Closing Date!

We have a closing date, folks! This feels like it has taken FOREVER, but we finally have a date set. July 8th we will be settling on the house. So get your back braces and come on over!

Anniversary Trip

For our anniversary, Jamie and I spent last weekend in Atlanta. We rode the Marta down after work on Friday and came back Sunday afternoon. The hotel we stayed at, The Georgian Terrace, is an historical building with a really neat background. It's across the street from the Fox Theater where "Gone With the Wind" premiered. The premier party was held at the Georgian Terrace ballroom and all of the actors stayed in the hotel. Our room was very nice and there was a rooftop pool with a great view of the skyline.

On Friday, we hung out around the hotel and ate dinner at a brick oven pizza place (I had lobster ravioli that was SOO good!). After dinner we walked to Publix to get some ice cream for that evening and donuts for breakfast. We had a full kitchen with a fridge, stove and microwave so that was nice. We had to buy utensils though because there weren't any in the kitchen. We swam (well Jamie swam, I thought the water was too cold) and hung out around the hotel for the rest of the evening.

Saturday we got up and decided to walk to Atlantic Station, which is about 2 1/2 miles from the hotel. The Marta bus runs between the hotel and Atlantic Station, so we figured we'd just hop on if we got tired (or too hot - it was over 90 degrees all weekend), but we made it all the way there. We ate lunch and shopped at Ikea and then stopped at Starbucks before heading back. Again, we figured we'd jump on a bus, but didn't end up doing it. That part of Atlanta is very new and visitor-friendly. There are a lot of neat stores and buildings to look at and no shady neighborhoods to go through, so it was a nice walk.

We were exhausted after our walk, so we took some time to rest and then got showered and dressed for dinner. Jamie had found a really nice little restaurant down the street from the hotel about 2 or 3 blocks. It was called "Silk" and was an Asian sushi/steakhouse. The food was delicious and we got a free dessert :)

Sunday we walked to the aquarium - a much shorter walk than Atlantic Station! We spent a couple hours checking out the fishes and sticking our hands in the "Pet a Sting-Ray" tanks. They have a few whale sharks there which are really neat and the sea lions and otters were fun to watch. We had a good time there.

It was a really fun weekend! I hope you enjoy all the pictures!

Hotel Shots:

Georgian Terrace

The Lobby at Night

On the Rooftop Terrace:

More rooftop, less view:

The Pool and Skyline

Beautiful View of the City

Another Skyline Shot

These two shots are from the tower above the lobby in the hotel. If you look at the first picture again, there's actually two sections to the hotel. The front part is the original building. The glass tower that sticks up from the middle (where the American flag is) attaches the original building to the newer section. These pictures are from the top floor taken out of the tower. Sorry for the blurriness in all the nighttime pictures. Great idea for Jamie and Tara's Christmas present this year: New Camera!!

Tower Shot 1

Tower Shot 2

The Rooftop Skyline again

The living room

The bedroom

View from the top floor looking down

Pictures from dinner at Silk:

All Prettied Up

Jamie trying my Singapore Lahksa Noodles. They were good, but spicy and the bowl was HUGE!

Our dessert - so yummy! Courtesy of the Silk staff. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and fresh raspberries and strawberries. I think Jamie looks like free desserts really tick him off.

Pictures from the Georgia Aquarium:

In front of the big tank

Jamie looking for a sting ray to pet

We Love the Aquarium!

In other News: We should have a closing date set for the house before we come up to New Jersey. We have the utilities turned on and the inspection done. Jamie is finishing up some final things with the mortgage dudes and his aunt is hoping to schedule our closing for early July. We'll be moving on or before July 31st, when TreePark Apartments will be kicking us out. Hopefully we'll have a few weeks to steam clean the carpets and put some fresh paint on the walls before we move in. You can all start planning your trips to GA for August! (Or July if you feel like painting, cleaning and moving furniture!)