Off to See America: Atlanta, GA

The next part of our road-trip was Atlanta, GA to visit Bubbe.

When we got to Bubbe’s house, we quickly said hi, unloaded the car, went potty and left for a picnic dinner with Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan at a nearby park. They had lots of food trucks with yummy food, live music and a playground. Hazel climbed everything she could find to climb. I made friends and a new game yelling back and forth up and down the tunnel slide with other kids. Turner liked saying hi to all the dogs and babies and collecting rocks, sticks and pinecones. It was a nice chance to climb and run off some of the energy we saved up riding in the car all day. Right when we got home, it started pouring down rain. Mom took us all out to run in the rain. It was really fun.

Despite staying up late and the time-zone change, Turner, Hazel, and I all woke up early Friday morning.  Mom and Dad were very thankful that Bubbe got up with us kids so they could sleep in. After a leisurely breakfast, we drove down to the Atlanta Zoo. It was a hot day at the zoo, but it was fun to look at all of the animals. Turner and I liked the parakeets best. Hazel liked the smelly elephants, Bubbe liked the panda bears best, and Mom liked the Oragutan mom and baby. Dad liked the meerkats.

After the zoo, we came home and napped. As soon as we woke up, it was time for a pool party at the J. We got to show Bubbe what good swimmers we were while Turner spent a lot of time running around the splash pad. Turner held his ground when another kid tried to take a toy from him. Mom and Dad thought it was strange that Turner had gotten in two little fights on this trip already. When we got back to Bubbe’s house, we took advantage of the perfect weather by eating al fresco.

Saturday was super fun as well. We got up early with Bubbe again while Mom and Dad slept. They were very grateful and said it really felt like vacation. It was a nice warm day, so we stayed at Bubbe’s house and played in her kiddie pool and sprinklers. Turner played with the rocks in Bubbe’s landscaping while I watered her flowers. Right before lunch, I decided to also wash Bubbe’s wood deck with my hands. Unfortunately, that resulted in me getting a pretty big splinter. It hurt pretty bad. Fortunately, Bubbe is an expert at getting splinters out, and she and Dad got mine out in no time. Bubbe used the same needle that she used to use to get Dad’s splinters out when he was my age. Dad said he was proud of how brave I was.

We spent all day outside including lunch, then took a well-deserved late nap. When we woke up we found out that we were getting a treat – movie night with Bubbe!  Mom and Dad put Turner to bed and then went out to dinner with Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan. Bubbe let us stay up late to watch Monsters, Inc. The movie was a little too long and complicated for us, but we sure loved the popcorn and the time with Bubbe.

Sunday morning Mom went running and out for errands, so Dad and Bubbe took us to an ice cream party at a playground at Dad’s old synagogue from when he was a kid. It was very hot, but we loved the ice cream truck. Dad let Hazel and I stand in line ourselves to get our own ice cream; we were very proud. All three of us picked out Pink Panther creamcicles.  We came home and helped Bubbe make chocolate chip cookies. Bubbe thought we were great kitchen helpers.

After nap, we had another treat in store for us. Mom and Dad took Hazel and me to Stone Mountain while Turner got a night all to himself with Aunt Laurie, Uncle Jonathan and Bubbe.

Turner loved the time he had to himself. He got to play with all of the toys without anyone grabbing them. He had everyone read him books. He ran around outside and played with all of the outside toys. He took a bath and had the bathtub and all of the bath toys to himself. And when bedtime rolled around, he had Uncle Jonathan read him a bunch more books. Uncle Jonathan also taught him to fist bump. That confused Mom the next day when Turner kept coming up to her and saying “bump.” He wanted to fist bump, but Mom thought he hit his head or something.

In the meantime, we had a blast at Stone Mountain. We rode a cable car all the way to the top of the mountain. Hazel, Mom and I leaned up right against the cable car window so we could see the whole way around. The top of the mountain looked like the surface of the moon. We were excited to run around. Dad took us right to the fence at the edge of the mountain. It was an amazing view. After looking down at the city of Atlanta way below us, and enjoying the nice mountain air, we headed back down again on the cable car.

Next we went on a train that went all around the mountain. It was a fun train ride, but Dad thought it was more fun when he was a kid and they did a whole show during the train ride. After the train ride, we played a few quick holes on mini-golf – just enough to realize that we aren’t quite ready for mini-golf yet. Then we went to the main part of park in front of the mountain, sat on our picnic blanket, and ate the delicious dinner that Mom had packed while we waited for it to get dark enough for the laser show. We ate a lot of the cookies we made with Bubbe earlier in the day.

The laser show was really fun. It had fireworks, lots of fun songs, bright lights, and neat pictures. By the time it was over, it was very late, and we headed back to Bubbe’s house.

Bubbe had to go to work on Monday, so no more sleeping in for Mom and Dad. Monday morning, Dad got up with us and gave us some fruit salad. Yum! Then we brushed our teeth really good because we were visiting Bubbe at work to get our teeth cleaned.

The dentist told us that we had very clean teeth and had the right amount of space in between our teeth so they will hopefully be straight later on.  He also noticed that I have another tooth that is getting loose! After our successful teeth cleaning, we went to lunch with Bubbe, took another nap, and went to our last dinner in Atlanta with Aunt Laurie and Uncle Jonathan.  We were very sad to leave Atlanta (especially Turner, who had really enjoyed pointing at the floor and saying “Bubbe’s house”), but it was time to move on to our next adventure.