Sunday, March 04, 2007

Spoiled Rotten

Mr. Honey took me to Atlanta for my birthday this weekend. We went to the aquarium, took a trip to REI, ate at the most incredible restaurant I've ever been to, walked a real mall, saw a Tony-award winning musical at the theater, and then capped it all off with room service this morning and a trip to the zoo to see the baby panda. Life is definitely good. And did I mention Mr. Honey arranged a lunar eclipse, just for me?

I'd been to the Georgia Aquarium before, last summer with my friends Kristen and Aura. We had a good time then, and Mr. Honey and I enjoyed it this weekend as well. It was a little crowded for my tastes, and the otters were sleeping (they were incredibly amusing last summer), but it was good for Mr. Honey to see the aquarium before we leave Georgia.

Then we went to REI, which is Mr. Honey's favorite store in the whole entire world. He got himself a pair of shoes, and I got a pair of sandals, a pair of pants, and a workout shirt. I know - boring. I should've taken advantage of the fact that Mr. Honey wouldn't deny me a thing over my birthday weekend. Maybe I should've asked for a pony...

After checking into the hotel and taking a short nap, we headed up to Fogo de Chao, which is the most fantastic restaurant I think I've ever been to. It's a Brazilian place that offers meat, meat, and more meat, on top of the most sophisticated salad bar I've ever seen. They had fresh mozzerella on the salad bar! And triangles of swiss cheese! (Are you sensing a theme?) They also had these incredible fried bananas, and the service was the best we've ever had while on land. (Cruise ship service has always been exceptional, and we just assumed nothing in the States could ever top that. We may have been proven wrong.) But back to the meat - and oh, boy, was there meat! I think I ate a full pound of filet mignon. See, at Fogo, the servers bring around skewers of meat and carve off as much as you'd like, of anything you'd like, right there at your table. When all was said and done, I'm fairly certain I ate enough red meat to get me through the next two weeks. Yup, it hurt. But did I care? Heck, no! Calories don't count on your birthday. Especially when the wait staff writes "Happy Birthday" on the plate bearing your molten chocolate lava cake for a dessert that you really don't need and probably don't have room for, but are going to eat anyway because you don't get to eat at Fogo de Chao every night. It's been over 24 hours since I ate that, and I'm not sure I've been hungry since.

But moving on....

Mr. Honey and I took a trip to a real mall, which is quite a treat. After living in Minneapolis for a year, my standards are pretty high. Mall of America and all, you know? Middle Georgia can't compete. Atlanta can, though. We walked the Lenox Square Mall after dinner, and we even went into an Apple store! How cool is that? The sophistication might not wear off me for another 2 days, just for having gone into the store. Oh, no, wait. That's the side effects from dinner. My bad. (Oh, and for those who care about such things, the mall had a Coach store, a Burberry store, a Louis Viutton store, a Godiva store, and a Discovery Channel store. We don't get that sort of thing here in the boonies.)

After the mall, we went to the Fox Theater in downtown Atlanta. I love that theater - it's just so neat. The stage looks like it's set into an 18th-century castle, and the adornments all over are so cool. Plus the ceiling is lit to look like the sky, which is double cool in my estimation. Which reminds me, on the way to the Fox, Mr. Honey and I spied the lunar eclipse. Totally cool. And that Tony-award winning show we went to see?

Monty Python's Spamalot.

It. Was. Fabulous.

I laughed so hard in the first act, I thought my steak-filled belly was going to jiggle right out of me and fall to the floor. But it didn't. And the show was all that I've ever loved about Monty Python and more. Absolutely hilarious. And it was sheer luck that it was playing during my birthday weekend. We loved it.

This morning, we got up and went to the Atlanta Zoo and saw Mei Lan, the baby giant panda. (Anybody else think "baby giant panda" is funny?) She was sleeping, which wasn't a big surprise, considering Tai Shan was also sleeping when we saw him in DC last year. But she was cute, and I got within 20 feet of her (though she was behind a glass enclosure), so that's one more thing to check off my "must-do-before-we-move" list.

We made a trip to Whole Foods on our way out of town. I'd never been there before, so it was pretty cool, too. Just like a grocery store, only cooler. You could tell because they had those nifty double-decker hand-cart carrier things. Plus everything's organic. Way 21st century. ;)

Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!

Labels: Atlanta, Holidays

Posted by Honey :: 8:58 PM :: 4 Comments:

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