Pig Hunting and an Atlanta Road Trip.

Seth got some much-needed and well-deserved "Army football players hunting for wild pigs and terrorizing the Republic of Texas" time this weekend. 

F+F have been on the road nonstop, so we should have stayed home and done laundry. Instead, a wild road trip transpired and Friday morning found me and four kids in a minivan exploring the iconic and wildly racially inappropriate South of the Border. I have spent most of my life in NC and never stopped. It was a real #bucketlist item.

Rewind. Natalie and I had had the idea a long time ago to make a run to Atlanta to support a girlfriend (and fellow Army officer/ Mom, Kelly Calway) in her Olympic Marathon Trials bid.

Before we knew it, we were both down a husband for the weekend and then Natalie wound up having to work Friday. For some unknown reason but probably it involved wine, I had decided to take the kids + Ryan minivan anyway, with Natalie to follow in a one-way rental after work. 

Which is why Friday before 10am, this was my situation. 

I'm a big believer in roadside attractions, and can't believe that I had never stopped at this paragon of roadside awesomeness. We loved every second and even hit Reptile Lagoon, which I had learned about in a series of billboards. It was seriously the coolest, even though I found myself massively questioning the safety measures and sturdiness of the glass. (As well as virtually all of my life choices, at more than one point.)

Because every good road trip requires lots of random stops, we also explored creeks in central South Carolina,

played Davy Crockett in random state parks,

and visited the long-promised and sadly-flooded  Phinizy Swamp Nature Park, at which we (much to Tommy's chagrin) did not see any alligators.

Olympic Trials Day dawned earlier than anyone was really ready for (Natalie having arrived late and bearing wine), but we tackled MARTA

 

and found our way downtown, where we checked out the scene (the energy was electric and the kids were all in)

 

and killed time on the SkyView ferris wheel

and at the wildly commercialized and horrifyingly-big-hit-with-kids Coca Cola Museum.

Finley taste-tested Coca-Cola products from around the world while Ford made thisface about the prospect,

 

and the odds-on favorite was the ridiculous Coca-Cola bear.

We cheered our little hearts out in brutal conditions at a very cold and windy race

before retreating to the appalling Hard Rock Cafe,

followed by a trip to  the hotel pool. And then had a lovely Virginia-Highlands dinner with the absolutely impressive Kelly, who had finished running only hours prior.

Sunday morning dawned a bright reminder of exactly how much driving we had signed up for this weekend, and we kicked it off with frantic packing and a Ryan-classic Starbucks infusion.

Natalie is a "drive straight through/ pee in your pants" road tripper (unlike yours truly, for whom a 6 hour drive had required 12 hours only 48 hours before), but she acquiesced to a midpoint stop at the magnificent Edventure Children's Museum in Columbia, SC.

It was timed to the minute by the Road Trip Svengali, but well worth it.
This statue contained a three-stories-tall playground which was also a perfectly-scaled rendition of the body's internal organs

plus there was mushing (took this for you, Miss, and note that the kids call Huskies "Togo" now),

hockey,

and real-live TV stations. Among all manner of other things.

We finally, eventually, made it home, after a horrific trip to Chipotle with tired kids. I'm now doing the Sunday night laundry/ food/ clean up shuffle, which has admittedly been made worse by my tendency to try to squeeze every last second out of travel weekends. I can't help it. It's a family weakness.

But it was worth it. We all had a blast, and loved being there for Kelly and reveling in the opportunity to hit up roadside America.

Still, Seth isn't home until tomorrow night and tomorrow is going to kill.

My favorite picture from the road trip is this one. No one was surprised when Finley and M wound up in the creek in 50 degree weather, living their absolute best lives.

And why not?