff! 

Another night, I went to the Bellagio Fountains. 

I absolutely loved the Fountains, 

a definite must see for anyone visiting Vegas. 

I loved flying over the Grand Canyon on the flight back home. 

Luckily, the trip back from Vegas was pretty much hassle free. 

I actually landed 20 minutes early in Savannah! 

I really do LOVE flying! 

My view from the conference center

Various Christmas trees around the hotel

Wall of M&Ms

Spectacular Bellagio Fountains! 

SHARKS!

An Irish Pub ... this was my favorite restaurant! 

Guinness Beef Stew & French Press Coffee at the Irish Pub

  Caramel Latte Milkshake...seriously, the best milkshake EVER!

These nachos were enormous! 

Meatball Sub & Sweet Potato Fries

Chicken Burrito ... the tortilla was fresh made! 

Flying over the Grand Canyon