Today really is Fun Friday because…my parents are coming to visit! In fact, they are on a plane AS I TYPE THESE WORDS. They are arriving at 5:15 (read: rush hour) and lovingly offered to take the MARTA into town so that I could avoid fighting my way out to the airport. It’s a long drive anyway, plus it’s the Friday of a long weekend, so I probably would have had to leave as early as their flight did in order to make it. So, that’s a relief. Furthermore, I think my dad is kind of excited by the prospect of public transportation and discovered a stop right near their hotel, so it’ll be an adventure for them. My mom assured me that if she and I could navigate from Charles de Gaulle into Paris when I had only completed a semester of high school French and she hadn’t spoken it since college, she and my dad could make it into Atlanta. :-)
Once they arrive, we will, as always, focus heavily on eating. Since we’ve moved to Atlanta, it seems that everyone we meet has a restaurant recommendation, and we’ve barely made a dent in what the city has to offer. Since my dad is a beer connoisseur, tonight we will check out The Porter, which is where A’s company took us for our welcome-to-Atlanta meal. Thankfully, we can walk there; parking is a nightmare in Little 5 Points. Tomorrow we have reservations at Wisteria, which my parents read about in the New York Times and is coincidentally right down the street from our apartment. It’s also featured as a deal on Scoutmob, which is always a plus. To round things out, we may brunch on Sunday at Cafe 458, the proceeds of which go to support the Atlanta Center for Self Sufficiency. (Are you tired of links yet?)
In between all that eating, we’re going to shop for some plants for the mini-balcony at our apartment. I want one of those planter things that hooks onto the rail and is lined with brown moss-like stuff. Hopefully my mom will know a name for that so that I don’t have to walk into a garden center and ask for that. I’d like a mixture of flowers, usable herbs, and maybe some ornamental grasses, but I’ll defer to my mom the horticulture expert as to what varieties will grow best in our area. (I’ll definitely post pictures when we have a finished-ish product!) We’re also going to visit the Atlanta Botanical Garden, per my mom’s request, and maybe check out the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.
It will be so good to see them, even though it hasn’t been nearly as long between visits this time as it was the last time. But, a lot has changed since then, and I’m glad I’ll get to show them my new home!
Fun Friday will even continue into Monday evening, as A and I have been invited to a cookout hosted by one of his co-workers. Monday Musings will likely be put on hold–I may either be in a food coma or burned out from ALL THIS FUN. I can handle it, though. In fact, I can’t wait for it all to get started! So I’m going to stop typing now and get to it!!
