Having missed our summer holiday because due to the arrival of Amelia we managed to squeeze in an end of summer break to visit Atlanta. We had a few glitches in organising it all. The first thing I have to say is don’t fly Delta. They didn’t have the cheapest price but they did have direct flights so we initially decided to book with them. After entering the credit card details and clicking confirm, it came up with a message saying the original price is no longer available and flights are now $75 extra per person. Complete BS. I restarted the process and the original price came up again, but still at the final step it tried to add the $150. I then phoned the reservations line and asked to get the original price. They said it’s only available online and they change extra to book on the phone. Eventually I settled for American Airlines and paid more for flights requiring a connection but at I didn’t give any money to Delta. Yay!
The next complication was our friend who we were visiting and planned to pick us up from the airport, her grandma passed and the funeral, in New Orleans, was the weekend we were supposed to arrive. Everything worked out though and we were spoiled with a pickup from 5 Star Limousine Service. 
Day 1: Sat – Was a very busy day to try and get 3 people out to Montreal Trudeau airport for our afternoon flight. We got there nice and early and our friendly American Airlines check-in agent kindly reserved us seats in a row of three. So we had an extra seat that we didn’t pay for during our flights. It made things a little easier. On the flight Amelia was really good and hardly did any crying. After the aforementioned pickup from the airport we arrived at our friends place around 1am and went straight to bed.
Day 2: Sun – We slept in. J fed the baby, we mooched around the house. We went for a walk up the road to the shops to find some food and some wrapping paper for Teyt’s present. It was her birthday the previous week so we brought some Canadian gifts for her, but ran out of time to wrap them. There was birthday cake in the fridge, two kinds and both good!
Day 3: Mon – Another lazy day. I played fetch with Sadie the dog. She was very excited to play. The weather was warm and resulted in a lot of dog slobber on the tennis ball very quickly. Luckily the dog got tired and decided to sit on the lawn and chew on the ball for a while so I was able to go back inside and wash my hands. It was fun. The weather in Georgia was still warm and sunny so it was nice to spend another quiet day enjoying the sunshine and watching the hummingbirds hover while having a drink and then flying off. In evening Peyton, Teyt and Peyton’s parents arrived back in town. I think Teyt remembers us (she just turned 3) and liked her presents.
Day 4: Tue – Today was shopping day. We went to Best Buy and purchased a video recorder. I thought it was a good plan to catch some memories when Amelia was small. It was hard to buy, HSBC canceled our credit card again. We tried one from NZ, also denied. In the end we tried out debit card and luckily that worked. After a couple of other errands we went to Bahama Breeze for lunch. That was pretty sweet. We had awesome cocktails with our lunch and J had giant Key Lime Pie for dessert.
Day 5: Wed – Driving to Lake Oconee we stopped at a Waffle House. This is a chain of road side restaurants that are common in that part of the states. It was a nice American experience. I had a Cherry Coke. Atlanta is the home of Coke. It was good. We carried on and got to the lake early afternoon. Then it was time for margaritas!! Peyton has a traditional family recipe which was awesome. We BBQ’ed for dinner and had more margaritas.
Day 6: Thurs – Today we had pancakes and syrup for breakfast. After we took the boat out on the lake. Since the school holidays were over and it was a week day we were the only ones out on the water. We cruised around with some tunes for a bit and then I went on the tube behind the boat. Peyton made sure I had a good time. We also had some margaritas on the boat. In the afternoon it started raining so we watched movies sitting on the couch. (Apollo 13 and Easy A) For dinner we BBQ’ed again and had some more margaritas. After we sat on the desk outside over looking the lake and chatted.
Day 7: Fri – After tidying up and putting everything away it was time to head back to the city. On the way back we went to Piedmont Park for a walk around. After we went to a frozen custard place called Rita’s. I had a blizzard which is a mix of frozen custard and ice cream with cookie bits. Once we got home enjoyed another Sam Adams (an award winning Beer) and a Wheel, which is a kind of ice cream sandwich we don’t have in Canada. We made a plan to go tailgating in the morning if we got ready for the airport early enough but it didn’t eventuate as baby schedules are hard to control.
Day 8: Sat – Time to head back to Montreal and home. We had breakfast, packed up and then started to head for the airport. On the way home we were in much smaller aircraft. We had a connection at NY (La Guardia) and got some treats from Aunt Annie’s Pretzels. Arriving back home we found the cold snap we had before we left and passed and the weather was a bit warmer again. All in all, a good break away.
The only bad thing was she didn’t stay long enough.
