Mystic Falls

My daughter and I have recently become fans of The Vampire Diaries (TVD). We had such a wonderful girls day out exploring Mystic Falls I thought I would share our experience with you. 

For those who do not already know Mystic Falls is actually located in Covington, GA. My daughter lives in Birmingham. I spent the night with her so we could head out early the following morning. It is a 3 hour drive from her apartment plus we needed to factor in the hour time difference. I must admit, only the thought of Ian Somerhalder could get me out of bed at 3:30 on a raining morning.

We promptly arrive at 9:05. Our scheduled tour is set for 10. We decide to pull into the local Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. I'm not going to lie, we also needed to freshen our makeup. You never know who you might see. Our trip was on a Monday. The previous Friday TVD had actually been filming in the town square. The town itself reminded me of home. Visually just the same in so many ways. As we entered Chick-Fil-A we were immediately welcomed by the friendly staff and several regulars. Two older gentleman took a seat beside us. I found it odd that they didn't immediately recognize us as vampire stalkers. They struck up conversation as to why in town and pointed out some local places on down the road with historical significance. These two guys could have also cared less about vampires. They shared stories of their friends, wives and normal everyday life.  Upon walking out the door I suddenly felt adopted by the town of Covington. I will stop in for breakfast every time I come through town just to visit. 

What had began as a raining morning turned into a cloudy morning. I booked a tour through Vampire Stalkers Mystic Falls Tours. We met up with our tour guide Chloe downtown at the visitors center. I will not break down the entire tour because Chloe does a much better job than I. She knows her stuff. She also has personal experience with the actors, has been a stand in and played as an extra in many episodes. Since filming was done on Friday we missed out on that action. However you never know when you might get lucky. Shout out to TheGilbertHouse for allowing us to take pics with   Mojo on their front porch.  The ability to see these homes in person and the kindness of the neighborhood is amazing. Vampire Stalkers also has a store with many cool items including autographs. Any fan of TVD will absolutely love this tour. Check them out online to shop and book a tour!!  

While we toured the square Chloe pointed out the favorite eating places of the actors. I will be returning  to make sure I try them all. For lunch we decided to try Bradley's BBQ. Super friendly staff. I know you are going to get tired of me saying just how friendly people are, but it is so true! The food was out of this world. I had the vamped up sandwich and my daughter had the pulled chicken sandwich vamped. All I can think of  to say is AWESOME. 

After lunch we had a couple of hours before the Mystic Grill opened for dinner. Now this was a must do on our list. Up until a couple of months ago there was no actual Mystic Grill. It was just an empty building used for filming. We decided to head up the road to Conyers to check out the voodoo shop and some sites used for The Originals. That will be a tour I will take later this summer. We spent an hour in Conyers before returning to downtown Covington. We still had time to spare so we just took in all the charm the town square had to offer. 

The Mystic Grill was well worth the wait. The inside is so beautiful. The first thing you notice is the beauty of the woodwork. Our server Nick was very informative and super sweet. I began with a Vampire Kiss cocktail. It was to die for. My daughter chose to go with the fried pickles as an appetizer. Let me tell you, I don't like pickles. Can't stand them. I pick them off of everything. Well I gave one of these little crispy things a try and fell in love. The dipping sauce was yummy. As of now I will eat pickles but only fried ones from the Mystic Grill. My daughter chose the chicken with garlic potatoes for her main course. I chose the fried meatloaf. The presentation was impeccable. Food was super delicious. We cleaned our plates and moved on to dessert. My daughter claimed she didn't like pecan pie. I talked her into sharing the rum pecan pie with caramel salted ice cream. She liked it. So one of us didn't like pickles, yet ate them here. The other didn't like pecan pie yet ate it here as well. This alone should be enough reason for you to take the time to dine at the Mystic Grill. Our dining experience wasn't over yet. Nick suggested we take a tour of the place since there wasn't a crowd present. We took him up on the offer. A hostess was standing on the second level lounge area. She was more than happy give us a tour. Upstairs is a relaxing waiting area with bar. If you have to wait on your table, you wait in style. Off to the side is a banquet room which has a tv for viewing the TVD ;-) and seats 25 people. The most amazing aspect of this room is the wall. Pictures do not do justice to the beauty. The wall is made up of old recycled doors. At the end of the banquet room there is a little balcony which can be accessed via hallway as well. It overlooks the downstairs bar area. Nice little touch. There is still more to be seen.  Out the door to the roof is the construction of a bar/entertainment area in progress. I personally am looking forward to returning and spending a nice evening relaxing on the roof.  As with everyone else we met in town, we got to know our hostess very well. She was so friendly and personable. I want to take a brief moment to wish her well on graduation this spring and good luck at UG :-)  A trip to the grill wasn't complete without buying a tshirt on our way out the door.  Folks I would drive hours just to go here and dine anytime. 

As we are walking to the car my daughter tells me how much she loves this town. To the extent she is already thinking wedding here then house buying. We discuss how extremely nice and friendly every single person was that we met. It reminded me of a SyFy movie where the town is as sweet as syrup but they are luring you to sacrifice. In the end no sacrifice was necessary to enjoy this pleasant town. We made it out safe and plan to return often :-) 

http://www.mysticfallstours.com

follow @mysticfalls_res on Twitter for cool pics and the dirt going on in MysticFalls

http://bradleysbbq.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mystic-Grill-Restaurant/680471368635114?rf=116247568452988

follow @EyeofNewt68  on Twitter for TheGilbertHouse fun

The Crusty Bellybutton

Just when I think things are going smoothly there is something else. Yesterday we are rushing to get dressed before the bus. I'm sitting on the couch making sure Blake has his shirt on right, pants buttoned the normal drill. I lift his shirt and to my amazement his bellybutton is brown. It reminded me of when the cord comes off a newborn. I had a what the??? moment. I know he's been bathing. In fact he spends too much time in the tub with all his toys. How is this possible that he could have so much crud in his button area???? The terrible parent feeling emerges. There is no time to deal. Bus will be here in three minutes so I send him on out with the promise he is going to scrub his bellybutton when he gets home.

All day long I'm wondering how this could have happened. I even considered googling how to remove dirty crust from little boy's belly button. I never actually did with fear that someone would run across my search history.

Afternoon arrives and we are busy getting ready for scout meeting. Once we finally are settling in at home for bath time I decide that I'm going to use alcohol to swab it first. To my amazement the swab starts turning purple. Another what the moment. At this point Blake starts giggle. I keep swabbing and the "crust" is easily coming off making the swab even more purple. My son finally tells me that it is marker. Relief floods me. He wasn't so dirty that he crusted over. I wasn't a horrible mother who didn't realize her son was filthy. Nothing to be guilty over. I was so elated I could have cared less that he used a marker to color his belly button.

Art Misunderstanding

What mom doesn't love getting artwork brought home from school. My fridge is full of things since Blake started his first day of school. I've always held onto all of my kids creative drawings through the years. I know it can lead to a bunch of clutter, however it is hard to part with the sentimental value.

This past week I open Blake's backpack to find a nice cityscape. He had included tall buildings and short ones. Each labeled things such as Fed Ex, Pizza Hut etc. I praised him on the wonderful job and placed it off to the side of the couch. It remained there until the next morning.

Morning arrives, he is waiting for the school bus. I take another good look before walking over to the fridge. I noticed one of the buildings seemed to be a church. My heart filled with joy as I was so proud that he thought to incorporate a church into his picture. I couldn't quiet make out the name however. The word Hevens was pretty self explanatory or so I thought. What was written above?

I point this out to him and ask. "what is the name of the church?"

"That's not a church. It's Heaven's Massage Parlor".

Yes, my mouth hit the floor. WHAT! A massage parlor. He's seven years old for goodness sake. How in the world does he even know what a massage parlor is much less put the words heavens and massage together. In my mind I'm searching for how to approach this topic without totally ruining his childhood innocence. Not saying that all massage parlors aren't legit but I'm guessing the same mental image might pop into your head as did mine.

I ask where he got the idea of a massage parlor. I was guessing it must be a video game. Frankly the Simpsons one had been my first guess. I do try to monitor his games and stick to the ratings but he does have a few that are rated T or 10 or above. Well, turns out it was a video game but not the Simpson's. It was the action game he had purchased over the weekend. I was so pleased that it had action but not the blood and stuff like that. Obviously I should have paid more attention to some of the buildings the good guy was interacting with or passing by on his missions.

The game mysteriously went missing while he was at school. As a mom I once again had that feeling of failure.

The Flicker

Second grade has started with more issues than expected. My son Blake has never had behavior reports sent home before. Even in kindergarten he very seldom had cards pulled. We are just into October and in comes note number 3 from the teacher. After the first 2 he was warned if another came home he would loose his Xbox for a week.

My first hint something was up should have came when he went straight to sleep after school. When he awakes from his nap I go through his book bag searching for the daily homework and what do I find. Yep, the third note. According to the teacher my sweet little angel "flicked" his pencil at a little girl four feet behind him hitting her on the arm. Also noted, he was not quiet and kept other children from completing their work. I was floored. This is the same child who never got into that sort of trouble at school and now he actually hit another with a pencil. The guilt of motherhood hits me. What if he had actually really hurt the child. It could have been worse and hit her in the eye instead of her arm. I proceed to sit him down for an explanation into why he would do such a thing. His response "she got on my nerves."

I try to gather my motherly instincts to handle the situation properly. I asked the name of the little girl. Once he tells me I have to stifle a laugh. This becomes obvious to him and I feel my mother creditability slipping out the window. See we have had the same girl since Kindergarten in our class. She is a sweet little girl but as a room mother, I hate to say this about another child, but she is in fact a pain. It doesn't negate the fact that what he did was wrong. I explain to him the dangers of "flicking" pencils. He tears up and says he understands. His teacher has explained as well. As the tears fall I send him off to his room.

Did he loose his Xbox for a week? I shamefully admit, no. My understanding of how the little girl could get on his nerves overshadowed my parenting skills.