We had three main goals for our trip to America; attend the family reunion, eat food from certain places, and buy a whole long list of wonderful found-only-in-America items. We started working on those goals pretty much immediately. We checked into the hotel, got the big kids in their jammies snuggled up watching tv in bed, and ran to Taco Bell for dinner. We brought back a crazy amount of tacos and the kids ate all but 2 1/2 of them. Oh, we also brought root beer to drink and Double Stuff Oreos for dessert.
Chris had done quite a bit of homework figuring out where the best place to sleep was based on the short amount of time and the huge quantity of shopping we wanted to do and the places we wanted to eat at. Our hotel pretty much shared the parking lot with several of these places, or was just down the street from them. This meant we didn't waste a lot of time driving around. He also had printed maps with directions for every store we wanted to go to, or restaurant we wanted to eat at. It was awesome.
After a delicious breakfast at IHOP, we drove to the Mall of Georgia where we spent the next 11 hours doing our part to improve the local area's economy. We even had to stop for a minute and run bags out to the car because we couldn't carry them all. This mall also had something very special for Chris, an IMAX theatre showing "The Dark Knight". While he was doing that, the kids and I shopped some more until it was time for our movie to start. We saw "WallE", which the kids loved. Even had to get Noah a tshirt with the little robot on it. They continued to quote the movie for the rest of the trip. Their only complaint was that the theater was freezing. My poor European children aren't used to air conditioning, although they weren't used to the sweltering heat outside either. They would get in the car and close the vents so the air wouldn't blow on them. What hilarious children. We, however, enjoyed being cold for a change.
We meant to get the kids to bed early, but we were all having so much fun at Barnes and Noble we didn't leave until almost 9, and then we got lost coming home, so that we didn't end up back at the hotel until after 10. Yes, the kids all fell asleep in the car. Chris snuck out after they were in bed and had some Wendy's chili. Apparently, my copycat recipe, although quite delicious, just isn't as good. He was really enjoying it until he noticed all the celery pieces in it. Mine doesn't contain that deadly ingredient and he had forgotten they put it in there. Whoops. Good thing he was already pumped full of hay fever medicine, or it could have ended not well.
The next morning we had planned to just pick up a few more things and head on up to Lake Lure, but one place led to another place and then we needed to have lunch, and we ended up leaving Atlanta about the time we had planned on arriving at the reunion. Whoops! Fortunately, Oma and company left late as well, so it was all good. They met us in Hendersonville and we followed them the rest of the way in. The kids kept telling Chris to go faster, so that the twisty, windy road would be more roller-coaster-like. You know, what they are used to. But we were following Opa, who was driving extra responsible, which while safer, is totally not fun at all. The kids liked the trip in to town that we took ourselves a few days later much better. Chris shaved 20 minutes off our travel time. 🙂
We went to bed tired and happy, and ready to party with the cousins the next day.