Renaissance Weekend

For Angela's trip, we did all things Renaissance (and some other things). We left on Friday afternoon and headed for Atlanta.

Our first stop was the Medieval Times dinner show in Lawrenceville, GA. I would recommend this for people who enjoy these types of things. You can watch the website and catch pretty great deals if you don't have a particular weekend you need to go. We stayed in a really great hotel less than a mile away but I can't remember what it was, unfortunately. I DO remember that I had already booked a hotel for that night when I booked this one, so we were able to pay for TWO hotels on this night. {eye roll}

The next morning, we drove to Fairburn, GA, for the Georgia Renaissance Festival. This was my first time for anything like that and I have to say, it was interesting. I thought it was well organized and the shows were fun and interesting. I was interested in how friendly everyone was. I would recommend following the page for a while leading up to the festival because they run all sorts of specials. We were going to do the bogo tickets for opening weekend, but then on Valentine's Day they offered a special deal for two people that included meals AND game tokens, so I snagged that deal and it was a wise choice.

I had booked us at a bed and breakfast in Hapeville, GA, called Maison LaVigne. I have mixed feelings on our stay there. I had friends who were surprised that there was a B and B in that area, and once we got there, I understood why they were surprised. It wasn't a typical area for a B&B and there was NOWHERE in town to eat. It felt slightly unsafe driving to it after dark. The lodging itself was comfortable and clean, but the first night we were there, a party at the house behind it went on most of the night, and LOUDLY.

The following morning, we drove in to the Georgia Aquarium, which was INCREDIBLE. We loved the dolphin show, the exhibits, and everything about it. We came back to our B&B for the cooking lessons I had booked (which, and it was probably my fault for misunderstanding, but cost TWICE what I expected them to), which were really cool. That night, I took Angela to the Sundial Restaurant. This was a suggestion from a friend and it was a fabulous one. She thought it was the neatest thing in the world when we were driving in and I pointed to the sky and said, "See that? That's where we are eating." One side note on that, I had booked a reservation and then read reviews and realized we would be wasting money. We ended up just going to the bar area and ordering a pizza. Same view, delicious food, fraction of the price, much more comfortable... good call. ***Note, it no longer rotates. Which is fine. and which we knew.

The last day of our trip, we had planned to bike. However, the one complaint I have about Atlanta is that I found it impossible to figure out where we could park and bike. We drove to a park (can't remember which one) and couldn't see where to park or any people, so we just decided to head back home and bike our own greenway. Then it was freezing cold and so we just skipped the biking altogether on this trip.