Emily's Epic Escapades: Vacation and Concerting

Vacation and Concerting!

I just wanted to touch base and talk about my dad's family's recent vacation to Atlanta and how the Panic! at the Disco and Weezer concert went! Plus, lots and lots of pictures!

Hot-lanta Vacation!

Day 1: The drive to Atlanta was 8 and a half hours and so with stops for going potty and getting food, we probably spent 10 hours. Needless to say, we were exhausted. So when we got to our Air B&B house, we all just settled in to our rooms, and fell asleep for a while. Eventually we woke up to get dinner and then came back and went to bed again.

Day 2: This was probably my favorite day! We went white water rafting with a company called Rolling Thunder River Company. We drove an hour and a half or two outside of Atlanta for the rafting trip to the Ocoee River. We floated a 6 hour float trip with a stop 5 miles in for a bbq taco lunch. The Ocoee River has a 1/4 mile section that was used during the Olympics for the kayaking and floating portions. The river had class 3 and class 4 rapids and it was such an awesome float. It was only my second time rafting but I want to continue rafting on more rivers! Within the first 30 seconds of our float trip, my stepsister T fell in to the river. It was pretty hilarious when it happened because we weren't even on a rapid. Also, I accidentally busted her lip by hitting her with my paddle. She got pretty beat up on the float. After the trip, we came back and ate a huge drive-in called Varsity that is a popular spot to eat on Georgia Tech game days.

Day 3: We are huge fans of amusement parks and so Six Flags was a must for us. Everyone except A is a roller coaster junkie. Six Flags Over Georgia has some really great roller coasters and so it was awesome for us! They have roller coasters that were a lot different from any I had ever been on. The Georgia Scorcher was a roller coaster that you stand up on, which was I weird experience. It made my legs feel really funny. We also rode the first Virtual Reality coaster which was kind of mind-blowing. The headset prevents you from watching the roller coaster in front of you so you have no idea what's coming up next. Another cool roller coaster that we rode was Superman: Ultimate Flight. This was where you get in a seat sort of thing and get your shins and ankles strapped in and then you get tilted forward to where you were laying on your stomach while you ride the ride. It was basically like you were flying! That was definitely one of my favorite rides there! We ended up leaving a little early because there were some scary looking storms rolling in, but then we went and had some really awesome food at a steakhouse and sushi bar.

Day 4: On the fourth day, we went to the Coca-Cola World museum and the aquarium. Since Coca-Cola was founded in Atlanta they have a big museum dedicated to the history of the coke. There was a tasting room with 100 different Coca-Cola brand drinks from around the world. Since I don't drink soda anymore, I didn't try any, but I had tried some in Disney World at their coke sampling station when I was there last year. We go an aquarium on every vacation that we take because my sister A is obsessed. We watched a really cute dolphin show and we watched the sea lion show as well. They had a lot of themed rooms and a 4D Happy Feet ride.

Day 5: Every teenage girl loves to go shopping and we have a 4 girls between the ages of 15-20 so of course we had to go to the mall. The Atlanta mall is gigantic. We were sort of overwhelmed at first but once we figured it out, we went crazy with the shopping and had a blast in all the stores. After we finished up at the mall, we went to Fox Bros Barbecue, which is apparently a hotspot for celebs but we didn't see any. This pretty much wrapped up the trip and we went home to pack and get ready to head back home.

Panic! at the Disco and Weezer

The time finally came for the 2nd concert of the season for me. My sister A and I went up to Northwest Arkansas on Saturday after I got off work and my aunt and uncle took some of her senior pictures (holy cow, I can't believe she's already a senior!) On Sunday, we got up early to finish up the rest of A's senior pictures and then it was time to head back to my aunt and uncle's house, take a nap, and then get ready for the concert! We got ready and then went to my nana's house to have dinner (and she made us pickle pops!!!) and then it was off to the concert! The line was soooo long when we got there and they told us that they were going to let everyone on the right side of the stadium in first because they had been waiting the longest but they ended up letting us switch back and forth on sides so A and I got in fairly quickly. We got some waters so A wouldn't pass out again, like at RiverFest and then we went to find our seats. Our spots were incredible! We were super close to the stage and under the awning so it wasn't incredibly hot. We went and got our concert merch while we waiting for the first band to start. The opening band was Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness, who I saw last year at the Big Summer Show in St. Louis. They were really good! I enjoy watching and listening to their music. Then it came time for Panic! This was also my second time seeing them because they were at the Big Summer Show as well. I LOVE Panic! at the Disco. Like a lot. I knew some of their music before I saw them last summer but not a whole lot. After I saw them last summer though, I was hooked. This concert was especially great because they released new music relatively recently and so they played a lot of songs from the new album that I hadn't heard before! And of course, who wouldn't swoon over Brendon Urie. Or really any members of the band honestly. We went and got more water after Panic! played and then it was time for Weezer. I wasn't sure how I would feel about them, but I really enjoyed them too. I knew more songs than I thought I would and had a great time singing along and listening to new ones from their new-ish album. Overall it was a really awesome concert and now I am super super pumped for the TwentyOne Pilots concert next month!