It's been a little while since I updated the blog, but after this past weekend I figured it was time. There are several topics I want to write about but this weekend is a great starting point for getting back into the blog a little bit.  To start off, Jessica told me about a month ago to not make any plans for the weekend and that she was going to surprise me.  Now, I like surprises as much as the next, but it can be hard to surprise me sometimes.  I was determined not to snoop or look on the internet to see what was going on that weekend so that I could truly say I was surprised.  Well, that weekend finally come to pass and we met in Chattanooga on Friday around noon.  Jessica pulled out her phone and it proceeded to give me driving directions and after a short time it was evident we were heading to Atlanta.  Now, I have to admit that this is the traditional weekend for all kinds of music festivals like Jazz Fest in New Orleans, Memphis in May, Birmingham Music Festival, and more recently the Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta.  I'm thinking we're going to the Shaky Knees Festival...
     We end up at a restaurant called Canoe.  It is the number one restaurant on Trip Adviser, which carries a lot of weight with us because we have found some excellent restaurants this way.  And true to form, the lunch was great! 

Did I mention the weekend was to celebrate our one year anniversary?  We met at the end of March and "got to know" each other for about a month and met in person on May 5th, 2012.  That is a blueberry sorbet with a lemon poppyseed shortbread cookie.  They also had popcorn flavored icecream that our wonderful server let us try, and it was so weird, but really good!  Tasted just like popcorn, butter and all!   I had a huge lamb sandwich and Jessica had a Salmon burger with an egg on top that was also fantastic. During lunch Jessica told me how we would be spending the rest of the weekend, and it was not the Shaky Knees Festival.  She had booked us at the Weekend to Remember Marriage Seminar at the Atlanta Renissance Waverly Hotel.  This is a three day event hosted by Family Life that works with married (and engaged) couples to show how important marriage is and how to strengthen that relationship.  I think Jessica thought I would be disappointed, but on the contrary, I was looking forward to it! 

     This is getting a little long winded so I'll start to be brief.  We checked into the hotel and enjoyed the first night of the conference and finished it up with dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  The next day we enjoyed the conference and at our lunch break went to Pappadeaux's Restaurant and enjoyed some great seafood.  More conference and then for dinner Jessica had made reservations at the Blue Ridge Grill, another highly rated Trip Advisor favorite which also lived up to its reputation.  But we weren't through for the evening yet!  Jessica had tickets for Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engval at the historic Fox Theater!  Those guys are very funny and we had a great time laughing that evening.  Sunday was a half day as we finished up the conference by 1pm and stopped by Chipotle for lunch in honor of Cinqo de Mayo.  After a short stop at NorthSide Hospital to see my brother we then headed to...the Shaky Knees Festival for the second day to see such bands as Drive By Truckers and The Lumineers!

 

     Almost immediately after we parked at the commuter lot to wait for the bus to take us to the festival we noticed that everyone had on mud / rain boots.  It had rained all the day the day before we we quickly figured out that it would be muddy where we were going.  Jessica was smart enough to recommend we get ponchos at the mechandise booth and after we purchased two they sold out.  We put out yellow plastic ponchos on just as it started to rain.  The rain came and went for a while and then set in around 8pm for good.  It wasn't bad till the sun went down and then it started to get cold.  The Lumineers were the last band, and of course the one we wanted to see the most.  They took the stage around 8:30 and we enjoyed about an hour of their set before we were just too cold and started to make our way to the commuter bus to be taken back to our car.  We took off our muddy shoes and cranked up the heat in the car and started our own commute back home to Chattanooga.  All in all it was a packed weekend as we crammed so much into the time we had available.  It almost felt like we were back in Barcelona.  I have learned one thing from this weekend, and that is that Jessica is a great planner (like I consider myself) and able to schedule just enough to keep us busy but not so much that we were overwhelmed or late for anything.  Thank you Jessica for an incredible Weekend to Remember!