Project 52 Date Nights: On The Border

Thanks to hotel reward points, we were able to go to Atlanta this past weekend and stay in

a hotel for free. 

Instead of eating at Atlanta-specific restaurants, we chose to eat at On The Border our first night – mostly because there isn't one in Chattanooga {or Nashville for that matter} and I have been craving OTB. 

We drove all over Atlanta hauling a small trailer {that we brought to haul furniture home}. It was interesting going into crowded shopping areas and trying to find parking. Somehow we managed.

We got to OTB rather late, so we thought we would have fast service. We were seated immediately and then ignored by every server/person/manager in the restaurant for the next 10+ minutes. This was probably due to the fact that a huge party was seated next to us {20+ people for a b-day celebration}. 

I finally made eye contact with a manager and he came by and offered to get us drinks and I mentioned that we had been seated for a while and could he please send our waiter over. He immediately took our order. Then proceeded to bring us cheese dip on the house. The rest of the night, the server was fantastic {it was probably the fault of the guy who sat us, but someone should have acknowledged we were there AND it probably didn't help that we were both STARVING}.

{via}

Anyways, OTB ended up being great after such a slow start.

The rest of the weekend involved trips to REI, IKEA and Sam's Club. Daniel thought it was very "American" of us to drive two hours to a big city for the sole purpose of shopping {we don't generally shop a lot and the items we wanted were not in Chattanooga or Nashville}.

We had a great weekend. We did find some hole-in-the-wall places to eat {including an Italian place where we tried lasagna pizza and a Chinese restaurant}. We tried to go to the movies, but that was a bit of a flop.

Overall good weekend, good date.

Project 52: Date Nights - Way Down Yonder on the Chattahoochee

I can't believe that 4 weeks have passed since Daniel moved to Chattanooga. This weekend we opted to meet in Peachtree City (south of Atlanta) to attend a wedding. I took Friday off and loaded Sophie and all of our stuff into the car and drove down Thursday night after work {in the rain}.

It was such a relaxing weekend – we mostly layed around and did nothing. And it was awesome. We both needed the rest after all of the stress of getting our house on the market {now that it is on the market, there are new stresses, but we will cope}.

Friday night we went to the movies for the first time in several months. Saturday night was the wedding. Sunday we searched for an open UPS store that had a notary on staff because we needed to get some paperwork notarized {that we both needed to sign}. Then we headed to the Chattahoochee River Recreation Area where we went for a walk {and Sophie proved she was no longer afraid of water when she jumped INTO the muddy river}. After the walk, we dried {cleaned} Sophie off as much as possible then went our separate ways. Goodbyes do not get easier with time.

The weekend was like de ja vu from our college days – driving to meet up with Daniel for the weekend. It was bitter sweet and reminded me that I don't miss that year in college of driving back and forth 6+hrs every weekend. I hope we aren't separated for a whole year again...

On my drive home, a nasty storm chased me. The National Weather Advisory would come on the radio and inform me that the town I had JUST LEFT was under a tornado warning and that you should abandon cars and mobile homes immediately and take cover. This little warning came on the radio with each passing town, from Spartanburg, SC up I-85 to Charlotte, NC – definitely a drive that had me on edge. Thankfully we made it home safely {to my basement} and there were no actual tornadoes.