A weekend in Athens

On Thursday we drove from Cincinnati to Athens, Georgia to visit with Charlie's Aunt Taylor, who is in grad school at UGA. We got a later start than we expected, and it took close to 10 hours with two long stops in the middle. But Charlie did well in the car, thanks to the Pixar DVDs playing in the back seat.

On Friday we took a day-trip into Atlanta to go to the Georgia Aquarium. Charlie loved it. After a while, though, he would say "all done" when he was ready to move on from a particular window or exhibit. We were impressed with many of the exhibits, and would definitely return again if and when we have the chance.



After we finished at the Aquarium, we read that the zoo had pandas. So we decided to take advantage of the discount we would receive from our Cincinnati Zoo membership and stop at the zoo to see them before heading back to Athens. We also got to see kangaroos, and Charlie petted some goats at the children's zoo. After a few raindrops started to fall, we successfully navigated the start of Friday rush hour traffic on the way out of Atlanta, and Charlie slept most of the way back to Athens.

Friday night we found our way to an Indian restaurant just a block from our hotel, and the food and service were both excellent. Charlie astounded us with the amount of food that he ate, including some chicken appetizers and the usual saag.

Saturday started with a great lunch at The Last Resort, also just a couple of blocks from the hotel. After lunch, we went for a walk and visited Taylor's studio. Charlie enjoyed pointing and barking out directions to push him "this way" in the stroller.



In the evening, Taylor and Charlie spent a while coloring in a coloring book, and Taylor drew some other pictures on plain paper for Charlie to color. We had Thai food takeout for our dinner and sat up drinking wine and beer and talking into the wee hours after Charlie went to bed.



Today we had a lazy morning, and then met up with Taylor at Big City Bread for some delicious brunch. The patio was dog-friendly, and Charlie made some new friends. John and Taylor spent the afternoon working on her computer and a movie for one of her classes while Charlie napped and played in the room. Dinner was takeout pizza from Transmetropolitan, another great local spot here downtown near the hotel. We head back home in the morning.



We had a great weekend visiting, and the Georgia Gameday Center was perfect for our needs as far as the hotel goes. It was right downtown, in walking distance to shops and restaurants, and had easy parking in an attached garage. Having a separate bedroom for Charlie was wonderful. And John managed to contain himself when confronted by all the UGA memorabilia, photographs, carpet, and even door knobs.

Other mileposts this weekend include some new words (pizza, dinosaur (really, we heard it once!), panda, woof, bunny, tray, and Incredibles (sounds like "bibbles")), and transition into size 5 diapers.