An Amazing Get Away

Mike and I enjoyed a 36 hour get away over President's Day! I really appreciated this trip. I knew after traveling so much that Mike would probably rather not pack another bag, and stay in another hotel. We went to Atlanta to celebrate Valentine's and my birthday. I've always liked that my birthday is usually close to this traditional long weekend. It was fun to get back to a city and all the fun places Atlanta has to offer. Our first stop was Ballard Designs Backroom. I love their catalog, and have always wanted to see what the Backroom had to offer.One side of the store is vignettes with regular priced items. The other side is a jumble of discounted items. I wasn't that impressed with the discounted side, but it was fun to see their wears in person. 

After that we headed to the Perimeter area, and checked out a T. J. Maxx, Restoration Hardware and Barnes and Noble. I wanted to show Mike a paint color at Restoration Hardware, but was surprised to find their whole store painted a charcoal grey. Ceilings, woodwork, walls, outside columns, everything was grey. Ha, and Mike thought I was a little overboard for grey right now. I did find a paint chip to take home.
Our next stop was the hotel. Mike had said he booked a Courtyard by Marriott, and though I chided him about it I was good with that. To my surprise, he told me the night before we left that we were actually staying downtown at the Ritz. Yep, that sweet hubby booked the Ritz! I guess all his traveling does have advantages.

The hotel suggested we try Agave Restaurant for dinner. It turned out to be the perfect place. I like to find places where I recognize items on the menu, but they are served differently than other places. The owner described it as an unpretentious neighborhood restaurant with southwest influence. I would describe it as scrumptious. I had a pork chop rubbed with hot spices, chipotle mashed potatoes, and garlic green beans. Yes mom, I did eat the green beans. They were the skinny tender kind and had a lot of flavor. They also brought fresh guacamole. I was so stuffed that I couldn't even do dessert. I would highly recommend this restaurant.

The next morning we started with breakfast at the Highland Bakery, another little neighborhood spot. It was also very yummy. We had an egg sandwich on jalapeno focaccia, cinnamon roll, and french toast; all freshly made in house. Then we headed to our much anticipated destination.....IKEA. I had quite the list of items I wanted to look for. We spent a lot of time looking at the showroom and found several things we weren't expecting to see. Then we headed to the marketplace and filled a buggy. I found bedding for our new bedroom, a light for the closet, storage containers, picture frames, a few cute kid things, a pink umbrella, and several other odds and ends. After 4 hours, we walked out with lots of great finds. This guy was a trooper the whole time. He even encouraged me to buy some things. 

Our last stop was Jimmy Johns. I got my usual Beach Club, and didn't have to ask them to hold the sprouts because they don't have a fresh supplier of those now. After looking at our Eat This, Not That book it's probably my last trip to JJ for awhile, but it sure was good. I'm glad I didn't remember to look at the book before we went in ;). 

We finally left the city behind, and returned to our nice small town with plenty of free parking. Of course we also got back to the cutest two year old who we missed a ton. Thanks hubby for a wonderful little trip!