It was March 8th, the weather was decent, and all of us ladies gathered at the Deland Indie Market to hang, shop, and laugh. Who would've known this would be one of my final outings with friends pre-rona? It was a real good day and I'm so thankful we all had the chance to come together before social distancing was a thing. Social distancing from acquaintances and randos - totally fine, but social distancing from my favorite people - totally NOT fine.
We'd be gearing up for another day walking outside in downtown Deland come the beginning of May but that's not going to happen this time around. I honestly don't know when we will be able to have another day like this again. I know it will happen eventually and in the meantime I'll talk to my friends daily and hold all of our memories close.
This was just posted today on the Deland Indie Market's social media page. I can't wait for the hugs.
Matt and Rachelle brought Addilyn to Orlando the weekend before her birthday aka the weekend before Christmas. They took her to the Sea Life Aquarium and then we met up with them later in the day at Disney Springs for dinner at the T-Rex restaurant (which was a total surprise to her). Dustin and I had never ate there before and we really enjoyed ourselves. The decor is phenomenal and every 15 minutes a meteor shower shoots over your head with matching sound effects. Addilyn didn't really like the sounds and the darkness during that time but she still handled it like a champ. She was in awe the entire time we were at our table. She would just look slowly around wide eyed and full of wonder. I'm obviously not a parent but I imagine those are the moments you look forward to the minute you get that little plus sign. She also saw other people getting sang to for their birthday and asked Rachelle if she could have them sing to her too. So Rachelle asked and they delivered. Check out her cute little face light up in the video below as they clap and sing to her. Before we left Addilyn got to make her own Dinosaur Build-A-Bear style and fittingly named her Rawry.
Dilyn picked out legos, we tried on all the mouse ears, and walked around the Disney movie themed Christmas trees (which was jam packed with people and totally gave me anxiety but the trees were cool!) We were all over the place and still didn't get to it all!
Dustin and I left the Bentons to keep enjoying the Springs as it got noticeable more crowded. We were so happy we got to spend part of our weekend with them and especially to celebrate Addilyn's 4th birthday.
We all made it downstairs for breakfast inside the hotel restaurant around 8 am. It was fine and completely overpriced.
The first stop of the day was to the Atlanta Zoo. It was nice and breezy when we got there and immediately turned disgustingly hot and sunny about 5 minutes later. Thankfully most of the zoo was shaded. We saw all the normal animals but a lot of exhibits were under construction and therefore empty.
We all cooled down in the car trying to figure out our next adventure of the day. We all agreed to go to the Fernbank Museum since it was part of our City Pass. We had to wind through some hipster neighborhoods where Matt tried to kill us all many of times. I don't know who is a scarier driver - him or my grandpa. Yeah, it's like that. Ha!
You enter the museum on the second floor and it's open to this huge dinosaur display with beautiful natural light beaming in. There's a nature trail outside of the museum that looked cool but we had down enough walking at the zoo so we decided to embrace the a/c and just stay inside. We fueled up in their cafeteria before hitting the various exhibits. That had some interactive rooms that reminded me of our science center as well as a couple cool play areas for smaller kids aka Addilyn's age. She had a blast running all over the place and did not want to leave. Fair.
I really loved the room that mimicked the sky. It went through a 5 minute or so cycle from sunset to starry sky to sunrise. It was cool to see the transition. I honestly wanted to just lay on the ground to watch it but didn't want to look like too much of a freak.
After the museum we went back to the hotel for much needed relaxing bathroom breaks and snacks. We hung out in our "living room" and watched some college football for a bit. The plan was to recharge for a bit and then hit up the World of Coca-Cola as our farewell to Atlanta. We thought we had all the time in the world and by that I mean we thought we had a good 2+ hours before closing (according to the City Pass site) when Dustin went on their website to find we had like 45 minutes. So to verify the correct closing time I called them and was told by a very unhelpful employee "well it takes 2 hours to go through everything". Yes, I understand that but what time do you close the damn doors?! "5 pm" (and it was 4:40ish when we booked it out of the hotel room). We all got on the fancy elevator and a whole bunch of teenagers all wearing the jumped in with us. Then the doors opened on the next floor and the next. I'm not kidding when I say the elevator stopped on EVERY floor. And each time it was more and more teenagers trying to cram inside to go to some event. At a certain point I had to say "We can't fit any more!". The teenagers inside the elevator with us thought it was a fucking HOOT. They were like "Let's sing Jingle Bells every time the door opens!" Dustin dryly says "Let's not." This would all have been annoying in itself but it was extra annoying when we had to walk 3 blocks to Coke to make it before 5. We finally made it to the lobby and did some serious speed walking. Once outside Matt put Addilyn on his shoulders and took off. I don't know how he becomes faster with a 35 lb almost 4 yr old on him but he does. It's his superpower.
He's a good block in front of the rest of us so we keep waving for him to go on without us.
HOLD THE DOORS.
SWEET TALK THE COKE EMPLOYEES.
SHIT ON A PEPSI CAN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
We get there at 5 on the dot and somehow are the very last group in for the day. We could not believe we actually made it in time. I mean it was such a whirlwind getting to this damn place and the minute we walk in we are given an ice cold beverage. I'll give you one guess what it was.
We did some trivia in the lobby before being taken into a Coca Cola memorabilia room where a guy told us some interesting facts for 10 minutes. We were then ushered into a movie theater where we watched a short film about love (with lots of coke products involved). I cried and Dustin leaned over to me and said "Don't cry for these crisis actors!". Ha! I'm emotional GAWD.
We were then allowed to roam on our own in and out of the different rooms. We immediately saw the Coke polar bear (like a guy in a suit at Disney kind go polar bear) and Addilyn was having none of it. She didn't want to take a photo with him and she didn't want any of us to either so we quickly moved right along. Coke has such a long and interesting history and it was neat to see so much of that history in the form of old glass bottles (each state had different style of bottles), commercials, celebrity endorsements (ahem Taylor!), and of course the ever changing advertisements. Also Coke owns so many other drinks. We were all so shocked by that!
We went to the taste testing room last. It is set up exactly like Club Cool at Epcot (which coincidentally enough just closed temporarily) so it was definitely cool but for all of us Disney going Floridians not as impressive. Dustin beelined it to the Surge station and he and I both downed a Slimer green cup of our early teen years. I was expecting to hate it but it's still good. Sorry not sorry. My 12 year old self is smiling down upon me. We all went around the room sampling it all. Matt took it a step further and sampled a bunch of flavors together in one cup. GROSS.
We got a couple of things in the giant (Disney-like) gift shop and planted our asses on the bench outside. The sun was starting to set and we were hungry. While all the adults were trying to decide on dinner Addilyn started screaming just a bench away. She was stuck in a tree. Like her feet were still on the ground stuck-in-a-tree. Matt pulled her out and after some mom cuddles she was good as new.
We picked Ted's Montana Grille which was a little bit of a hike through downtown. If it weren't for the heat and the smell of weed it might have actually been enjoyable - the walk that is. Ted's was great. We didn't have any wait and the food was phenomenal. I got the meatloaf and it was delicious. The gravy had a slight kick to it which was a brand new experience.
We got back to the room and everyone dispersed to shower and change into PJs. Rachelle and I lounged in bed together on our respective phones going through photos of the day while Matt and Dustin watched Moana in the living room. Warning: Hot Take coming your way but I don't like Moana. I thought it was a snooze fest of a time. Much to Matt's chagrin Dustin wasn't impressed either. Then Rachelle and I started hearing a popping sound (gun shots?) outside and we ran into the living room where Dustin and Matt were already on the balcony watching fireworks from some sporting event. Phew!
We said our goodnights and goodbyes since Dustin and I were getting up bright and early to catch our flight back. WHAT A TRIP! It was our first our of state friendcation and I have to say it went really fucking well. I had such a genuinely wonderful time. I can't wait until next month to do it in Texas with another friend couple.
