Playing Tourist in Atlanta...

Over the Labor Day weekend we took off for Atlanta. In the past year we've been to Hot-Lanta a few times. Most of the visits have revolved around shopping or just visiting friends.

What made this trip different? We decided to play tourist for a day. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and met Regi in the cute little town square in Decatur.

Yay MARTA! As we like to stay in the Sandy Springs/Dunwoody area of Atlanta I found a super rate at the Sheraton on Hammond Drive, just down the street from the Dunwoody MARTA stop. After checking in on Saturday afternoon we headed over to the MARTA stop to take the train to Decatur.

Little did we know there was a Clemson-Alabama football game and every Clemson and Alabama fan on earth would be riding in the same MARTA car with us! :)

We survived and made it to Decatur and walked around the town for a bit waiting for Regi to meet us. It really is a cute little town! We stumbled upon a Starbucks...how convenient! And stopped for a coffee. While there Reg called and said he had arrived and a few minutes later he was walking in the door.

The ultimate goal was to have dinner at a Thai place Regi and Scott had found a couple weeks ago. It's named Siam and the food was terrific! And the portions huge. I couldn't even finish my Pad Thai.

Regi was kind enough to drive us back to my car at the MARTA stop and we called it a night. I've got to say the beds at the Sheraton were fantastic! Really comfortable!

We were in no rush the next morning, so got moving and out the door around 10:30. We stopped at the Einstein Bagels place down the street from the hotel for some breakfast since we had never tried this place. It's a bagel shop/restaurant chain and the bagels were great.

Just after 11am we were back on MARTA heading down to CNN Center to catch the Inside CNN tour. The tour was very interesting. It was neat to see some of the behind the scenes stuff. The tour lasted about an hour and then we were off and walking through Centennial Park.

We were headed for the World of Coke, which was somewhat interesting but filled with masses of people and mostly children running around. We did get to taste several Coke products that are sold all over the world and the unanimous favorite was called Smart from China. It's an apple flavored soda and it was a pleasant surprise. I didn't think I would like it but I did. The second runner up was called Beverly from Italy and it a bit of a lime/lemon flavor. I did not like any of the flavors from Africa...way too sweet...and I have a sweet tooth!

One of the highlights of the weekend was Sunday night dinner. Through the OpenTable website I found a restaurant in the Inman Park neighborhood of Atlanta called Wisteria. And a bonus was for a Sunday early evening reservation via OpenTable I could get 1000 points! So I booked the reservation.

I am so glad I found this little gem! The food was delicious and the restaurant had a "rustic" atmosphere with exposed brick walls. It was casual and was fairly crowded for a Sunday night and it seemed to have a good local clientele, which was confirmed by our waitress.

We had 2 appetizers, the calamari which had an Asian twist because it was served with a wasabi mayonnaise and an apricot dipping sauce...it was the best calamari I have had in a really long time! The second starter was fried green tomato fries. A unique way to serve this southern classic...french fry style with an absolutely decadent blue cheese dipping sauce.

We would have been happy with the starters but forged ahead with entrees too! Mom had the skate wing fish with grits so creamy I almost didn't believe they were grits! Really, really good. I had the special which was a veal and pork meatloaf with mashed potatoes. The meatloaf was so tender there was no need for me to use a knife. Mom had a couple glasses of wine and I tried the signature Wisteria Blossom which is a martini with chambord and I can't remember what else, but it was very smooth!

We ended dinner with espresso that really hit the spot! I would give Wisteria very high marks and would definitely return.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night. The next morning we took our time getting started, went back to Einstein Brothers for a bagel breakfast and then to Trader Joe's to stock up on $2 Chuck!

We were on the road just after 10:30 and back home by 3:30. Just enough time to get organized for the work week!

It was another fun filled weekend to one of my favorite cities!