Wedding Weekend - Round two - and More! (Much more haha)

Well I'm a little behind on my posts, I apologize...I guess traveling and working do that to you sometimes! I followed a Docherty family wedding with a Boddicker family (mom's side) wedding the next weekend back in good old Iowa City. Though a little delayed both ways, I made my first full "non-rev" trip, so that was a nice success! (Special thanks to my wonderful cousin Alyssa who picked me up at the airport late Friday night:) Rain turned our pre-wedding pool day into a BBQ at Dustin's house, and it turned out great! Fun to have everyone there all together for the first time.

My cousin Mike and Danie had a wonderful ceremony at the Newman Center and then headed to a huge celebration barn for the reception. They had a live band there that played lots of classics and kept everyone dancing the whole night...no surprise there with our family! haha.

What a good-lookin crew:)

Ha love Dad and Mark in this one!

The reception barn ceiling...beautiful!

Sunday was nice to relax a little since I had a late flight back to Atlanta. I got Dad out with me for my walk/run and revisited the Iowa cross country course for part of it! Then we had a group of over 20 people over at Grandma's (just the average crowd:) to watch the Women's World Cup Championship game...exciting despite the loss!

Besides wedding's I've been keeping busy during the week with lots of 10+ hour days, but trying to find a little better balance and routine, so that I am not so sleep deprived haha. It's amazing how fast time flies! But that usually means you're having fun right?! I've ventured out some more in Atlanta, going to this Taste of East Atlanta Village one Thursday evening with my friend Donna. It was pretty sweet...there were a bunch of restaurants on the two main streets that were offering "tastes" for only $1 each, so we got quite a tasty dinner! And dessert...there was an ice cream place that we had to go to of course:) Some of my favorites were places called Holy Taco and Urban Cannibals...fabulous food. We also found a fun vintage shop - Eclectic Gal - with a great owner who let us in after hours!

Holy Taco stand

Urban Cannibals Bodega and Bites

I also got to have dinner with a former Iowa Track teammate, miss Raven:), who was back visiting family in Atlanta...so fun to catch up! Another night featured a Happy Hour with several co-workers at The Sound Table in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood, where I had this amazing "Cece Fritos" (fried chickpeas) appetizer with a mix of curry salt, sugar, lemon, and crispy capers...so unexpected but so good. Last weekend I went out with a few girls from work to a bar called Ormsby's, that was multi-level and had a ton of games to play (pool, air hockey, skee ball!, bocce ball, etc) that definitely kept people entertained! We took on another group in bocce ball and dominated haha.

The playing field

Sunday I became an official member of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens haha...it was so expensive a membership almost paid for itself in another visit, so if anyone wants to go let me know! But they were beautiful, so definitely worth it. I went with a few girls and we spent a couple hours wandering the many gardens, having lunch in the cafe, and even watching a chef food demo! Picture taking was extensive, but here is a small preview:

A small waterfall!

Great city view in the background

Stunning orchid wall

A sort of gingered bean stir fry cooking demo

Let's see...I've also had a couple Saturday slow-pitch softball games at Piedmont Park...one we got crushed:( But the other we tied an undefeated team, so that was a little better...good fun nonetheless:) And lastly, this weekend I did some major cleaning and to-do's around my apartment, so that is always good to get done...makes me feel productive haha. Saturday evening I went to a luau BBQ, where I introduced everyone to the great Midwest "Scotchie" bar (Scotcharoo's to some - the delish rice crispy bar, but with peanut butter and chocolate)...I couldn't believe NO ONE had every had one before!! They loved them of course:) After we went out to the bar/restaurant Front Page News in Midtown, which had a great patio and a live band in the upstairs! I did some cooking/baking this weekend too...yay for homemade granola:)

Outdoor patio at my friend Amanda's (far left) place 

And new friends! (Jenni and Jessica)

Band playing upstairs...some good tunes too! (even some of the classic 90's I love:)

Front Page News

Homemade Vanilla Almond Granola...yummmm

Well that is all for now...should be enough to keep you reading for a while haha. I will try not to wait so long next time! I'm still loving Atlanta, but of course love and miss you all!! xo Jennie

Fun Weekend in Dallas: Special Congrats to Chris and Lindsey!!

Last weekend was my first trip since moving to Atlanta, as I have tried to stick around and get to know the city since I did actually move here. It took me to Dallas for a fun-filled couple of days with lots of family, dancing, great food, and of course celebrating my cousin Chris' marriage to Lindsey! She is absolutely wonderful, so we are very happy to welcome her to the family:)

Arriving to 106 degree heat almost made Atlanta feel frigid haha. But better than -20 anytime I must say. I got into Dallas early evening and was greeted by a warm welcome of family waiting for me at the airport...gotta love that! Friday night featured a family/wedding party rehearsal dinner at my cousin Rich's house. It was great to see so many people on Dad's side of the family that I haven't seen in a while!

Saturday started with a typical Docherty family run, except minus me:( I unfortunately have been stuck with my super exciting "walk/jogs" since my surgery and ensuing achilles problems. That has been frustrating to say the least, but I'm surviving! We did find a pretty sweet park nearby with a 2 mile path around that was like a track lane, so that made it a little more enjoyable:) Afterwards, we had a reservation for 31 people at the Grand Lux Cafe next to our hotel, where a ton of family had dinner with my grandpa's sister...I'm sure we made quite the scene haha. I even got to have one of those molten "lava" chocolate cakes that was gluten-free/flourless...and it was amazing! We then fit in a little mall browsing (since it WAS attached to the hotel), and soon headed off to the wedding! The ceremony and reception were both really nice and also held at the Cowboys Stadium, which I had never been to, so that was pretty neat! More great food and conversation followed, and of course...DANCING! I think we wore out the dance floor. It was fabulous. I even got out there with my 91 year old grandpa for a few spins:) A limo ride back and small after-party left me wiped out, but so worth it.

Lunch crew

Reception set-up

All the Docherty girls!

(and boys:)

A fun send off

Limo ride!

I decided to try my first "non-rev" for my way back to Atlanta on Sunday (aka. fly standby) and aimed for an evening flights with the rest of the fam, so we could enjoy somewhat of a relaxing day. I got in a hot morning walk with mom, more mall browsing with the fam, a stop by Rich's house to say bye, and then off to the airport. I wasn't able to get on the 6:15 flight, but knew that was going to be tough, but made the 7:30 just fine...so first attempt was a success! It was a late night by the time I got home (especially after the interstate came to a dead stop at 11:30 on a Sunday night...how does that happen? Oh yeah, a couple lane closures and wonderful Atlanta traffic;) All in all GREAT weekend.

Can't forget my visitors!

I had my first-ever Atlanta visitors recently thanks to the (extended) Clancy clan of Matt, Grace, Mike and Danie. It was short but sweet. After picking them up at the World of Coca Cola, we head to Little 5 Points to experience lunch at the famous Vortex restaurant. The place had a very entertaining menu to read, great food (especially burgers!), and quite interesting decor - to say the least.

After a little time to relax, our plans for a picnic and music at Piedmont Park got hampered by some big storms rolling through, so we ended up at the movie theater just up the street from my apartment. We saw Super 8 and it was pretty good! With an early morning for all of us the next day, that ended the night, but it was so great to see you guys!

Welcome to Hotlanta!

I officially moved to Atlanta Memorial Day weekend, with the wonderful help of my Dad, that I couldn't have done without! We had a full few days of getting my apartment set up, but made great progress, and ended each exhausting day with a relaxing late dinner somewhere we could sit outside...by the way, that is one great thing about Atlanta - so many outdoor patios! I love it. Here are a  few pics of my apartment and my balcony view...ones of the inside will come once my couch actually arrives haha.

I really like the place a lot. It's a little further from work and in more of a "commercial" area than I would normally go for, but it is really safe, quiet, well-kept, and relaxing...so a good place to start!

After the move, I had a couple weeks to get settled and explore Atlanta a little...of which every day was needed! It's amazing how long that can take when starting somewhat from scratch. I have now been working at Delta for three weeks now (seems more like three days), and it has been great...the people are so friendly and I have already been given quite a bit of work to do, so it is keeping me busy! In my free time, I try to continue to get out and see new places and meet new people...thanks to many friends who have reached out to me about their friends in Atlanta! All the people I have meet have been wonderful, so I appreciate that a lot!

I'm a little delayed in starting this to share everywhere I've been, but a quick recap should work...

• Started playing on a slow-pitch softball team at Piedmont Park.

• Visited a couple farmer's markets

• Went out to eat at lots of great restaurants already (HobNob Tavern, Seasons 52, Tavern at Phipps, P'Cheen, The Treehouse, Real Chow Baby, Cafe Intermezzo, Figo Osteria, Flip Burger Boutique, Spice Market, Thai Heaven, Front Page News Cafe, and others...)
• Found gluten free beer at the Midway Pub in the East Atlanta neighborhood

• Made my way to a couple Atlanta Braves games

• Hit up the club haha...well checked out a few bars/clubs (Atkins Bar, Hand in Hand, Dark Horse, Buckhead Bottle Bar, and Cosmo Lava most recently)
• Gone on countless walk/runs around my neighborhood....usually pass my time by staring at all the beautiful houses and gardens
• Went to a summer food/music festival in the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood
• Relaxed at the pool
• Cooked some delicious food if I must say so myself...including homemade pizza and egg salad (separate occasions, not together, don't worry)

• Sat in some traffic at times :(
• And some other stuff too

This past weekend included a Braves game with some girls Friday night and out with other friends to Flip Burger Boutique (they even had gluten free lettuce wraps for their burgers, which were amazing!) and Cosmo Lava on Saturday night. Cosmo Lava was pretty sweet...with several different bar areas and dance floors. Here is some of the crew that went...

The rest of the weekend featured some much needed apartment cleaning and relaxing! Well that's it for now...I am off for an evening walk now that it's done storming. We'll see if I make it up for the fireworks at Lenox!  Unfortunately 5am-something mornings make me kind of lame haha. Welcome to the real world;)

Hope you enjoyed my first blog post! Love and miss you all!

So I am actually starting a blog

I've thought about starting a blog for a while, but never really had the time (or courage?) to actually go through with it. But now that I am further from home, and many family and friends, I thought it would be a fun way to share some of my experiences (and also help me remember everything I go do haha). My goal is to write something each week with a few highlights from my daily adventures and exploration of Atlanta and wherever else I go...which hopefully is a lot of cool places (and to visit you all of course:) now that I have some flight benefits! This will probably be a work in progress until I figure everything out, but nevertheless, I hope you enjoy!

P.S. This is not meant to replace my lovely phone calls with you...just might help paint a better picture:)