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Atlanta 2019

Isaac Church — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 14:34:28 +0000

It’s road trip season again in the Church household. I’ve been traveling a lot recently – mostly related to App football. Dad and I have already been to Chapel Hill in September, and Columbia [SC] two weeks ago to see the Mountaineers defeat the Gamecocks, 20-15. This past weekend, I headed down to Atlanta to see our game against the Panthers of Georgia State University.

Two of my former college roommates joined me: Trevor Gragg and Alex Payne, from Granite Falls and Shelby, respectively. The game kicked off at 19:30EST, so we headed down early Saturday morning, spend the night after the game, and then came back to NC on Sunday.

While titled “Atlanta”, this post will actually cover a bit more, including the other two ASU Football-related trips.

North & South

No, I’m not talking about the 1855 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. Here are a few pictures of our previous football-related trips to the Universities of North and South Carolina.

Chapel Hill, NC

Victory

We got some great food in the Triangle – especially breakfast at Guglhupf Bakery in Durham.

Three Bulls Steakhouse in Clemmons

Time Out in Chapel Hill

Guglhupf Bakery

Durham, NC

Tender, moist pastries with just the right amount of sweetness.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Columbia, SC

Dinner at The Improper Pig in Fort Mill, SC

ASU vs South Carolina 2019

The Improper Pig

Fort Mill, SC

Solid barbecue with delicious sides – worth trying.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Congaree National Park

While in Columbia, Dad and I stopped at Congaree National Park, checking another item off the bucket list of visiting all 61 National Parks. Congaree is quite obscure, and for good reason: most of the park is only accessible by kayak during high-water. The park is largely old growth forest in the floodplain of the Congaree River, with swampland, oxbow lakes, and incredible biodiversity.

We walked the Boardwalk Loop, a 2.3-mile boardwalk that circles through the forest above the 6-feet-deep mud.

Atlanta

Finally, we get back to the titled purpose of this post: our trip to Atlanta.

Trevor and I left Granite Falls around 07:00 Saturday morning, picked up Payne in Shelby, stopped for coffee and pastries at Hannah’s Coffee House, and then hit the road bound for Hotlanta. Thankfully, the high is only 56° for the weekend.

Hannah’s Coffee House

Chick-fil-A Dwarf House Grill

Our first stop in Atlanta was the Dwarf House Chick-fil-A in Hapeville, GA. This was the original restaurant, called the Dwarf Grill because it was so small. Half the restaurant is a traditional Chick-fil-A, and half is a tribute to the original diner-style food. You can get several menu items that have long disappeared from Chick-fil-A menus, including lemon icebox pie, carrot and raisin salad, and chicken salad. Unfortunately, the brownies seem to be gone for good.

Alongside some current menu items, we got a ribeye, burger, corn muffins, fried okra, and a slice of lemon pie and a fried peach pie for dessert.

After lunch, we went to our hotel in Buckhead, browsed a lot of stuff we’ll never be able to afford at Lenox Square Mall to kill some time, and then drove down to the game.

App State @ Georgia STate

Before it was demolished in November 2017, the Georgia Dome hosted Georgia State football.

Georgia State then purchased Turner Field, which formerly housed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and the Atlanta Braves.

It was interesting to see the stadium’s transformation. The layout was a bit odd, but overall it was very nice. The crowd was probably 75% black and gold. ASU travels extremely well, and easily filled up one half of the stadium.

As always, it was a great day to be a Mountaineer. After struggling at the beginning of the game, the Apps mounted a comeback and handled Georgia State easily, winning 56-27.

Food Food Food

During the game, we split a couple gyros from a Greek food truck parked inside. Afterwards, we were rather hungry, so we went about the rather difficult task of finding somewhere good (and safe) to eat at 23:30.

Apparently, The Cheesecake Factory is open till almost 01:00, so we went back to Lenox Square Mall to get a quick bite. We split some appetizers: Brussels sprouts, potstickers, and Buffalo chicken blasters; we each got a piece of cheesecake as well. They were out of my favorite, the classic strawberry, but I got lemon raspberry, an acceptable substitute.

I’ll also throw in this cranberry-orange muffin from Hannah’s Coffee House in Shelby from early Saturday morning (somewhere above).

Potstickers

Cowpens National Battlefield

We stopped in Greenville on the way home to grab some lunch and do a little Christmas shopping. After a quick lunch at Whole Foods’ deli, we soon returned to I-85 to continue our journey home. Unfortunately, yet unsurprisingly, traffic was backed up on the interstate for miles due to a wreck, so we looked for an alternate route.

We ended up on US-221-Alt somewhere east of Chesnee, and happened upon Cowpens National Battlefield, part of the National Park Service. We stopped to drive the park loop and browsed the museum for a while before continuing back towards Shelby.

Cowpens National Battlefield

Cowpens was one of the most memorable battles of the American Revolution, and was a notable defeat of Banastre Tarleton.

Conclusion

That’s all for this round of travels! I’m hoping to plan another trip for Faith and me soon, so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading!

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Day 5: Olympic Peninsula

Isaac Church — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 18:12:24 +0000

Day 5 of our journeys started early. After a quick, small breakfast from the hotel lobby, we hit the road for the Olympic Peninsula, the northwest corner of Washington State. We would spend our entire day in Olympic National Park/National Forest. I think we all agreed that this has been our favorite day so far, and it’s hard to top British Columbia.

Hotel Sunrise

Seagull in Tacoma

Sunrise from our hotel this morning

Tacoma train

Today's destination in the distance

Quinault Rain Forest // Lake Quinault

Our first stop was the Quinault Rain Forest, which surrounds Lake Quinault in the southeast corner of the park. The Shore Road loops 18 miles around the lake, featuring spectacular views, two waterfalls—the first of which was especially amazing, elk farms, several viewpoints, and lots of moss-covered trees and other flora unique to the rain forest.

North Shore Road

Olympic National Park

Merriman Falls

Bunch Falls

Merriman Falls

Olympic National Forest

South Beach

We left Quinault and headed towards the Pacific coast, stopping at South Beach Campground to see the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time Mom and I had seen the true Pacific, since everything else this trip was technically either Puget Sound or the Straight of Georgia. The views were beautiful, even though it was a hazy day. Dad and I climbed our way down to the beach (literally, climbed because there were so many logs in the way) and took a few pictures, then we returned to the car.

South Beach

Mom took this picture while we were on the beach

South Beach

Big Red Cedar Tree

While driving down Highway 101, we saw a sign that said “Big Red Cedar Tree”, so we veered off our intended course, curious to see what the big deal was. It was indeed an extremely big red cedar tree, and probably the largest tree I’ve ever seen. It was an amazing sight to behold. Part of tree had fallen down, but the rest was still growing strong. It’s hard to describe how big it actually was. I bet you could fit 20 people, or maybe even more, in its circumference. The pictures can’t begin to show the scale of it.

Olympic National Park

Big Red Cedar Tree

Lunch - Kalaloch Lodge

It turns out that when you’re in the middle of nowhere in Washington, you don’t exactly have a lot of food choices. However, there happened to be one restaurant within a 70-mile radius that was open, and that happened to be a few miles down the road from South Beach. We stopped at Creekside Restaurant for lunch, which is housed at the Kalaloch Lodge, which is right on the mouth of a river, where it empties into the ocean. The restaurant had almost no business because it’s the offseason for tourists, and we were the first customers, so we got the prime table with a beautiful view of the river and ocean.

The view wasn’t the only thing that was beautiful. All our food was outstanding, and the most high-quality meal I’ve eaten in the middle of nowhere. I got a salmon BLT with a dill cream cheese spread on olive rosemary bread, and a small roasted winter squash salad with toasted spiced hazelnuts, feta cheese, and an apple cider cinnamon vinegarette. Mom got fish and chips, and a slightly larger version of the same salad. Dad got an elk burger from one of the farms we’d just seen, with a smoked jalepeño-bacon aioli and marionberry jam.

Kalaloch Lodge

Lunchtime view

Kalaloch Lodge

Creekside at Kalaloch Lodge

Forks, WA

Good food with an amazing view, and some nice local items on the menu.

* – Would definitely visit again

** – Exceptional, must visit if you’re in the area

*** – Worth making a special trip to eat there

For more info on food ratings, click here.

Tree of Life

Right after lunch, we left the lodge and headed a few more miles down the road to the Tree of Life. There is an opening in the rock where a small stream flows into the ocean, and a tree has grown completely over the top of the opening to form a cave. It’s a very unique sight, and was interesting to walk inside. Getting down to the beach was extremely difficult because much of the access had washed out in a recent storm.

Tree of Life

Ruby Beach

Our next stop was the famous Ruby Beach. I’d seen this dozens of times in photographs, and on the cover of Backpacker magazine, but nothing could quite do it justice.

Ruby Beach

Hoh Rain Forest

Next, we headed inland to the Hoh Rain Forest. This park of the National Park has many moss covered trees, excellent views of the the Olympic mountain range, the “Hall of Mosses”, and more. We walked a few of the nature trails, and even ran into a few wild elk roaming straight though the middle of the park! The park visitor’s center was closed for the season, so the park was relatively uncrowded.

Hoh Rain Forest

Hall of Mosses

Hoh River

The river will remain relatively low until the snow melts

Hoh River

Crescent Lake

On our way out, we swung by a tiny local supply store to pick up some t-shirts and a refrigerator magnet for my collection, then headed to the north side of the peninsula. We stopped briefly at Crescent Lake to enjoy the view of the mountains, and then headed to Port Angeles to seek out dinner.

Crescent Lake

Dinner - Gordy's

We ended up stopping at a pizza place called Gordy’s, and ordered a specialty pizza with Canadian bacon, Italian sausage, pineapple, and pizza and barbecue sauce. It was good but not great, but was quick and cheap, so we could get back on the road again to our hotel in Tacoma.

Gordy’s

Conclusion

After a quick pit stop at Walmart to replenish a few supplies, we finally headed back to our hotel in Tacoma for the night, arriving late.

Tomorrow, it’s supposed to rain for the fist time on our trip, surprisingly, and we’re not really sure yet what we’re going to do.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Olympic National Park

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