"A good day . . . a little hot."

Lauren's words summed it up well. We traveled into Atlanta today-basically to map out how Lauren would get to and from school. A little hot is an understatement, though. That might have been the hottest I have ever been. On our honeymoon, we were in New Orleans, right on the banks of the Mississippi River on a hot July afternoon--that was hot. This might have been hotter. It was well above 100 today--add in the Georgia humidity, and add in the warmness of a downtown of a major metropolitan city. Yep, it was burning.

We checked out the Buckhead area (kind of a swankier area than the other parts of Atlanta we had seen) and Georgia Tech--a very nice college campus. We forgot our camera--and too bad, because we had some really cool photo opp's. We were bummed that we forgot it--we thought about turning around when we were in Douglasville.

We had lunch at the Flying Biscuit Cafe (www.flyingbiscuit.com) in Atlanta and dinner at Gumbeaux's in Douglasville (www.gumbeauxs.com). I will let Lauren more fully describe those meals--we had been told they were wonderful. And they lived up to all of our expectations.

We were almost ran over by a motorcycle today--by a policeman--on the SIDEWALK. Good grief. We checked out the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta today--big waste of money. I did get to taste a coke, though, called, "Beverly" from Italy--unbelievably bad.

A good day. An extremely hot day. But a good day. We figured out more about Lauren's school today. We found a good MARTA stop (Atlanta's transit system). Lauren should be able to drive in to just inside the loop of Atlanta-then ride the train into downtown--where her school is. We also figured out there is more of a campus to Georgia State (one of the two schools Lauren will be working at--GA Tech is the other) than what we originally thought. It is much more decentralized that most college campuses--but there is a campus there--it's just in downtown Atlanta--so it looks much different.

We have now been here a little over two weeks. Work is going well for me. We are enjoying the church. We are getting to know the youth and the church members. Had a back-to-school party the other night that went really well (Carrollton kids are already back in school). We are having a get-together for high schoolers next weekend--"Nachos & Nacho"--we're eating nachos and watching the movie, "Nacho Libre"--ah, yeah.

--be

As many of you probably know I love food. I mean really love food...well good food. I have been really excited to try the two places Brian mentioned and my enthusiasm did not waiver after eating there.

I first heard of the Flying Biscuit from Rachael Ray's $40 a day show on Food Network. It has been featured in everything from Elle to the local independent Atlanta paper and it lived up to all expectations. There are three locations and since we found that the original is generally the best, we decided to go there. Brian got the breakfast and I got a fried green tomato BLT. As the plates passed by me, I started regretting my decision. The breakfasts looked REALLY good. When our meal came, there were no regrets. My sandwich was wonderful - minus the jalepeno and cashew relish, that was the only dull moment of the meal. Brian's was also good and the biscuits were amazing, of course. A must stop in Atlanta and we at there for under $25!

I ran across Gumbeaux's on an online forum concerning Douglasville restaurants. The only restaurant talked about was this one so I asked around and got a resounding, "You have to go there!" So we did and it was also wonderful. I was a little disappointed in the husband for getting catfish, not exactly cajun. However, even I liked it. Yes, I said liked it and as you probably know, I do not eat any type of fish. I loved mine even more, though. Red beans and rice with sausage. I have enough in the refrigerator for another two meals and it was the half order (for $7.95). We also at here for under $25.

Two very different restaurants - very wonderful restaurants, though, and a pretty good value when considering the reputations and the food.

Lauren

P.S. For those worrying about our health, eating out so much today, let me ease your worries. Flying Biscuit is not so bad - chicken sausage, turkey bacon, field greens and whole wheat buns should help. Also, as Brian mentioned it was hot today and we walked a lot in the warmth today. I am pretty sure I lost weight in this heat!