Many times in my caregiving journey I’ve felt I haven’t spent enough time with our son Matt, Caitlin’s older brother.  Managing the many special needs of Caitlin takes a lot of time and sometimes leaves me feeling like I’ve not given Matt as much attention or quality time as I should.  So I was ecstatic when he and I had a unique opportunity to travel on a short trip together!

In December of 2021, Matt and I traveled to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Georgia.  Matt is a college student and avid sports fan, with football being one of his favorite sports.  He was thrilled when I asked if he wanted to go and immediately said yes!  This was the best time to make this trip since the Michigan State Spartans were playing and my nephew was going to be performing with the marching band!  We were so happy for him and couldn’t wait to watch him perform!  My sister and her family were also going and we looked forward to spending time with them too.

The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is one of the six elite college football playoff games in the United States.  Dedicated college football fans flock to the annual event to watch two of the nation’s top teams challenge each other.  With a ton of pre-game events and activities it’s sure to be a supercharged time.  Downtown Atlanta has a lot to offer so there’s something for everyone to enjoy.      

On Wednesday, Matt and I boarded an early morning direct flight on Spirit airlines from Detroit to Atlanta.  Once in Atlanta, we hopped on the Marta public train system from the airport to our hotel.  It was about a 25 minute train ride to the Peachtree Center station and then from there it was about a 10 minute walk to the Holiday Inn Express on Cone street.  We checked in and had a couple of hours to relax and unpack before we needed to leave to catch the band’s first performance. 

The band was scheduled to perform in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis hotel at 5pm.  We headed out for an early dinner but didn’t quite beat the crowd.  A lot of restaurants and bars were already busy with tourists and football fans.  We went a little off the beaten path and found a small Mexican restaurant called Taqueria on Broad.  It was counter service, had no wait and plenty of open seats…perfect!  Matt had a burrito and I had the chicken nachos, both were delicious and filling. 

The Marriott was a nice 15 minute walk from the restaurant.  We arrived a little past 5pm and the band was starting to play as we rode up the escalator to the mezzanine level of the lobby.  Spartan fans and other travelers were energized as they watched and listened from all levels of the hotel.  The booms of drums and blares of horns echoed from the bottom to to the top floors.  Whether you were a Michigan State Spartan fan or not, you couldn’t help but feel pumped up!  We inched our way to the front of the crowd and managed to get close enough for a picture of my nephew.  The band was on a tight schedule so there was little time to visit with him. It was a great performance!

There was plenty of daylight left and we decided to take a walk through Olympic Park.  The park was busy with tourists and football fans enjoying a beautiful evening in the city.  We walked past  the aquarium and paused for a picture in front of the Olympic rings.  Hard to believe that the Olympics took place there in 1996 and Matt wasn’t even born yet!  Wow, that was a long time ago!  The grounds around Coca-Cola World were decorated for the holidays, all red and white lights of course!  We turned in a little early because we already had a long day of travel and activity.  The next day was going to be super busy and we needed to get some rest. 

Thursday we planned on going to the Peachbowl parade to watch the band but it was cancelled due to rainy weather.  So instead, we went to Coca-Cola World earlier than planned.  Seems as if everyone else had the same idea because the place was packed!  They were restricting the number of people entering the exhibits probably due to the large number of people visiting (in addition to Covid protocols I assumed) which meant that we had to wait in line.  We just went with the flow and still enjoyed the visit despite the heavy crowds.  Matt and I had a good time learning the history and discovering fun facts of this iconic global enterprise.   Here are some highlights from the visit.

Next, we went to the Georgia World Congress convention center for the Chick-fil-A Fanfest to watch the band perform again.  Both the MSU and Pitt bands were in full dress uniform for this Pep Rally performance.  We came ready to cheer with our Spartan signs in each hand!   The bands took turns performing and pumping up their fans.  It was a fun battle of the bands!  There’s a lot to take in at the FanFest.  There were bouncy houses, cornhole games, artists, food and drink vendors, and many other displays to enjoy if you wish.  

We had some time before the start of the game so we stopped at The Food Shoppe for carry out and brought it back to the hotel to eat.  I had read a lot of good Google reviews and was so glad we had the chance to try this Creole style cafe.  It’s a tiny little place so there’s not much room to sit.  The Walk and Eat Bowls are their specialty.  The large size portions are pretty big and I’m glad we had a fridge in the room to keep the leftovers.  I got the Shrimp and Grits and Matt got the Voodoo Jambalaya.  We also got an order of their signature dessert, Angie’s Bread Pudding.  It was all so delicious!

This brings us to Thursday night and finally, game time!  The game took place at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.  It’s within walking distance to the hotel, just like all the other spots we’ve visited during this trip (the Holiday Inn Express is very centrally located)  It was easy to find because all we had to do was follow the huge crowds heading in the same direction!  Ends up there were about 41,000 people in attendance at the game.  We had good seats for the price.  Excellent view of the whole field which was perfect for capturing the marching band formations.  Their performance was so awesome!  The football  game was really exciting.  MSU had a great 4th quarter and pulled off the win in the end.  We weren’t in a rush to get back to the hotel so we stayed thru most of the trophy presentation to avoid the crowds.

On Friday, it was time to go home and we had a 6am flight back to Detroit.  I knew it was going to be a little rough to wake up for this flight but it was the cheapest and best available to get back in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve at home.  The Marta trains don’t run that early in the morning and I wasn’t confident in navigating the bus system so we pre-arranged for an Uber and it worked out great.  I think we only got about 3 hours of sleep and we were exhausted!  But we slept on the plane, got home early enough to catch up on more sleep before bringing in the new year!

Here’s an outline of our itinerary:

Day 1 – Travel from Detroit to Atlanta, check-in/relax at Holiday Inn Express downtown, Dinner at Taqueria on Broad, Band performance at Marriott Marquis, walking tour of Olympic Park

Day 2 – Coca-Cola World, Chick-FilA Fanfest,  Dinner at The Food Shoppe, Chick-Fi-A Peachbowl game

Day 3 – Travel back to Detroit, Happy New Year at home!

That was a short, whirlwind of a trip!  But so worth it to have spent the time making wonderful memories with my son Matt!