I have only been to a couple places throughout my 21 years. I have to admit Atlanta was my first real travel trip. Like many other 21st birthday folk, I decided to go on a vacation. Step away from the dreary of Detroit into the city of possibilities. Atlanta was a journey of always being on the go. While also spending countless of dollars in Ubers with bad traffic.
Day 1: Walking 30 minutes to Ponce City Market
My first day began with sitting down at The Flying Biscuit Café . Waiting for these oh so delicious biscuits, a pancake and one sausage. Well, my biscuit actually wasn’t that great and they forgot my sausage but the pancake was quite yummy. I didn’t travel alone, I was with one of my friends. My cousin lives in Atlanta and suggests this tourist attraction to us. This place actually became a highlight of our trip, Ponce City Market.
I call it a restaurant, bar mall because that’s the perfect way to sum it up. But before we get into the best part of Ponce City Market, let’s talk about this walk. Being from Detroit, often makes me feel that I am watching over my shoulders. I typically do walk my dog around my neighborhood. I also go on a couple bike rides but I don’t go too far. Moral of the story is I am not too keen on walking around other people’s neighborhoods. Especially ones that I have never been to. It almost feels like I am invading one’s privacy or such. Anyway, Siri sent us on a journey of running around trying to find this travel gem. We ran into doggies, trying to break away from their leashes to get us or sniff us. Snowball must of traveled 600 miles away from with me because a dog literally almost attacked me.
We walked and walked up inclines and it almost felt like we were never going to make it. Until we made it to a main street and saw the Ponce City Market sign. In Atlanta, it’s almost as if all their neighborhoods are mix in one big mess of gentrification. That’s a topic for another day. Except after walking pass white picket fences to homeless men sleeping on a church’s porch it raised a couple brows.
Once we made it to the steps of the building, one thing was calling my name THE BATHROOM. After a disastrous night of having constipation. Plus a little turby turb turbulence on my plane ride , my stomach was not okay. My phone was also dying, we couldn’t fully take Ponce City Market in yet because we were too busy dealing with “personal problems”.
After two hours of resting our little legs, bellies and charging up our phones. We finally decided to tour the market. Just like the 21 year olds we are, we headed right to King of Pops Beach Bar. There we grabbed us some tequila slushees. At first mine was totally disgusting, then I got used to the taste. It became the most delicious drink I have had. I drunk it all and began giggling like a child who’s ate a little too much of candy.
Sadly my friend’s drink ended with half being on the floor and the rest on the table. Eventually we got up and explored more but eventually decided to ditch and come back later.
Since there was a late check-in for the hotel, we still had on our airport outfits. I was ready to change, and needed just a mental break before we did any more festivities.
Night at Skyline Park..failed basketball games
Grabbing some tacos and possibly drinking more tequila was my goal when we got back to Ponce City Market. By the evening, I had freshened up and was ready to start my journey through the night skies of Atlanta.
Ponce City Market not only had a couple floors of beer, food, and overly expensive miscellaneous junk. It also had a roof top filled with carnival games, more food and drinks. It was such a moment and just the cutest little thing you ever wanted to see.
I saw it as a date night spot, but at the time I was single as a Pringle. Oops still is BUT if I had a significant other, I would definitely suggest us going there.
My friend and I played baseball that we terribly sucked at. A basketball shooting game with no way of winning and we even went down a giant slide wearing sacks incorrectly.
Overall I just loved that little tourist spot and suggest everyone to go.
Day 2: Lenox Mall and Henny Moon
Our day two started quite late, we had planned to wake up early. The goal was to go get breakfast like normal travelers, but I think we became jet lagged.
We headed to Lenox Mall on a $16 Uber in silence to gather our thoughts. Despite it being a little late in the morning, we still had just woken up. Once we got to Lenox, we saw Benz, Porsche Trucks and other luxury vehicles. The mall put me in the mind of Somerset which is located in Troy, Michigan.
Once we headed in, we were met with metal detectors and heavy security. It was quite a shock to me but then followed botched Brazilian butt lifts. I didn’t know if we were in a luxury mall or a hot mess of plastic surgery. My friend stopped at the Steve Madden store and went on a shopping spree for about 40 minutes.
I constantly looked at my phone as time wrinkled down. Technically we were supposed to be at the Sugar Factory at 3 p.m. Time is going very fast.
Eventually we went out separate ways to kill time because we also had different stores we wanted to shop in. I scored a new pair of Vans and a cute preppy school girl dress from Forever 21.
Sadly Lenox didn’t include a H&M but there was a Zara. I had never been in there before and wanted to shop there. Since there was a sale going on the line was outrageous, which made me just leave.
Thinking ahead for Saturday night I needed a club dress. I didn’t have anything in my suitcase that was tight, and ready to party in. Went to a boutique that had clothes that resemble fits that almost every Instagram model wears and found two dresses.
After our journey at Lenox we headed to the Sugar Factory. Our Uber went almost all around the town trying to avoid traffic. It definitely made us late to our reservation.
Since we had already ate at the mall, we only got drinks. I did get an appetizer because I didn’t want to drink alcohol on a half empty stomach.
Sugar Factory is quite known for their drinks which feature candy, and dry ice. And comes in a cute round cup like a fish bowl. They also have these gigantic kid friendly milkshakes that have tons of sweets added for the perfect sweet tooth. How did I forget, they also sing happy birthday almost every two seconds .
My appetizer was spinach dip with chips, my tortillas were red, purple and yellow which was quite yucky. There were big blobs of cream cheese in my dip that made absolutely no sense. It felt as if the dip was not completely done.
I settled for the Henny Moon which was one of those fancy drinks with candy, dry ice. Not only was Hennessy included, so was tequila. Being the quite amateur drinker, I didn’t think twice about mixing dark and light liquor. Once my drink came to the table, we waited for the waiter to do his magic ….
It took one swig of my drink to realize I made a bad choice. That would cost me almost about $45. Let’s just say the Henny Moon may be not so great option on the list.
After trying to chug and chug, eventually I gave up. I think the waiter realized that as well, he gave us to go cups. Bad idea
The Sugar Factory wasn’t our only attraction that day, we had plans to visit the Trap Museum afterwards. Which we didn’t expect to wait in line for… quite frankly we were wrong and didn’t research beforehand enough.
Not only did we have to wait in line, we also had to stand in the hot sun and pee while we waited in line… Talk about double trouble.
The line moves at an okay pace but we definitely stood for over 30 minutes. Once we were in, it was exactly what I thought it was going to be one big party place.
After we left the Trap Museum, we headed back to the hotel to plan for the night out my cousin had in mind. Well she suggested us to to meet her at this restaurant… Kabob Land.
I wasn’t too keen on eating at that moment but we headed on to Kabob Land anyway.
The ride there was quite interesting because our Uber driver who was a young male who would not stop making conversation. He told us a story about his previous customers and also pointed out the strange massage parlors on our route. Heavy emphasis on strange.
Once we arrived at Kabob Land, I met with my cousin and she took us to the seats she had for us. We met her friend and then I laid eyes on what I thought was the finest man in the building. He was tall, had dreads sticking up in a bun on his head, light brown skinned and had an arm tattoo. I was fan girling and felt like I could’ve made a move. UNTIL my friend implied I definitely had a certain taste in men.
Okay yes, I do have a thing for tall men with hair. I didn’t really understand where she was going with it. She’s all like, “He literally is a carbon copy of your ex”. My mouth is left agape, once I glanced back over and realized it for myself. After that I sat there in silence and realized there was a man in Kabob Land who literally resembled my ex. Who I often caught myself glancing at because it brought back memories.
The rest of my night in short ended with all of us going to a cigar bar. We ended up being in a section with a man who looked old enough to my grandpa or uncle. Eventually we headed over to a more upbeat club called Suite Lounge where we stood behind the Dj booth for about 10 minutes. We also got hit on by a group of 30 year old men with children.
Overall that was one eventful day and night.
Day 3: Spent $60 but didn’t see Lil Baby
Saturday morning we headed to The Black Hair Experience which was the total Black girl selfie museum heaven. There were different sections where you could take photos in front of affirmations, prop style beauty stores, magazine walls, 90s themed bedroom and more.
I typically enjoyed the 90s themed bedroom because the lighting was the best. My photos came out super cute.
After that we planned to go get some waffles and chicken from Toast On Lenox. We went a little too late because by the time we arrived, the kitchen was about to close. Plus the server told us they weren’t taking any more customers at the time because of a long wait list.
After leaving Toast, we ended up across the street at a more family diner called Roasters and ate hot wings .
My friend had some family affairs to take care so I went along with her for a couple hours.
Back at our hotel room, we began to get dress super early for the party. Oops, totally forgot to explain that. I wanted to experience what an Atlanta party looked like when rappers and other famous folk come out. I decided on going to this after party for a boxing match that happened in Atlanta. The Dome was the venue for the party.
Our Uber dropped us off around 10:30 p.m. When we walked up we noticed not many people were there yet and they were not done setting up. Since we were so early, we didn’t have nowhere to sit. Sadly we just had to stand there in our cute dresses looking dumb with the rest of the early folks.
It took around an hour extra or less to get things ready, so we can go inside. Once we got in another issue arrived when we realized we could not sit down. According to the venue, all the seating aka booths were all paid for. Meaning it left the rest of the party-goers to just stand. I didn’t believe it because the place was huge.
As the night progressed, we got a couple drinks from the bar they were free until 1. Then we met a guy who stole my standing spot against the couch. We talked to him for a couples minute and got $5 to tip for our drinks. The rest of the night progressed with me having to pee about 10 times in a row.
More people began to show up but I definitely did not see Lil Baby. According to his Instagram he did eventually show up. Overall that club is best for large groups to cover booth fees. The best time is definitely later because that is when it gets crowded. Crowded but not hype, no matter how crowded it got people we’re still just standing around.
Oops almost forgot to mention some man stopped me as I walking to my Uber and said, “I like your hair shawty”, in a deep southern accent. It made me chuckle.
Day 4: Juicy Crab is my obession
The last day I felt the feels of having to leave hit me.
My morning consisted of packing back up, and checking out from the hotel. Then heading to a brunch spot which back in Michigan would be like a coney island. We had tickets to the World of Coca-Cola so we headed over there after brunch.
To kill some time before my cousin picked us up to head to the airport. We ended up going to a ferris wheel planted right in the city. It was fun until we went around one too many times.
My cousin met us there and then took us back to the hotel to get our luggages. She drove us to The Juicy Crab where we ended up being near a TJ Maxx, Marshalls and a Ross. In Michigan we have two out of the three but the one missing is Ross for us. I had to go there despite not having much room in my suitcase to really shop anymore. Of course, I found some items and great deals as well.
After my mini shopping trip, we headed over to the restaurant. I ordered a shrimp and crab leg seafood boil which was definitely amazing but quite messy. It took me way too much time once I got to my crab legs because I COULD NOT BREAK THEM. So that trip ended with me having juice and oil all over my hands, white shirt (dumb decision) and somehow in my hair.
The food was SO good though.
Conclusion- Atlanta was very fun!
Overall I really enjoyed my weekend stay and would go again. Here is list of places, I suggest going to and not.
Hotel
Hilton Atlanta – Downtown Atlanta (I give it a 3.5/5)
-Not that clean
Flight
Delta (5/5, great first time flying experience)
To Go
- Ponce City Market
- Slutty Vegan
- Lenox (for experience)
- Trap Museum
- The Black Hair Experience
- Kabob Land (For good karma..)
- The Juicy Crab
- World of Coca-Cola
- King of Pops Beach Bar (Ponce City Market)
- Ross Shopping Store
- Roasters
- Minero Atlanta
- Suite Lounge
Don’t Go
- The Flying Biscuit Café
- The Sugar Factory (Unless you want drinks)
- The Dome Atlanta
Not interested in travel? Check out my latest album review of H.E.R’s debut album.