Our 11th Anniversary, Part 2

On Saturday, we awoke at a leisurely hour, having had our first uninterrupted night of sleep in, well, about 16 months. We breakfasted in the hotel on the patio, and headed off for a day of fun starting at...

the World of Coca-Cola! We debated between the High Museum and this, and finally decided that the WoC-C encompassed what we'd want from the High (look at art, albeit somewhat more focused on one particular subject) while being more refreshing in terms of giving us a lot of free Coke products. Win-win! It actually turned out to be pretty fascinating, with a history of the company, a couple of extremely strange movies (one of which was in 4-D, which is like 3-D only more painful), a tour of how Coke is made and bottled (you get to keep a souvenir bottle), and, as I mentioned earlier, some incredible Coke-related art including an exhibit that had just been installed the night before. Pretty cool.

From there we drove over to IKEA, as Angie had never been and wanted to check it out. We had a lunch/snack of Swedish meatballs (excellent!) at their cafeteria, looked around for about 5 minutes, then proceeded to walk for like, 7 more hours, just desperately trying to find the exit. That place is enormous, and there's apparently only one way out. God forbid they ever have a fire; hundreds would perish in a blaze of solid-colored Euro-snob particle board.

After a much-needed rest following all that walking, we headed to Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen for dinner. They had a great little New Orleans-style jazz trio of older men playing on the patio while we waited to be seated. The place was packed, and we had a pretty long wait, but that was fine with me. The food was excellent, and our server was very attentive. We debated trying to make it to a movie after that, but honestly, we were pretty beat.

On Sunday, we went to church, and then finished off our weekend with lunch at Rico's World Kitchen in Buford, GA. This is a tiny little restaurant in a converted service station that we heard about from friends, and it was far and away the best food we had all weekend. I couldn't believe it; I was absolutely blown away by how good every bite was. The service was nice, and the atmosphere was very comfortable. It was a fantastic end to our anniversary weekend.

I would say that the best part of all this was just getting to hang out for the equivalent of two whole days alone with my wife. Having three kids, you sometimes end up just playing defense, as they say, and you don't always take time to enjoy each other's company. This was a wonderful little getaway that was still close to home, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. That said, I am looking forward to going even bigger next year.

Our 11th Anniversary, Part 1

Last weekend (not Memorial Day, but the one before that) was our 11th Anniversary. In the week leading up to it, we paid off our last debt: Daniel's hospital bill. We are now officially debt-free except for our house!!! We will be on the phone with Dave Ramsey live on the air this Friday, June 11th between 3 and 4 PM, at which time we will finally be able to shout this great news to the world via radio waves! As Angie mentioned in the previous post, that moves us on to Baby Step #3, building up an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses. (Actually, this month, we'll be using our newfound leftover money to pay for some much-needed personal items that we've put off while getting out of debt, and for this year's trip to Ohio. Next month, though, begins the serious savings push.) But I digress...

This post was supposed to be about our 11th Anniversary weekend. Since we've become parents, Angie and I rarely get to have any extended time to ourselves. As Angie mentioned here, we've had only two weekends alone together since having children (yes, I realize the link is to a post from almost two years ago; the tally has not changed since then). So for this, the first weekend of our married lives as a debt-free couple, we budgeted for a hotel relatively nearby, free baby-sitting from my generous parents, and a weekend of finding stuff to do in Atlanta.

Our first stop for the weekend was dinner Friday night at Sushi Niko Niko, which we were told means Sushi "with a smile." Angie and I first tried sushi on our honeymoon in Savannah as an appetizer, and it was great. We've had it occasionally as appetizers since, but never as the full meal. The restaurant itself is just a little store-front among the outdoor shops across from the Mall of Georgia, and even though friends had recommended it, I have to admit the exterior made me a little skeptical. This place was awesome! We had some sort of sampler of several different types of sushi, and I liked every one of them. Angie enjoyed hers, but didn't care for some of the crunchier offerings. Overall, I loved it, but Angie thought she'd stick with sushi as an appetizer in the future.

In our next installment, we'll discuss Saturday, our actual anniversary day. Be sure to stay tuned.