Fall Festivals

In between all the sporting events we've attended lately, we managed to squeeze in a few festivals here in Atlanta. Fall is by far our favorite season here, and we definitely make the most of it.

First up, was Taste of Atlanta. We had never been to this food and wine festival, and over a lunch date I met one of the volunteer coordinators. Free food and wine for a few hours of work? Sign me up! Bo and Dudley joined me, and we all had a blast. We worked in the VIP tent, where admission price is $75 per ticket for all you can eat and drink. We helped setup by unloading a truck of beer and wine, and taking them to the right tables. Our main job was to pour wine at the La Fiera table - my favorite being their Venetian Pinot Grigio. We worked the first shift, and had the remainder of the day to enjoy the festival. We made some new friends, discovered great wines, and tried a few samplers from nearby restaurants - all in all, a fantastic day. I don't think we would pay to attend (it's one of the pricier events), but we will definitely volunteer again! :)

Our favorite beer festival of all time is the Decatur Craft Beer Festival. It's the only thing Bo is willing to miss a Gator football game for - it's that good. We've gone the past few years and this year we decided to volunteer. Not quite the same experience as Taste of Atlanta. This one was actual work. We worked the Allagash table, which was kind of hidden and some people had trouble finding us. My favorite was the White (a Belgian wheat beer), and it was the first one we ran out of. To be perfectly honest, we were pouring very heavily. As new volunteers, we got stuck with the second shift which started at 2pm - and the Gators played South Carolina at 3:30pm. It was a very busy shift. Bottled beer is a pain to serve, since we were constantly moving warm cased beer into ice buckets, and then into serving buckets, and then having to open each bottle as we went. We got about 3-4 tasting pours out of each bottle, and we had a pretty long line at our tent almost the entire time - aka constantly busy! We were decked out in our Gator gear, and made a new friend who was watching the game on his phone and gave us updates in return for non-stop flowing beer. We finally ran out of beer as the first half of our game was ending and headed home to catch the second half. We had a good time, but we don't plan to volunteer again. We'd rather pay for tickets and go back to just enjoying this festival like we did last year.

Our third and final festival was the Stone Mountain Highland Games, which we also went to last year with Josh's family. We tried to find Bo's Clan Boyd but they weren't at the festival, so we'll be on the lookout for them next year. Josh just about made his Nana's year when he drunkenly promised her the night before that he would wear a kilt to the festival. She of course made sure he went through with it :)

stone put

caber toss

Bo enjoyed his kilt koozie and gator cane purchase

Chipper's Last Game

Even though I have only lived in Atlanta for (almost) five years, I have been an Atlanta Braves fan for as long as I can remember. The Braves used to play their spring training games in West Palm Beach, not far from where I grew up. Some of my favorite childhood memories are going to baseball  games with my dad, eating hot dogs and peanuts (obviously), and chasing foul balls for hours. Chipper Jones joined the team when I was in fourth grade, and it was no secret I had a major celebrity crush on him. I adored him - I played third base on my softball team and wore his number. He was my hero.

almost 20 years later, I finally got his jersey! Still crushing pretty hard ;)

We missed his last regular season home game - "Chipper Jones Day" - while we were in Boone, so we made sure to get tickets to the wild card playoff game against the Cardinals. We had a feeling it might be our last chance to see Chipper play, and sure enough, it was.

Chipper's last inning at third base

our souvenirs - I love the Braves, but I still cannot bring myself to do the tomahawk chop

As much as I love the sport, I will admit baseball can be pretty boring to watch. But this was one of the craziest baseball games we've ever been to. In the bottom of the 8th inning, the ump made a very controversial infield fly call that really could have changed the outcome of the game. There were far too many errors (my beloved Chipper included) and missed opportunities to blame the loss solely on this call - but the fans were outraged. They threw all kinds of trash onto the field and boo'ed the umps for a solid 20 minutes after the botched call.  It was funny at first, but they were only punishing the grounds crew, not the umps, so it was pretty ridiculous.

sooo much trash

Of course, the next inning Chipper comes up to the plate for his final at bat, bottom of the ninth, with two outs. No pressure right?!?!  It had to have been a total pity call that he was not only safe at first base, but they also gave him a hit for what we thought should have been an error. Not exactly the way Chipper wanted to go out, I'm sure.

Chipper's last swing

The next batter got a double and Chipper moved to third! Tying run comes up to the plate...

such a stud

Unfortunately Uggla grounded out, ending the game and Chipper's career. Cardinals won 6-3. I am sure Grandpa was smiling down from heaven - he was such a huge Cards fan.

Chipper's last play

It was pretty surreal that Chipper's career had just ended. And as sad we were that the Braves' season was over, it was kinda cool that we got to attend his very last game. I'll always love you, Chipper!!