Atlanta, Marietta and Nashville

Lisa and I headed to Atlanta for the sole purpose of going to the Margaret Mitchell house.  Lisa has always been a huge Gone with the Wind fan, and after I reread GWTW myself a few months ago (and then read Scarlett...and Rhett Butler's People...), I must admit that I became pretty darn hooked myself.  We ended up being a little disappointed with the MM house, pictured below.  It was a lovely house, but...for $12, we went through her tiny apartment, which was furnished solely with period reproductions - nothing original.  Blah.  Plus, no photography allowed.  Which didn't seem to make a lot of sense, considering none of it was, you know, real.  The "film museum" across the courtyard was also lacking, although it did boast the front door to Tara from the GWTW set (very neat!) and the portrait of Scarlett that hung over the fireplace in the movie.  Below is, literally, the only photo I have of Atlanta.  

However, don't let my lack of photos fool you!  Lisa and I had an amazing time in Atlanta, and I think both of us would happily move there in a millisecond.  We stayed out in Buckhead and were thrilled with the beautiful, lush, green neighborhoods surrounding our hotel.  We had fantastic cupcakes at the Atlanta Cupcake Factory (I recommend the el diablo, I think it was called...basically a spicy chocolate!  Definitely the best cupcake of our entire trip!) and visited an amazing boutique called the Young Blood Gallery and Boutique.  Young Blood is a showcase for local and emerging artists, and features a lot of art from Etsy sellers!  It is the neatest little shop, and you should definitely check it out if you live in the Atlanta area.  A bonus - it's in the same tiny shopping strip as the Atlanta Cupcake Factory, PLUS what is possibly the largest, neatest vintage home store I have ever seen!  

We also had an amazing dinner at Gladys Knight and Ron Winans' Chicken and Waffles.  A few months back, I saw a food network special with my mother-in-law about chicken and waffles - this was the first I had ever heard of such a thing.  Fried chicken?  With waffles?  And syrup?  WEIRD!  But I have to admit, I was curious.  So, we went and had a truly spectacular meal there.  And yes, I got a fried chicken breast on top of a waffle, covered in syrup.  Along with a sweet tea.  Whew.  It was all very, very tasty.  

The next day, Lisa and I headed to Marietta, to go to the Gone with the Wind Museum.  This is the only photo I have of the museum, but - it was really, really neat!  Way better than the MM House.  Plus, there were some original movie costumes and lots of autographs and such from Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.  Really, really neat stuff.  

On our way out of Marietta on our way to Nashville, we saw this cute cupcake place and just HAD to stop.  I had a coca-cola cupcake.  But I didn't eat it right away.  Instead, I took it in the car.  Then I carried it with me for the next several hours on the way to Nashville.  Then I carried it in with me when we ate, so it wouldn't melt in the car.  Then it went back to the car for another hour and a half drive to our destination, where it sat out for awhile longer until about 9pm.  At 9pm, it tasted fantastic.  :)
Lisa really wanted to eat at the Loveless Cafe, outside of Nashville.  She has a cookbook from Loveless and was really excited to try it.  Matt told me that the last time he ate at Loveless, about ten years ago while he was in college in Nashville, the restaurant was literally in the middle of nowhere.  I wasn't too surprised to find that it is now surrounded by McMansions, a shopping area with a huge Kroger, and gas stations.

We both ordered the blue plate special - chicken and dumplins.  No, that's not a typo.  I just didn't feel right putting a "g" on the end there...because I know it's not pronounced "dumplings."
The fantastic meal came with two sides.  I ordered creamed corn and marinated cucumbers.  Lisa thought I was crazy for ordering something as boring as cucumbers, but at that point in the trip, I was desperate for fresh veggies.  Cucumbers are my favorite, and they tasted incredible!  Oh, and those biscuits??  Amazing.  Their homemade peach preserves ain't bad, either.  :)
Here's a good shot of Lisa taking a photo of her chicken and dumplins.  Her camera is super duper fancy.  I am tres jealous. 
The next morning, we headed into Nashville proper and met up with Jenny from Lucky in Love at the Pancake Pantry!  Pure deliciousness!!!!  Yeah yeah, I know you already saw this photo.  Tough.  It was out of order at the time.  And now, it's in order.  
Check that out.  Is that not the most beautiful plate of chocolate chip pancakes you have ever seen?  Yeah.  That's what I thought.  
Our last cupcake stop of the trip was Gigi's in Nashville.  Definitely not the best cupcakes we had, but I enjoyed my lemon quite a bit.  Lisa was less than thrilled with her red velvet, which you can read about here.  
And...drumroll please...that is the end of our roadtrip!  When I was dropping Lisa off at the Louisville Airport, on the way back to good ole Indiana, we realized that we hadn't taken ONE photo together the entire week.  So we took one at the airport, real quick.  It is hideous.  I cannot believe I am posting it in public, for all the world to see.  If nothing else, it is a reminder that I should always blow dry my hair in the mornings.  
I hope y'all enjoyed these recaps as much as I enjoyed our roadtrip!  Real blog posts of substance to resume again, sometime soon, I promise!

And, to answer the burning question on the tip of all of your tongues (I'm mainly talking to you, Mom and Dad!), no!  I actually didn't gain weight on this trip!  Imagine my surprise to discover that...I actually lost weight.  How did this happen?  Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure.  Lisa and I certainly weren't healthy.  But at the same time, we only ate about two meals a day - and on a couple of occasions, only one!  They were big meals, which we supplemented with pseudo-healthy snacks I packed and brought along with us in the car.  That being said, I'm still surprised to see the scale budge below where I've seen it the last few weeks.  But I won't complain too much!  Perhaps Southern living agrees with me more than I realized?  Or perhaps I just sweat out all my excess body weight...??!  A definite possibility.