Coming Back to NYC delayed: Thank you Irene!

I took a mini vacation to Houston this past weekend. I stayed at a friend’s lake house and we had a good time. we went jet skiing, tubing, went on a boat, and partied. There were about 10 of us staying at this house for the weekend. We had a great time hanging out and drinking. While I am in Houston my flight back to NYC gets cancelled so I know that I am not coming back on Sunday. However my flight has not been rescheduled yet. I find out Saturday Night that my flight gets rescheduled to Sept. 4th! How is this possible?! I try to reach the airline but all I get is a computer generated message. I finally decide to just wait standby on Monday. I get to the airport and I am hoping from terminal to terminal trying to get on a flight, and so are 200 other people. After about 4-5 flights I decide to just give up. I have a friend in Atlanta that said I could stay over until things settled down. So I talk to the airline company and they book me on a flight to Atlanta Monday night and a flight from Atlanta to Newark, ugh Newark, on Wednesday. I forgot to tell you Monday is my birthday so I am on standby for my birthday in an airport. Yippee!!! Any way, so after I settle what I am going to do I go to the Center bar in Houston and have a couple drinks, these drinks were not what I would have wanted for a birthday drink… Then I make my move towards my terminal for my ATL flight. The flight to ATL was awesome I got hooked up on the plane with free drinks, AWESOME!!! I land in Atlanta and my hell of a birthday is over.

Tuesday in Atlanta

I try to make the best out of my day here. So I am told that there is restaurant called the Highland Bakery. I go there with my girlfriend and we share a cinnamon roll, jalapeno foccacia, and cilantro corn pancakes. Highland Bakery is an awesome breakfast place to go. The service was quick, they were in general very nice and we talked to them about Atlanta and New York. It gave my overall experience of the place two thumbs up. The cinnamon roll that I had was delicious. The cream on top was a cream cheese topping and the cream cheese wasn’t too heavy. I suggest getting the large to share. The bread was thick and moist which allowed for the cinnamon flavor to soak in, as well as holding the cream on top. Next we were served the jalapeno foccacia and cilantro corn pancakes. The foccacia was crisp and the jalapenos were baked right in with cheese in the middle. We used this for dipping in the sauce of the pancakes. The jalapenos weren’t overpowering and gave the bread just the right kick. On to the main course the pancakes. These Pancakes were great. I never thought of it before but having breakfast at a bakery is probably the smartest thing you can do. I mean when the waitress came out with our pancakes it looked heavenly. The sauce was poured over the pancakes and I couldn’t wait to dive in. When I cut into the pancake the eggs in the middle broke and all the yolkey goodness poured over the pancakes. The pancakes were light and fluffy, they were cooked so perfect that I didn’t even need a knife to cut into it. Overall my experience was phenomenal.

After our breakfast we headed over to Joanna’s alma mater, Emory. She showed me around and we took pictures. I saw all the buildings she used to take classes at and all the cool things that Emory had to offer. I also took a picture in front of the mascot. After touring the campus I went to toured all the hotspots. Such as the local bars that all the Emory kids hit up after their finals, the bar crawl that they would have and even went to Buckhead to tour that area. After finishing my short tour of Emory and Buckhead we went home. Then at night we met up with some friends and went to Seasons 52.

Now Seasons 52 is quite an interesting restaurant. They change their menu seasonally, so four times a year, as well as changing a section of their menu every week. Hence Seasons(4 seasons) 52(52 weeks). Also everything on their menu is under 475 calories, which is awesome for anyone trying to maintain a steady diet. But the thing is with their food it is also very good. And the portions are pretty healthy. We all shared a shrimp flatbread, and I had a Ceder Planked Roasted Salmon. The Salmon came with asparagus, carrots and potatoes. When the Salmon came out it came out on a ceder plank which was very awesome. Joanna got the buffalo chicken salad, Neil, one of our friends, got the Chicken(?), and Reena, another friend, got the Rainbow trout. Everything we got was a good size portion which left us wondering how could this be under 475 calories. When dinner finished they came out with dessert. Now I usually don’t like getting desserts because it is usually too heavy and they give me too much dessert that I am too fond of. However, this was a totally different case. They bring out these desserts in a very small glass, which to me is exactly the size portion that I want for dessert. The size of the glass is like a double shot glass. I had the dark chocolate oreo cake, which was perfect. It had a very rich chocolate flavor and the cake wasn’t thick. It was moist and it left just perfect as I finished my meal.

Being stuck due to Irene was a bad experience but I am glad I was able to visit Atlanta at least to taste some of the food that I have heard so much about. If it is ever possible I would love to go back and try some more. Maybe even go to the original Chick-fil-a in ATL. I had a great time on my vacation and an even better food trip then I thought I could have.