Flip Burger Boutique and HD1 Restaurant

After 6 Flags we decided to go eat dinner since we really didn't eat any food while we were there. With all that food around the park it seemed to be completely unappealing to us. We wanted to try out Richard Blais's burger joint and heard they have great liquid nitrogen shakes.

Richard's style definetly is family style type seating. This place did not dissappoint. I absolutely fell in love with my burger. I got a beef burger called "Butchers Cut". It had crumbled bleu cheese, caramelized onions, soy truffle vinaigrette, frisee, pickeled shallots, red wine jam. I asked to have mine on a lettuce wrap which I think made it even more perfect. It was incredible!!! It was so incredible I didn't even offer Omar a bite. I told him I didn't think he would like it. OOPS! I am so mean.

 Omar ordered the "Carnitas" - Pork Patty, cilantro-lime mayo, braised pork cheek, shredded cabbage, salsa verde. He loved his too. He ordered the fries that are cooked in  beef tallow. I ordered the sweet potato tots that are spiced with a bbq spice. Omar ordered a strawberry shortcake milkshake and I ordered a turtle and caramel foam milkshake. So delicious.

We both thought we should just round out our Blais experience and head to his other restaurant HD1 which is not a burger joint - it is a hot dog joint! It is near the neighborhood that I would like to spend some time in next time we come to Atlanta - Little 5 Points. It seems like a cool place to visit.

HD1- I ordered "South of Chi-Town" which was chow-chow, fried green tomato, sweet pickle, bbq, farm peppers. Omar ordered the "Eastbound and Down" - Carolina pulled pork, country slaw, mop sauce.

It was good but we both agreed Flip was much better. then we found out that Blais is the owner of the restaurant but it is not "his" restaurant - meaning menu and where he is the chef like Flip and the Spence.
Omar said, "I can tell this is not Richard's restaurant really because there is salt and pepper on the tables." Both Flip and The Spence had NO salt and pepper to be found. 

Six Flags over Atlanta

I bought our tickets online. If you buy the 3 day advance ticket they only cost $34.99/adult! I think that is a great deal and is actually the same price as if going to the Aquarium. Online we read that the park opened at 10:30 AM. We got there at about 10:20 and noticed that the rides were already going with people on them. The must be like Sea World Aquatica where when they see people standing outside to come in they just let everyone early.

As we were pulling up we saw that there was $15 parking to the right and we passed it thinking that it would be a longer walk to get to the entrance than what the park itself had to offer. I knew that they had 3 different parking options - $20 regular parking, $25 VIP parking, and $35 Valet parking. As we drove way past the entrance to get to the Six Flags official parking I thought. This is crazy to pay more for parking and have to walk even further. We drove back to the $15 parking and walked like 2 minutes to the entrance. It was awesome.

We braced ourselves for a blazing hot day at Six Flags over Atlanta. It was supposed to be in the 100's again. My only hope was that the heat would keep the crowds away during this "holiday" period. Or at least that most people would prefer Six Flags White Water Park. We were right - the park was SUPER empty.

Foolishly we stopped at the first right when you come into the park, the Georgia Scorcher. We had to buy a locker to put our camera and water bottle in because you can't bring anything onto the rides. It was actually neat becuase you pay $4 for the day and it lets you use the lockers unlimited at all the rides and includes an electronic wrist band.

We didn't move in line for like 15 minutes and finally found out it was because someone had pucked all over and they had to clean. We finally got out of that line and went to the other rides and never waited. We did that ride at the end of the day when we left the park. Let me just say it is a ball crusher - quite literally. Such uncomfortable "standing". I don't know what they were thinking.

We did all the major rides:

Goliath - LOVED! We did it twice
Batman - It was okay
Dare Devil - LOVED
Dahlonega Mine Train - really jerky wooden ride
Mind Bender - okay
Ninja - I think this ride should have been called Ninja's punching bag. I have never hit my head so much in my life. Literally our heads bounced back and forth being pounded by the seating. There was literally no line for this one - I know why now
Superman - I thought I would love this one - but I don't know if it was the speed but it jerked my neck so bad and I wasn't able to move it. Maybe we are just getting old!
Acrophobia - Liked it but it was so short
Monster Mansion - it was sort of like a Haunted Mansion/Briar Rabbit wannabe but the ending seemed out of place - it was cute
Log Jamboree - Nice little break - you don't get too wet
Peachtree Square Sky Buckets - Nice view and a way to save walking so much
Railroad Station - was also a nice little tour of the park and a chance to relax

Omar doesn't really like water rides or wooden rollercoasters becuase of how jerky they are. He endulged in a few of them. We did the show iLuminate which we both really enjoyed. We were in line 45 minutes before the show and we made it in but were still half way to the end of the line! Next time I think we will make our way to the top of the theater to sit. That show was really awesome though! It was the people that dance in light changing outfits.

I didn't seem to notice much entertainment, characters, or shows at the park. I thought I saw my first character walking around when I realized it was a little girl with the LARGEST stuffed animal covering her whole body it was so big.

cute props of Monster Mansion

What was plentiful was food, drink and carnival games. Literally every few feet was one of those things. There was more of that combined than a 1/4 of the rides at the park. I did think it was pretty cool that you could buy a cup for $15 and get free refills all day long. They even had a cup that cost $8 where you could free 7-11 Slurpee refills all day too! How cool is that? The soda one is much more popular and is what Omar got. I think we got our moneys worth - I think he got about 10 refills! I was happy the staff would refill my  little water bottle with no complaint.

I met Richard Blais!

While on our short trip to Atlanta I knew we had to go to one of Richard Blais's restaurants. Good news for me - he has 3 restaurants here and 1 of them opened about a month ago. It is called The Spence. It is contemporary american food and the atmosphere was really cool. Right when we walked in I saw Richard Blais! I was so happy with where we got seated because we had a great view of the kitchen which was where Richard was.

Look how close we were to the kitchen - the guy in grey to the left of the table is Richard - the far right is the oven and it is the end of the kitchen - it was so small

He dressed just like he was on Top Chef still. I wonder if he only owns 1 pair of shorts....I think it is awesome!  The whole time I just watched him. One time he walked by and made eye contact with me and smiled. I'm sure he was probably really thinking, "What a weirdo - she keeps staring at me!" The kitchen was just like one stove top, this cool fire oven thing, 2 large work tables and that was pretty much it. I could see them working the liquid nitrogen and Richard sniffing the plated food. It was awesome!

General Tso's Sweet breads

Foie Gras slab with toast - I love his choice of plates - I would totally see myself with something like this at my own house.

We had for appetizers a block of foie graus with Japanese grapes. We learned that we didn't really like foie graus that much. We didn't even realize what it was - lamb liver. We also had General Tso Sweet Breads which was really yummy.

Fried Ribeye

Monkfish

Our main entrees was Fried Ribeye which had this really interesting gravy/sauce and then I got the Monkfish. It was really good.

Dessert Omar got the pineapple upside down cake with foie caramel  and I got the Yuzu Semifreddo, peach sorbet (made with liquid nitrogen) with chile ailoi. The menu changes daily depending on what they have on hand.

When our desert was brought it must have been the manager or something. We talked to her for a little while and she told us about how she knew richard and his wife while everything was happening with the first top chef and she was shocked when he lost. I asked if we could get a picture with him.

Us with Richard Blais!!!

She brought him over in the middle of one my bites. He was really nice and I told him that I felt like I knew him. He responded, "Thats because you do!" He asked what brought us to Atlanta from Jacksonville (the lady told him about us) and Omar told him that we came to see him. I was like, yeah - "I can check this off my bucket list now."  I couldn't believe how smitten I am with him. I had joked with Omar when we walked in how I would tell him, "I was a chef once, a chef on a train in Alaska." But I didn't, thank goodness. We took the picture and I felt so foolish. I asked him when he was going to come to Jacksonville and start a restaurant. He said, "whenever I get a check written for another restaurant."

I think we are going to check out his other 2 restaurants, they are lot less expensive. They are a burger joint that is really unique called FLIP and also has awesome liquid nitrogen milk shakes. the other place is a hot dog joint.

Downtown Atlanta

We stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Downtown Atlanta for 2 nights. The drive was easy and took only 5 hours due to no traffic. We arrived at 3 pm and cooled off a little due to the over 100 degree temperature. We wondered what we were thinking leaving Florida which was not supposed to be as hot coming to the city with the highest expected temps in the south! 


We set off to walk to the Underground. It was only about a 10 minute walk - really everything downtown seems to be 10 minutes from where we were. I heard that the Underground was not really worth the trip, it was pretty accurate. I felt so sad at how that place looks like it was once a really neat, hoping place. All the stores were pretty ghetto and there just wasn't much there. We literally spent maybe 20 minutes and that was going through the whole thing. I was glad that we chose to walk rather than drive. I would have been upset paying $7 to park for that.  

I thought that this street one our way to the Underground was really pretty

It amazes me how everywhere you look in downtown there is stuff for Coke

Going down to the entrance of Underground

We then began walking and came across the Olympic Centennial Park. It was SO hot! The little water splash fountains were packed with people. We got an Italian Ice and stayed in the shade. We should have stuck around to watch one of the water shows where the water at the fountains light up with color and play to music for about a half hour. Omar didn't want to go back later that evening for one of the shows and so I thought we would go on Tuesday night. Too bad they closed it down for maintenance until after July 4. They have this whole website telling people things they should know about the park - I think that is something people would want to know who are planning a visit. 

The Splash Pad at the Olympic Park

I think that next time we come to Atlanta we will plan to get a City Pass. I knew if we were doing 6 Flags and only had one day it wouldn't be enough time to do all the stuff you get with a City Pass and a City Pass is the only way to make it worth it. It costs $69/adult but you get the Coke Factory, Aquarium, CNN Tour, and then either the High Museum of Art or Fernbank Musuem of Natural History along with the Atlanta Zoo or Atlanta History Center. All of that would take more than 1 day to do. I think I would also go spend time in Highland/Little 5 Points and see about going to do the Gone with the Wind Tour stuff.  

Woes of a Gardener

One of the guys I work with started a container garden and he told me he bought all his supplies at the Dollar Tree. So I thought, why not? I went to the Dollar Tree during one of my lunch breaks and bought all the pots, seeds, and soil that I would need. I paid about $15 I think. I bought a seed packet that had radish, carrot, cabbage, bean, tomato, cucumber, and romaine lettuce. I found in my garage the little wood container from last year when I tried a "do your own herb kit". Ya lets just say herbs were not so easy for me.

This time I remembered I needed to mark my plants which was one of my herb plant mistakes and caused problems for me. The second thing I did differently is I didn't use the whole packet of seeds. Yup, that's right, didn't know I shouldn't use a whole packet before. I also checked my plants and watered them at least every other day.

I was so excited to move my plants to larger containers. My bean, tomato, and cucumber plants were going cRaZY! They were wrapping around my other plants and I kept having to disconnect them afraid that they were going to choke the other. I bought a trellis and separated my plants.

I noticed that I had so many slugs and caterpillars. I kept killing them but noticed my cabbage plant was being demolished. At one point in time I went to check my plants and saw a wasp grab a lush bright green baby caterpillar and started eating it. There were 2 other caterpillars and I got rid of them and the wasp came back looking for them later. I never thought I would cheer for a wasp!


It was weird because my tomato and cucumber plant kept flowering and flowering and nothing was growing. I finally found on the tomato one little bity tomato starting to grow that was the size of my big thumbs fingernail. However nothing ever came of it. I don't know why I was not getting any production from my plants. 

And then the rains came! It was the first tropical storm of the year and when it left, it left rain after rain after rain. I think my plants just didn't get enough sun and just seemed to get some sort of fungus. 


I was taking so much time and care into them and it didn't matter. I finally gave up. My plants still sit out there looking like a hurricane hit them. The only one that has somehow made it is my romaine lettuce! It is flourishing! 

Micah's Wedding Reception

I had to take picture of my own dad and brother
creating the napkins for the reception!
I was SO impressed

My cousin Micah Ihli got married in Utah. I wish I had gone out to the wedding out there, but just felt like I couldn't go at that time. He did have a wedding reception in Orlando and I took the day off for the reception and the rest of the weekend. It was a lot of work to get ready for that reception, but everything looked beautiful!

I really enjoyed getting to know Micah's new wife Camille. I wish that she they lived near us in St. Augustine. It would be really great to have some people living near us. They actually will be living out in Logan where my sisters are now. They both will be going to school there.

The lights shown here was colored sand and
we connected 4 LED lights to a small battery

It was also great to see my Aunt Corrine Madison. I haven't seen her since my own wedding 4 years ago. She is such a sweetheart. We were all exhausted after working for the reception so on Saturday the day before she flew back home to Oklahoma we decided to just go to Downtown Disney and walk around.

So cute how she decided to have the pictures hung

All those little cups are actually hand made chocolate molds with candy in it

Chocolate/nut covered apple bites in a spoon full of caramel

Cupcakes - love the lace decoration around the cupcake

Raspberry Cheesecake mousse and cake pops

All the food and desserts were home made except for a meat platter - my Aunt Nancy even home made all the bread  and there were multiple types of bread

Food included: bread, fruit trays, meat/cheese trays, garden salad, pasta salad, strawberry spinach salad, potato salad,. Desserts included: banana and chocolate pudding, raspberry cheesecake mousse, caramel/apple bites, peach cake, carrot cake, candy, strawberry cupcakes,  and cake pops.

Not the greatest picture because all of these were taken with my phone, but I don't have any picture of us with Aaron and Nicole's 2 boys - Croix and Levi

Levi excited for FOOD!

Nicole and Aaron's new baby girl Lyla

Memorial Day Weekend

I had Memorial Day off which everyone ended having off at work due to Tropical Storm Beryl. Before we knew about the storm we had made plans for my parents and my sister to come up to visit us for the weekend. They got here Saturday night and I met them for dinner after work at Osaka. Following dinner we went and saw the movie 
Men In Black 3.

Sunday we went to church and it rained off and on all day long. My parents and I drove around Nocatee and went over to Michler's Beach to check out what it looked like there with Beryl really rolling in. The tide was REALLY high and you can't tell by the pictures but the waves were really pretty big and the tide was pretty dangerous looking.

Monday, Memorial Day, Omar had to be at church at like 6 AM to make breakfast for a 7:45 AM flag raising/pancake breakfast for the ward. Omar was in charge of all the food except for the pancake mix. We bought $150 of bananas, bacon, and eggs. Me and my family ended up getting there about 8:30 to everyone sitting in the gym listening to one of the members who served in the services share some services. SO many people showed up. I think it was because everything else got cancelled because of TS Beryl. We waited until the end to eat and that meant that there were no pancakes left. I was glad Omar wasn't in charge of that part because there was plenty of eggs and bacon.

My parents didn't end up staying much longer on Monday because of the storm. They left about noon to try to beat the traffic. It was a quiet Memorial Day