As I mentioned in my last two posts, my family and I spent a week in Atlanta, the goal being an affordable, fun vacation away from home. For the most part, it was a success. As I mentioned here, we got a few thousand dollars of free hotel rooms for only 60,000 points. I covered the Georgia Aquarium here. Beyond that, here’s what else we did–and no, there are no first class lounges, no first class meals, and no fine dining to report on. Just middle class family fun, thank you very much.
* We spent a Sunday afternoon in the town of Marietta since it was pretty close to our hotel, and I recommend it if you have kids, or if you just like towns like this. It’s got a nice historic town square, some low-key touristy shops, and of course multiple places to buy ice cream.
* We hit the Coke Museum on the grounds that the kids (not to mention Mrs. PFD) would love the infamous tasting room, where they have unlimited free samples of sodas from all over the world, and in fact they did love it. My older son’s reaction to the Coke Museum tasting room: “China has the BEST sodas!!!!”
* The Fernbank Museum of Natural History is really good and was the least-crowded tourist attraction we visited, and the kids liked it at least as much as anything else we did on the trip. Seeing dinosaur skeletons is always fun, yes? I highly recommend this one if you’re in town with kids, or if you just like science museums.
* I like the CNN tour, but I would recommend you think twice if you have babies or senior citizens, as it is not handicap / stroller-friendly. There are a lot of stairs involved.
* I prevented a drowning while at the hotel pool when my son wandered into an area that was too deep for him. If you haven’t already please read this very important article on what drownings look like. They do NOT involve somebody thrashing around while screaming “Help!”, and having read this article before I recognized that my son was in trouble so I got to him very quickly, no harm done.
* We spent one full day where we did absolutely nothing other than goof off and go out to a mall food court for lunch. That was a good day! There’s a lot to be said for doing nothing.
Nick, I’m so glad that your son is OK! How scary. Thanks for putting this message out and for this trip report.
Just got back from Atlanta this weekend. There is a newly open Lego Land near the Lenox mall on peachtree. Your boys will love it.
Is the Lego Land worth it? We thought about it but it kind of seemed like we’d be paying $20 per person for the kids to play with Legos, which they already do for free.
It definitively worth it, especially when you have several kids – no, they don’t make legos there, it is like a theme park. there are cars, rides, etc. my son spent hours inside, he was very busy running from one thing to another. the thing is, at least one adult needs to go inside with the kids. but there is not much for adults to do.
At the legoland discovery center near us (Schaumburg, IL), it is not worth $20. But it is worth $10, and there are multiple sources of buy one adult, get one child free coupons. They either come from those local free magazines about what there is for families to do in the area. Or can be printed online. So, if I was going somewhere and thinking of going to a Legoland discovery center, I’d look for some of those coupons. I think that when we went with a total of 10 people (4 adults 6 kids) we did some combination of a family ticket and bogo coupons.
Also, thanks for the link about drowning. So glad to hear that your son is ok. very scary.