A Weekend Away

On Friday, Ashley, Heather and I left to attend the Petfinder.com Adoption Options training in Atlanta. We were fortunate enough to have At Home Pet Sitters sponsor us for the trip, and our friend and volunteer Maari hook us up with a fabulous room at one of the DoubleTree hotels in Atlanta. The trip up was late, but we were greeted with warm cookies to start the night out.

After settling in our room, we headed downstairs to ask about a great place to eat. The guest relations gentleman informed us of a nice little joint called Wild Wing Cafe, to which a woman who had been with us in the elevator for maybe 20 seconds said, "You girls would do well there." Should we have been insulted that she thought we belonged in a bar? Regardless, we went there, having a pretty good idea of the food and atmosphere. I was quite content with my order, but poor Ashley and Heather had to return their Margaritas. Apparently, there was a new mix being used. Perhaps some Savannah bartenders should call up and give them some hints.

After a long drive, we decided to cut out after dinner and head back to the hotel before our morning drive to the seminar Saturday. We got into our jammies, and Ashley headed for the fabulous hotel lotion, which she discovered the next morning was actually hair conditioner. I didn't sleep well, tossing and turning most all night, and morning came quite early.

Saturday was a long day, but very educational. We started out with a great breakfast at the hotel, complete with Southern grits. The drive took us only about 30 minutes, so we were actually early for registration. We settled in our seats, noting that we were the only group in matching attire, all three of us having packed our 2006 Cruise for Critters T-shirts without knowing the others were doing the same. It seemed most of the groups kept to themselves. We made friends with two ladies from Alabama, and an older couple just starting a new rescue in the Atlanta area. I did get to reacquaint myself with Paul Jolley, VP of Petco, and Lynn Katz from Petfinder that I met last year at Adoption Options in Jacksonville, FL. We chatted about some other possibilities for CPR, so that's always a good thing. The other presentations taught us about medicines to use for our rescued pet, how to increase hits for our Petfinder website pages, and how to evaluate and promote Pit Bulls for adoption.

We decided to hang out around Atlanta Saturday evening, which included a terrible meal and service (although fabulous Messy Sundae dessert) at a restaurant across from the hotel. We then ventured to Roswell for what became a private screening of Firehouse Dog since we were the only patrons. We killed time prior to the screening by playing Skeeball for a few. There were so many experiences just withing those two hours that I would have to write an entire other blog post about them.

Sunday, we treated ourselves to sleeping in since we all had pet sitters and haven't known what sleeping in can be like in quite some time. We decided to take a detour home and visit the Georgia Aquarium. What a great experience that was. I had no idea what to expect, and was thoroughly impressed, though I had a difficult time differentiating their version of "rescue" from my version of "dinner."

The trip home was much shorter than going up, but I won't say that our driver had a lead foot. It was all safe and sound, and that's what mattered. Of course, there was so much to be done when I got home, including calling someone over to fix the kennel that Carolina chose to tear apart during my absense.

All in all, it was a great trip, and a much-needed mini vacation.