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Holiday Fun in Sandy Springs, Georiga

December 30, 2019

After the kids are finished with school and me with work for Christmas break we decided to start an annual tradition to take a little last-minute getaway as a family.

Last year we visited Augusta, Georgia and it was so nice to spend time together with my little family before the hustle and bustle of Christmas that we decided to make it an annual tradition. This year our trip was to Sandy Springs, Georgia.

Small-town Feel

Sandy Springs, Georgia is a cute little town right outside the city of Atlanta. It’s a nice way to get a small-town feel and still be close to the city.

When we had to evacuate two years ago for Hurricane Florence, Sandy Springs is where we headed. Although at that time we didn’t get to experience much of the city because we weren’t very prepared and had two dogs with us! So I was excited to see what the town had to offer and enjoy the Christmas season with my family!

Plenty to do!

Sandy Springs offers a wide range of delicious restaurants, beautiful parks, and plenty to do! Everything is accessible and close to the action. I wrote about our amazing time at Santa’s Fantastical! I still can’t get over how amazing it was!

The Springs Cinema and Taphouse

This locally owned cinema is my new favorite place to see a movie, and I’m pretty sure the girls would agree! After a month of begging, I finally decided to take the girls to see Frozen 2 while we were in town! The movie was amazing as well as the atmosphere! Luxury recliners with heated seats, a full bar, and a restaurant all while enjoying a movie! The girls enjoyed being able to have a full meal while watching the movie and of course I enjoyed having a beer!

Where to eat?

We love being able to try new places to eat and that is just what we did on this trip! I’m going to share some of our favorite places with you!

Flower Child Restaurant

I have to admit I was a little nervous to take my pizza and chicken tender loving kids here but we all loved it! Everything was so fresh with so many healthy options and a kids menu that did not disappoint! My only complaint is that we don’t have one closer to us!

Hearth Pizza Tavern

Beer and pizza? Yes, please! Do I really need to say anymore?? The pizza was delicious and the atmosphere was great. We all loved this place and almost went back the next night!

Roasters

Oh my goodness this place was amazing as well! I’m so glad we all branched out and decided to try some new places! Friendly service and homemade meals made this another great place to eat if you are in the area!

Accommodations

There is an abundance of accommodations depending on what you are looking for and who you are traveling with! We stayed at The Westin Atlanta Perimeter North and it was absolutely gorgeous! The hotel is in a prime location, we were so close to everything making it easy to come and go.

Here is a peek into our suite! So big and perfect for traveling with tween’s with a king bed in a separate bedroom and a pull out sofa in the living area. The girls had their own space which was so nice!

Sandy Springs is everything you love about Greater Atlanta. The warm hospitality and big city moments making it a perfect place to visit with your family. We will definitely be back again to see more of this town.

A huge thank you to the Visit Sandy Springs for hosting us. Thank you for your generosity. We can’t wait to return! As always, all opinions are my own.

Santa’s Fantastical is Fantastic!

December 22, 2019

I was going to wait and post about our whole weekend here in Sandy Springs, Georgia after we got home. But, I couldn’t wait to share all the fun we had yesterday at Santa’s Fantastical!

Santa’s Fantastical

Santa’s Fantastical a family-friendly interactive wonderland of immersive worlds where the spirit of the season comes alive through live performances, state-of-the-art technology, and Instagram-worthy moments.

Obviously, I was most excited about all the photo opps that they had available. Of course I can’t share every single photo on Instagram, although I’d love to I decided to share them all here! I hope you are ready!

This family-owned business, from local husband-and-wife team Walt Geer and Sarah Blackman, opened up in 2018 in Sandy Springs. This was much more fun than your typical mall Santa situation and especially great for kids of all ages! We saw a lot of younger kids and I was a little nervous until we went inside and the girls loved every single second of it!

There were countless backdrops for picture-perfect moments! As well as many interactive activities!

Santa’s Chateau

We can’t forget about the big guy himself! Visiting Santa is included in your visit, just make sure you make reservations! He had so much fun with the girls and his chateau is absolutely dreamy!!

This Christmas pop-up is absolutely magical and was the perfect way to start our Christmas break! If you are in the area I highly recommend it! Definitely a must see!!

Hurrication | Part 2 ‘Behind The Seas’ At The Georgia Aquarium

September 27, 2018

I’m sure many of you have heard about the catastrophic flooding that is occurring in South Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. Thankfully we have not been affected but I have been trying to do my part in helping others so I’ve been pretty busy.

If you read Part 1 you know that we evacuated due to the possibility of Hurricane Florence hitting Myrtle Beach as a Cat 4 hurricane, so we packed up and headed to Georgia. I finally got a moment to to sit down and finish the second part.

Although the evacuation wasn’t a typical vacation we still wanted to try to do something fun with the girls. I felt it was important to keep them busy and keep our minds off of what was happening back home.

Georgia Aquarium

I’m sure you have figured out that we LOVE aquariums. And when you are in the same city as the #1 aquarium in the United States (#2 in the world) we knew we had to make a visit! We were so excited to be welcomed into the Georgia Aquarium while we were in town, it was enormous and spectacular!

Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot, and his wife Billi, donated $250 million through the Marcus Foundation to fund the construction of the aquarium! And if that weren’t enough, The Home Depot also built its premier exhibit, Ocean Voyager, the 6.3 million gallon habitat that is home to whale sharks, manta rays, and thousands of other fish!

Behind the Seas

Our day at the aquarium started off with a behind the scenes tour. I encourage you to sign up for this tour if you ever have the chance. I don’t know why, but behind the scenes always makes me feel like I know all of the secrets (even though, they really aren’t hiding anything) and makes me in awe of everything that is going on!

In addition to getting up close and personal with penguins our tour also included a glimpse into the massive veterinary and conservation medicine practice that keeps the animals in good health.

Filtration

This is truly behind the scenes. These pumps aren’t quiet and are running non-stop all the time and there are so many of them! There are bags and bags of sand for filtering the water and keeping everything as fresh as possible for the different exhibits.

Whale Sharks

The most impressive and amazing experience on the Behind the Scenes tour was the Whale Shark tank. It’s massive at 63 million gallons and as expansive as a football field. This was definitely the highlight for us. Hands down. The Georgia Aquarium is the only institution outside of Asia to house whale sharks.

Tropical Diver

We got to check out the giant tank with the reef and colorful fish…well the backstage area of it. This gallery is home to tropical coral reefs, seahorses, jellyfish and thousands of colorful fish. We were up above this exhibit on our tour and could see many fish and how the wave is made.

In this exhibit, there is an overhead crashing wave to recreate the tropical Pacific coral reef. We were literally right beside thousands of gallons of water as it poured into the exhibit. Not only does this make a big splash, but it helps move oxygen around in the tank. It was really cool to see it from this angle instead of down below in the gallery, and it made me realize how much water the aquarium uses. 10 million gallons!

When you go behind the scenes at Tropical Diver, you see more information and an easy to understand diagram of how all of that filtration goes into play with the exhibit.

Coldwater Quest

Two words…penguins, otters! Need I say more?!

The Coldwater Quest exhibit included African penguins, Southern sea otters, and beluga whales in addition to other fish and sea creatures. The girls were so excited about the penguins and sea otters (and I was too!)

The penguins were so adorable! There is an even a little area where you can stand up with your head inside this clear bubble so your basically right there with them. The girls took advantage of this, it was so cute!

Otters! Y’all I could have stood there all day and watched the otters swim. They are the cutest animals ever!

There was so much more that we didn’t get to explore because we were only in Atlanta because of the Hurricane and we had two pups back at the hotel waiting on us.

But, The Georgia Aquarium was such an amazing experience and we hope to come back one day and visit again! This was such a great way for families to spend a day in Atlanta. It definitely kept our minds off of the Hurricane that was coming through our city.

The sea is as near as we come to another world

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Thank you, Georgia Aquarium, for hosting our visit. As always, all opinions are our own.