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So this past weekend was my Birthday vacation weekend.

Chris told me we were going to his mom’s timeshare for the weekend. He said it was going to be a 12 to 13 hour car trip.

So, Friday came and we packed up and left. 3 hours or so into the drive he said we had to make a quick stop somewhere before we got to the timeshare. I said ok. This was an adventure for me— I was having fun either way!

So 5 hours into the drive, we get to Atlanta and pull into a parking garage under a hotel. I was pretty confused. He said he had to ask about something, so he went in the elevator leading…somewhere.

Soon he returned and told me to come with him. So we go into the hotel, go up the elevator and go to a room. He turned to me and told me to be quiet. He slid the cardkey and we went in. When he shut the door he said, “surprise!”

There was no 12/13 hour cartrip!

So we brought everything upstairs and took a minute to relax. The hotel was between 2 malls. So we went and looked at one of malls. Unfortunately by the time we walked there, the mall was closed, but we looked at the restaurants surrounding it. Everything seemed a little too heavy to eat, so we decided to go to the other mall’s restaurant, Buckhead Pizza Co. It was so so good. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel, got in the car and went to a nearby WalMart (which CLOSED at midnight! Rare sight, nowadays!!) and got the extra things we forgot. We headed back to the hotel to go exploring. On the desk in the hotel room there was a book listing all the amenities of the hotel. It said that there was a whirlpool in the gym, so we went looking for it. Could not find it ANYWHERE. So we went to ask the front desk about it and Chris wanted to know where his bath robe was (since it said online there were supposed to be bath robes in the rooms). Well, no whirlpool and no robes, but the lady at the front desk said she would find some and send them up for us.

We got upstairs and relaxed, waiting for our bathrobes. We found a room service order form and decided to get breakfast. We were gonna be FANCY this weekend lol. So we ordered a (expensive) breakfast platter and split it. We waited and waited, but fell asleep before the robes arrived.

The next morning, still no bathrobes OR breakfast. Chris went downstairs to fix things. He came back up and we finally received our bathrobes and our breakfast. Afterwards we got ready and headed to the mall. One was a two-story mall with a MACY’S! I have finally set foot in a Macy’s and it was….well, it was something. It was really just overwhelming. It was incredibly muggy and hot, so we went back to the room and Chris changed into his awesome new shirt (pics later) and we went to the other mall. What a disappointment lol! Everything was closed lol! So we went back and got ready to go to dinner. We decided to go to Stoney River.

We dressed up very nicely and walked to go eat. When we got there, the “lobby” was crowded and everyone going to get tables had a reservation. So we went and asked for a table (and asked if no reservation was a problem). The hostess asked if we had been there before—Nope! She told us to give her a minute and we stepped to the side. 3 minutes later we are shown to a table. We sat down and our waiter appeared and gave us the entire run-down about the restaurant. We ordered drinks (me a glass of wine and Chris a Spaten Optimator [look it up and drink it]. Very good). Our waiter came back and we both ordered the Top Sirloin. We were served rolls and butter. Oh, my, it was so good. The rolls were incredibly soft and were served with cinnamon/honey butter. They were amazing! Then our steaks were brought out (they did good time). 

Let me talk about Stoney River for a brief moment. Stoney River is known for their “Legendary Steaks”. They are aged for 30 days then rubbed down with their special seasoning, bringing out rosemary, peppercorns, and …..something else lol.

So we got our steaks….They have ruined all other steaks for us….

Those were the most amazing steaks we have ever tasted. Everything they served us was amazing. After we enjoyed and savored our steaks, the waiter came back and said we HAD to have dessert. Of COURSE we’ll have dessert!

He handed us menus and I went straight to the last item: 4 Layer Chocolate Ganache Cake—ORDER’D! Then our waiter brought out the most beastly, massive slice of chocolate cake. It was held together with a STEAK KNIFE. I hadn’t planned on eating much of it, but saving it for later! So we ate a very tiny chunk, drank our shot glasses of milk, packed up the cake and left.

Chris suggested that we just ride around and see if we could find something to do. So we drove around the corner and he said he thought of something we could do. We found a parking lot that charged $10 to park (I was incredibly confused, wouldn’t you?), but they only took cash, which we never have lol. He suggested another parking lot around the corner who took cards. So we drove through the $10 lot to get to the other lot. As we did I saw 2 guys wearing Zelda shirts and a Hylian Crest decal on a car. We turned the corner to go into a huge parking garage and as we turned I saw it:

On the giant digital billboard, “The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses.”

We pulled up to the garage, they didn’t take cards. The attendant said he would stop traffic so we could turn around and get cash. Well, he didn’t. We couldn’t turn around. We went aaaaaaaall the way to the top and still couldn’t turn around. So we parked and went inside (feeling bad about not paying). This whole time, I was tearing up and couldn’t talk.

We got inside and sat down. We were on the balcony rail. Wonderful seats. I really can’t say enough about it.

It was a 4 movement symphony. They started out with a medley of the dungeon music of some of the older games, went on to Kakariko Village, played a few ocarina melodies (which were amazing) then started the 1st movement: The Ocarina of Time. Next was the 2nd movement: The Wind Waker followed by The Twilight Princess. Then they called intermission. Chris (literally) ran to the Toys R Us across the street trying to get cash to pay the attendant.

I stood in line (actually, for 5 minutes, I stood in what I THOUGHT was a line) and then they rang the bell to end intermission…well, that’s what everyone thought. Everyone sat, waiting for the show to begin and Chris came in, sweaty and with drinks! Since everyone ran back to their seats, the lines were non-existent.

The show started again and for their final movement: A Link to the Past. When they finished, everyone stood, clapped, cheered and screamed. The conductor bowed, presented her symphony and left the stage. Of course no concert ends like that, so she ran back out for an encore!

They played the Gerudo Valley music. They finished, the conductor bowed again and trotted off the stage. Then she ran out and did ANOTHER encore. This time they played Ballad of the Windfish from Link’s Awakening. Conductor-bow-trot off stage-run back on-ANOTHER ENCORE!

This encore was the icing on the cake.

They played a medley of MAJORA’S MASK!

It was AMAZING! I’m still overwhelmed by it!

There are no other words to describe it.

This was the best weekend I have ever had.

Chris then told me he had this planned since November.

I really have the best guy in the world!