13 Fun (Free) Things to Do This Summer in Atlanta

May 29, 2008 By 7 Comments


This week edition of my Thursday Thirteen is up a bit late. But better late than never..

Here are list of things you can do with your kids during Summer for free or very affordable in and around Atlanta area.. or even other states. Since we can’t just live by the beach all Summer long.. :)

1) Free Family Films Festival @ Regal Cinemas – Check out Regal Cinema for your local theatre for a free kids friendly movie all Summer long. Movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday from Jun to July.

2) $1.00 Movies for Charity with AMC Summer MovieCamp – It’s not free but it’s for a good cause. For a dollar, you get to watch movie with your kids at AMC theatre. Their shows are on Wednesday at 10AM. Check AMC website for your local participation theatre.

3) Free Family Films @ Movies 400 – This one is closer to home. It’s in Cumming area. Every Tuesday & Thursday at 10AM all Summer long you can watch free movies with your kids. You can also get good discount during the show for $1 popcorn and $1 drink. Or bring a can of food to support their food drive and receive a free popcorn. Check Movies 400 site for schedule.

4) Free VBS class at your local church for one week – Check out Lifeway VBS Outrigger Island program for the free one week VBS program at your local church

5) Go to your library – Most library will have Summer reading program with story telling. At Forsyth county, they offer a program every Thursday at 10AM and 1:30PM and also every Saturday at 5PM and 6PM (for some of the week). Check out the website for event of the day.

6) Swimming at your local park – We live not too far from Gwinnett county. I have to say I’m impressed with their Park and Recreation area. The aquatic center there is a little water park by itself without the same cost of the high price water park. We did it recently and will be going back there again all Summer long.

7) Pick your own strawberry – It’s the season of picking berries. Check out this site for your local pick-your-own farm. The Washington Farm that we went was fun and we wouldn’t mind going back there again.

8) Fishing at Rainbow Ranch Trout – I have never been there but got the information from my friend. I drive pass by it all the time. It looks like a fun day out. There are picnic tables that you can enjoy your lunch and a little fishing. Your kids won’t be disappointed as fish there is quick to bite the bait. Check out their website for direction and pricing.

9) Dairy Tour at Mayfield Dairy Farm – For a short drive go to Braselton, GA to tour the milk operation. But if you are an ice cream lover, you might want to check out their Athens, TN location. Check out here for direction.

10) Hiking to the Amicalola Falls – Just a short drive from downtown Atlanta and even shorter drive from my house. I haven’t been back since last year to see if the water has come back yet. But the trail is easy enough and there are several entry points to accomodate different level of hikers. Then you can enjoy a picnic at the park or drive up for a lunch buffet at the lodge.

11) Water Tubing in Helen – With less than 2 hours drive from Atlanta, it’s the perfect day trip for a quick change of scenary and fun summer day. The water tubing is one thing that we didn’t get a chance to try when we went there recently. This Summer it’s high on our to-do list.

12) Picnic in your backyard – Pack things up and trek back to your own backyard and enjoy a nice day out in the backyard.

13) Visit Miniature Petting Zoo @ Tanglewood Farm – Kids will love to see over 100 miniature farm animals and enjoy the trip back to the past. Located in Cherokee county it’s a fun day out for the whole family. Visit their website for more detail.

Filed Under: Day/Weekend Trips, Family

Carnival Cruise – Day 2 – Fun Day @ Sea

May 29, 2008 By 1 Comment

This day was a fun day at sea. It was a day to explore and totally relax. Lots of you guys should try this sometimes on your vacation. DO NOTHING. It’s really enjoyable and addictive. We woke up not so early today. I decided last night to order room service for breakfast. It wasn’t such a good idea. Our family needs meat for breakfast and continental breakfast from the room service didn’t have any eggs or bacon.

After breakfast we made our way to the Camp Carnival. We didn’t get a chance to register the kids yesterday. The registration process was fairly simple. They gave you a cellphone that we would keep for the entire week and we would need to show that whenver we pick them up. Off they went… At last.. Time alone..

Mr. Rojo and I looked at each other with disbelief. We were alone. What were we gonna do by ourselves. First stop, we checked out the casino. It’s one of the to-do list for Mr. Rojo. Being New Jersey boy, he had spent countless hours during his college years in Atlantic City. So casino was one of the pro for the Carnival cruise over Disney for him. I walked around and tried to play some slot machine but they looked too confusing to me. Plus the smoke was unbearable for me. So we decided to take a quick nap. Then it was lunch time and we picked the munchkins up from the camp carnival. I anxiously waited to hear the verdict from them…. They LOVED it!

After lunch, we walked around and checked out other areas like the gift shop. It’s nothing much just a typical gift shop. I was hoping for more stuff. But I guess I should be thankful. :) Otherwise, our expense might get even higher. I spot the ornament that I will get later for my collection. Checked one off from my list.

Then we headed back to Camp Carnival for a build-a-bear workshop. It was a family activity that we got to do with them. This wasn’t a Build-A-Bear company but a Carnival version. You bought a bear and a set of outfit. Then they gave you an extra Carnival outfit. Then you stuff the animal with your kids. Mr. Z picked a fireman outfit for his pal. He named him ..whatelse.. Thomas. Miss J picked a girl sailor outfit and named her Faley. I have no idea where she got that name from. But it’s cute name. After the workshop, we dropped them off there for another hour. Then we promised them the pool time afterward.

The Pool… hmm.. Don’t expect the Olympic pool size here. There are 3 pools on Lido deck. It’s not fancy pool. I think the time to go to the pool is also important and should be taken into consideration. After a few days we noticed that the pool in the morning had more kids and less rowdy. The afternoon time in the pool could be rather rowdy from adults who had worst behavior than kids. They enjoyed the whole afternoon with some break of frozen yogurt.. Oh… The frozen yogurt… We lived on them for the whole week. Now we are going through the withdraw phase of frozen yogurt. It’s that good!
Then it was dinner time. Tonight was a formal night. So Mr. Rojo needed to run to self-service laundry room for a quick ironing. We didn’t know about all the different props Carnival setup in the Lobby deck and Promenade deck. Maybe it’s a good thing! That’s how you ended up spend your child college fund from cruising. Each picture can cost up to $20. And sometime you are so into a moment that you forgot to even ask how much till they ring up the total. We almost made that mistake..

I didn’t want to bore everyone to death with what we eat every single night on the cruise. But tonight was special night. It was Lobster night. My poor husband now allergics to shell fish. He loved to eat lobsters. We think his quota for lobsters in this life is up. He has consumed all the lobsters allowed for life so no more. NO LOBSTER FOR YOU!.. Well, being a good wife I couldn’t NOT order lobster. I just wanted him to know that he didn’t miss out much. And I wasn’t exaggerated. The dish looked good but the taste was so salty even my can-eat-anything-and-everything taste bud couldn’t stand it. So I was only ordered one dish. No repeat for lobster like I was originally planned.

After dinner, it was nice to get back to the room that had been clean up before bed. That’s one of the thing that I will miss the most. Better service than a hotel in my humble opinion. They clean up your room twice a day. Plus we loved to see what animal will make its way to our room.

We were too wiped out to even venture out for the show that night. That’s one thing that we didn’t take advantage of that much, the nightly show… You can call me snob but I just didn’t feel like watching it after seeing Disney production on Disney Cruise. I’m sure it will be a great show. But sometimes and somehow I rather sleep in.. It’s my vacation.. so I can do what I want, right?
Filed Under: Adventures & Vacation, Carnival Cruise, Cruising, Travel in Caribbean

Wordless Wednesday – Caribbean Paradise

May 28, 2008 By 3 Comments

I’m still in the vacationing mode even though we have been back for a few days now. It’s just the kind of feeling that I would love to treasure it as long as it lasts.

Check out other WW participants here.

Filed Under: Beaches, Mexico, Travel in Caribbean

Carnival Cruise – Day 1 – Port of Miami

May 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Good morning, Miami.. We got up real early today and drove down to see our friend who generously (with no choice) agreed to let us park our car at their house and drove us to the port. Once we got to their house, we spent about an hour talking and catching up. Then off we went.

We got to the port right around 10:30am. The security check-in was painless. We got through within 10 mins. Then we went up to the terminal and checked-in at the Carnival counter. I already did all my paperwork online (Fun Pass and register for Sail & Sign). So basically, I just handed them our passports and 2 minutes later we were done. We got our boarding group # at number 4. Mr. Rojo thought we should have been here earlier and we might get group #1. Oh! well, I think it’s good enough.

We waited around in the terminal for about an hour. The kids were running around and enjoyed the excitement of the cruise. By 11:45am, they started to board the VIP and wedding group. Then the boarding continued. I have to say it was fairly easy and I’m glad we decided to follow one of Mr. Rojo’s coworker to get there early. We boarded the ship by noon. Perfect time for lunch!!!

Once we got on the ship, we headed to our stateroom just to see where it is and see if we will be in luck to put our carry-on there. We found it but no such luck on the room to be ready yet. No problem. We were on Verandah deck just one floor down from the Lido deck which is the restaurant and pool deck. What a perfect location! We headed there and found a table by the window. A quick lunch and our vacation was officially begun.

After lunch, we just wandered around to get a hang of the ship and location of different places like Children playroom aka Camp Carnival. My first impression was not good. The room looks much smaller than Disney. But I promised myself that I won’t compare the cruise. Otherwise, it will ruin my fun. So I gave it a benefit of the doubt and would wait and see how the kids took it.

Before we could sail, everyone had to attend the drill. Our room was assigned to Muster Station G. Note to any future cruisers, looked at the sign on the boat. It will point you to which direction you have to go for your Muster Station. Well, we didn’t. So we walked all the way to the front of the ship and found that our station was in the back right on top of our room. Duh!!

After the drill, we headed back and went up to the Lido deck for the sail away.. Woo hoo!! Bye bye Miami.. See you in a few days..

Then we just enjoyed the view at the back of the ship. This soon would be our favorite spot to just sit there and relax. Our luggages hadn’t arrived yet and it was time for dinner already. So we just headed there without changing.

We had early sitting in Pacific Dining room. Our servers were from Indonesia and Phillippines. They were very nice. The food was ok. Nothing to write home about.. Really.. I’m not a picky person. I can pretty much eat everything. But these are not something that are memorable in my opinion. But on the flip side, if you don’t like what you have, just ask for different dish. That’s the beauty of cruising. I always ordered a couple starters to try it out.

By the time we got to our room after dinner, the luggages were there. So I started to unpack and put everything away. After shower, we were too tired to even wander out. We went to bed at 9pm!!! We asked our steward to setup the room with 2 twin beds and 2 bunks. But we quickly found that it wasn’t a good setting. So the next day we asked him to change it to one king bed. By the way, the bed does feel comfortable here.

OH.. as far as the ship itself. I will have a separate review later on what my thoughts are on this ship.. To be continued…
Filed Under: Adventures & Vacation, Carnival Cruise, Cruising, Travel in Caribbean

Carnival Cruise – Day 0

May 27, 2008 By 1 Comment

We started our vacation one day earlier than the cruise. We traveled down to Florida on Saturday. It’s much cheaper to drive than to fly 4 people. We headed out around 8am and stopped to get our most important food for our trip – Dunkin Donuts. I hope to use donuts as my bribing chips.

The drive was very pleasant and we made a really good time. We got into one hitch when we ignored the advice of our faithful friend -Miss Magellen. There was a big traffic backup in downtown due to contruction. So you can guess next time we will follow her direction faithfully. Mr. Rojo took up most of the drive on this trip. I took the driver seat for about 3 hours and Mr. Rojo took care of it the rest of the way. What a big change a couple years ago. :)

We got into Florida state line by 1pm so we should arrive at our destination by 6pm. Right in time for dinner. We have driven from Atlanta to Florida for several times but we never stopped at the Florida Visitor Center. I have to say I was impressed. It was nice, clean and well organized. There was even free juice for travelers. A little break helped the kids to be able to hold up on a drive fairly well.

One thing I know for sure was that we can’t make it without our portable DVD player. It’s the best invention for modern day travelers with kids. I think they watched about 5 movies in all and it helped with the fighting and boredom. I also packed a few snacks and drinks so that we didn’t have to stop for drinks and snacks all the time. Food is always a good choice when they started to get fiesty. Also break time for them to spend their energy half way of the trip is always a good idea.

Once in Florida, we arranged to have dinner with a few friends. Florida was like a home away from home for us. We still have so many friends there. It was nice to meet them and catch. Maybe next cruise we can do it together with them. Dinner lasted a lot longer than we planned. We closed the restaurant at 11pm. We headed back to our friend’s home where we stayed for the night. Tomorrow we had to wake up early to drive down to Miami at 7am.. Hope we could wake up!

Filed Under: Adventures & Vacation, Carnival Cruise, Cruising, Travel in North America

Back from Paradise

May 26, 2008 By 2 Comments

We are back! Sorry if I haven’t updated the blog for over the week. We were just so busy enjoying our cruise. Plus I’m too cheap to pay for internet access to update on the ship. :) There will be more posts in detail of our cruise. The kids absolutely loved it!! We survived 7 nights together so now we are starting to look at the next one.

Can you tell how much we love cruising?
Filed Under: Adventures & Vacation, Cruising

Cruising on the Blogosphere

May 13, 2008 By 1 Comment

I want to post the Carnival Round up for this week that I have been honored to be part of.. It’s fun to get to read other bloggers’ posts and find new blogs. Come on.. kick off your shoes, get your coffee and enjoy reading!

Carnival of Travel Guide – Join Travel Hacker for another edition of Carnival of Travel Guide.

Carnival of Personal Finance – This edition is hosted at Money Under 30 with a lot of great posts.. You will learn a thing or two from this carnival.

Money Hack Carnival – This edition is hosted at Save and Conquer. Learn about personal finance ebbs and flows throughout our lives.

Mom’s Blogging Carnival – This edition is hosted at Mrs Nespy’s World. Read and learn from mommy bloggers from around the blogsphere.

Carnival of Family Life – Enjoy this edition at Write From Karen. With various topics ranging from Family Finance, Family Health to Family Humor.

Carnival of Cities – From the Bridge of San Francisco to the Shores of Mangalore at Leslie Carbone.

Carnival of Tips – Check out .. whatelse but a blog full of tips at Tip Diva and a whole caravan of the carnival..

Festival of Frugality – Join Four Pillars as we learn to save some money like the riches do.

Filed Under: Saving

Water Park in My Neck of the Wood

May 12, 2008 By 1 Comment

We are going to our vacation in a few days… Woo hoo!! One would ask why do we need to go to a water park. Truth is we want to test our new underwater camera and also our snorkeling masks. Well, we got to test our camera but they don’t allow snorkel in the pool. So I guess we will test our masks in our tub then.

Since we are not officially in Summer yet, most of the pools are still closed. Fortunately, there are several in-door pool facilities (mostly in Gwinnett county) that have year round swimming pool. I have heard so much about Bogan Aquatic Center. This park is not too far from us. It’s in Buford and has indoor water park. Of course, you can’t compare with Disney Typhoon Lagoon but for $4 per child and $5 per adult I think it’s one of the best park for the price.

There is a playground structure in the kiddie pool area. It was a really fun structure. There is a small slide, a tunnel and various wheels for them to turn on and turn off the water. The water also falls from the roof of the structure. I’m gonna tell you a big secret here.. It’s the best massage in town. Just make sure you don’t ‘ohhhh… ahhh’ too loud. Otherwise, the lifeguard might escort you out for imappropriate behavior..

Don’t worry big kids, there is a big slide and lazy river for you to enjoy. Mr. Rojo is one of the big kid who isn’t afraid to try it out. He enjoyed not once but twice on that ride.. His excuse was that he wanted to try out the video capturing during the ride. He sure did capture it.. I would show it if I can figure out how to post it here.. :)

We spent a couple hours there but I’m sure if I packed lunch and dinner.. we will be there all day. The nice thing about this park is that there is an outdoor picnic area that you can enjoy your break throughout the day. The facility is nice and clean.. Miss J and Mr. Z can’t wait to go back. So I guess you can tell where we will be during hot Summer day…

Check out Gwinnett County website for more aquatic centers near you here.

The address for Bogan park is
2723 North Bogan Road, Buford 30519

Enjoy your swimming!!!

Filed Under: Activities, Day/Weekend Trips, Family

Pick Your Own Strawberries

May 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Spring time means an abundant supply of Strawberries. My kids love strawberries and I love the idea of picking your own berries. There is a farm about 40 minutes from our house that has Pick-Your-Own strawberries. The Washington Farms are family owned farms. There are 2 locations for their farms. The one that we went to is in Loganville which is a smaller farm near Lawrenceville . Basically, it’s just a strawberries farm for you to pick and that’s it. No gimmick, no fancy other stuffs for you to do. So if you want something more then you might want to head to the one in Watkinsville.

It was a beautiful Saturday for us. Clear sky, not too hot and no rain.. We got there around 10:30am and the parking lot was already packed. I was worried that there won’t be any strawberries left for us to pick. But I was relief to find that there were more than enough for us to enjoy. The process was rather simple. We headed to the booth and pick up our bucket. It costs $8 per bucket and if you have your own bucket to transfer the berries home then that’s it. But if you don’t then you can take the bucket with you for $1. Not bad..

Then we headed out and started picking. At first Miss J and Mr. Z weren’t sure how to do this.. Soon they got a hang of what to pick and how to pick it.. They went to town with the strawberries. Note to self, bring diaper wipe since eating strawberries can be messy for kids (or adults). We did enjoy fresh from the stem strawberries. It was a fun day out indeed!!

If you plan to head out there, make sure to check their website ahead of time or call ahead. This is another one of great low-cost activity to do with your kids.. Get out there and enjoy fresh strawberries!!
Filed Under: Activities, Day/Weekend Trips, Family

Aloha Friday

May 9, 2008 By 11 Comments

I’m down to single digit before my cruise!!! 9 more days…


So I will take it easy today and join Kailani at An Island Life for her Aloha Friday question.

What is the one thing that you must pack for your vacation?

For me, I think I can’t go on my vacation without my digital camera. I love to capture the moment.. sometimes Mr. Rojo probably feels like too much. But I love to look back at those pictures and remembered all those fun and crazy memories we had.

So what about you?

See other particants at Aloha Friday here.

Filed Under: Family

13 Things I do to Save on Vacation

May 9, 2008 By 2 Comments

A late edition for Thursday Thirteen from me today..

I have been very lazy to blog and crazy getting ready for our cruise. So today I want to write about things I did to save for our vacation and things I plan to save during our vacation.

1. Plan vacation during off-peak – I know that not everyone can take their kids out during school year and I’m not at all promoting that. I’m sure my kids would like me to promote that ideas. :) But if your kids are still in Kindergarten like mine, one week before the school break will help a lot. We planned our cruise one week before the end of the school year and was able to save over $500 on the total cruise for a family of 4. The last week of school is pretty much all fun and party. So I don’t think they will miss much. Unless you don’t want to miss school party.

2. Research about your destination – With the current 21st century information-highway, it’s easier than ever to find any information you need from the internet. Heck! You are reading my blog so I’m sure you can google about your destination. Find a forum dedicate to your specific destination. People is really kind out there and they are willing to share their information.

3. Think outside the box – Instead of booking hotel rooms wherever you plan, think about a timeshare rental, a house, or a cabin. Not only you will get a bigger space, you can also cook your own food. A lot of people might argue that they don’t want to cook during their vacaion, but pouring cereal to a bowl with milk isn’t that hard to do.

4. Power of a group – If you have a group of friends that you think can still be your friends after vacationing together, it might be a good idea to plan a vacation together and share the cost of renting a house.

5. Cruising with Guarantee room – This is a controversial one. So I will just base it on my own opinion. I like booking a cruise with Guarantee room. It’s the cheapest room available but you will have a chance of getting upgrade. My first try I get Inside 4G instead of 4A. So even if I don’t get a balcony room, I still get a room on the higher deck than if I would have gotten from booking a specific room.

6. Plan ahead and setup your budget – This is pretty new for me. I normally never thought about how much we will spend during our vacation till we saw the credit card statemet. But this time, I have planned everything. Setting up a budget helps me to find a way to save on the unnecessary expenses.

7. Comparison shopping – This goes without saying.. Like every other kinds of purchases, you must comparison shopping to find the best price. But do keep in mind that with traveling and vacations, you have to compare it Apple to Apple. The cheapest one might not be the best one that suit your family situation. So read all the fine prints!

8. Be a Traveler not a Tourist – The reason most of us travel is to see the world, to experience different cultures and people.. So don’t be afraid to explore and venture out from the tourist trap. If you want to have American food then eat at home.. you don’t need to fly a thousand miles away to eat in McD in Thailand!

9. Using Coupon – Huh? How is it related to vacation you might ask. Using coupon for my grocery shopping has helped me to save on my grocery budget and allow me to add those saving to my vacation fund.

10. Find free things to do – You don’t need to do all the tourist stuff when you visit a city or country. With a little research, you will find that there are a lot of free stuffs you can do in each city. Go to the park, enjoy a picnic by the beach, check out the playground or museum and my favorite.. people watching!

11. Don’t Procrastinate – This is a tough one for me to adapt to. I normally don’t think far enough in advance. After live here long enough, I start to understand the power of advance planning. So if you know where and when you want to go, then put it in motion and start booking it. You normally will get discount for early booking. Unless you can drop everything in a pinch then last minute deal might be your take..

12. Check out your own backyard – Vacation doesn’t have to always be about this expensive trip to Europe.. A day trip to a neighboring state or even city can be the best memory your family create. Check out events and make it a weekend trip.

13. Dig out those Mileages – We all have several mileages accumulating that you have never looked at. Well, now it’s time to dig them out and see what can you redeem from those mileages. It might help pay for your airline tickets, your car rental or your hotel rooms. Don’t let it go stale in your wallet.

So now you have it. My 13 tips to save on your next vacation. What are your tips?

Check out other Thursday Thirteen participants here.

Filed Under: Adventures & Vacation

Coming soon to GA Aquarium…

May 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Georgia Aquarium is one of the world largest aquarium and now it will get even bigger! I have been to the Aquarium a few times since we moved here. But one thing that I feel missing from this aquarium is the dolphin show. I guess they must have heard about this via the grapevine because in 2010 the GA Aquarium will be welcoming a new addition to their already large family.

Check out the detail on this announcement here. I don’t know about you but I’m excited!!!
Filed Under: Travel in North America

Stepping into another whole new world…

May 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

We were busy bees this Saturday. Not only we went to Home Deport Kids Workshop, we also went to the outlet mall, Discover Mills Mall. I love this outlet. There are so many great stores but so little time this trip. At this outlet mall, there is one particular that we have never visited, Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World… It’s a really a whole new kind of store for us. We don’t camp (I’m working on Mr. Rojo everyday on this one). We don’t fish. We don’t hunt. So everything in Bass Outdoor World doesn’t seem to be appealing for us until now. We figured snorkeling is kinda outdoor activity as well. So we went in there to check out some of the snorkeling gears.

I visited Bass in Illinois a really long time ago. The only thing I remembered was we ate Bison burger. Everything else was a blur.. So I was in awe to see this two story waterfall in the middle of the store with Moose and Mountain Lion there. It was neat!!! And we didn’t even half way into the store yet. I can tell that this will be a fun store for the kids to just walk around and check out stuff. It seems to me that there are way more gadgets than in Circuit City.

Towards the end of the store, there is a freshwater fish aquarium with native Georgia fish. It was really neat for the kids to see the fish in the tank. We enjoyed watching different kind of fish swimming by and trying to identify what kind of fish he is. It wasn’t that hard because they have a sign with picture and fish name. It was fun and educational at the same time.

We got to follow the fossil footprints around the store and discover different type of animals displayed all over the store. We would have spent more time there if we didn’t have to rush home for a potluck. So I’m sure that we will be going back there soon.
Filed Under: Activities, Day/Weekend Trips, Family
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