Sandra
Our Younger Daughter is Older than Her Sister
When Carina came home from "Winter Camp", she brought her sister with her. They had a delightful time on the flight over, if the 58 pictures they took on the plane are any indication. They took pictures of everything from the socks in their amenity kits to each course of the meals!
We picked them up at the airport and met our new daughter, Sandra! Sandra was thrilled to be back in Atlanta. She had worked at a hotel downtown several years before. She was amazed at how much had changed as we drove through town on our way home. Sandra and Carina took a short nap & then we went to our favorite pizza place, Bella's. We knew we had turned Carina into a Southern Belle when we heard her order "Sweet Tea" at Bella's. After dinner, even though the girls were dead tired, they wanted to go to one of Carina's favorite hang-outs in Smyrna, Atkins Park. We tagged along and were amazed at the size of the bar crowd on a Thursday night. Carina said it gets even more crowded around 2AM! (How does she know this? Have we lost control of our child?)
We had to work Friday, so we gave the girls the keys to the car and let them do some sight
seeing on their own. They nicknamed the car the "Mädchen Jeep" which means
"Maiden Jeep". I hope that doesn't mean its a girly car because its the car Tony
normally drives!
They drove over to the apartments where Sandra used to live, and took a few pictures. It was back to Atkins Park that evening, where Sandra met some of Carina's "little friends". Lets see, there was Derrick, Jason, Walter, Brian... (Doesn't Carina have any friends who are girls?)
Sunday, we took the girls to our hang-out, Limerick Junction where the beer is cheap and the popcorn is free!
Monday, the girls wanted to go bowling, so we picked up Carina's little friend Tanya and headed out to bowl. We forgot to take into account that it was league night, so we couldn't get a lane at either of the two Bowling Alley's we tried. We played a few games of pool. Boy against the Girls, Germany Against America, and Everybody against Sandra. Then we learned that it is against the bowling alley rules to take pictures on league night. Who knew? I can only imagine what they are worried about...
We ended the evening back at Carina's second home, Atkins Park, where Sandra used her beginners luck to beat us all at darts.
The girls visited the aquarium and took over 100 photos. Tony and I don't feel the need to go, now that we have seen all of the pictures!
We realized how much we take Atlanta for granted while the girls were showing us their pictures. There are some pretty neat things in Atlanta.
Wednesday was the unofficial "Take your American Parents to Atkins Park" night, so we stayed out way too late for a school night and let Sandra beat us at darts again.
Sandra discovered a highly addictive word video game. We were amazed that she could score so highly. We're confident that we would not be able to score so highly on a German word game.
The girls treated themselves to a manicure and pedicure the next day. They got a real kick out of being pampered.
That night we drove them to Newnan's fanciest restaurant where Sandra's friend Andre is the chef. We had a delightful dinner!
We dropped the girls at Atkins Park on our way home with instructions not to stay out too late. When we got home, we saw both of their house keys on the kitchen counter, so we called Atkins Park and asked them to fine the two German girls in the bar. That thrilled Carina. "I got a phone call at Atkins Park!" We left the key under the mat for them.
The girls got lucky with the weather while they were in town and even enjoyed an afternoon at Piedmont Park!
We enjoyed another evening at Atkins Park. Tony invited a co-worker to meet the girls. After dinner, we left the kids to their fun and headed home.
We left the girls at home with no baby sitter for a few days while we went on a ski trip to Utah. While we were gone, they visited Chef Andre and his family and went to a super-bowl party.
They visited the zoo and enjoyed seeing all of the animals.
As their time to go home drew near, they started taking pictures of the things they would miss the most. Sandra will especially miss her good friends Ben and Jerry!
There were some "must visits" that they had to squeeze in before the trip was over. Of course, the Waffle House was at the top of the list. Also on the list were the Hard Rock Cafe, the Varsity and Hooters. Basically all of the classy restaurants in Atlanta.
Too soon it was time to pack. This took place over several days.
Our farewell lunch was at the Vinings Grill for a good old fashioned American Cheeseburger and then it was off to the airport. Their luggage was a bit overweight, but we were able to rearrange a bit and put some things in their carry on.
A short wait in the gatehouse and they were rewarded with Business Class seats for the flight home. We left them in Delta's capable hands and headed home to our empty nest. We later learned that they took an extended delay and didn't leave Atlanta until several hours after their scheduled departure time.
We had no sooner left the airport than we were missing our girls. We look forward to future visits!
BJ and Tony Morris (a.k.a. Mommy and Daddy)
bjandtony@bjandtony.com