Today, I’d like to make one assertion- it’s possible to have a vacation that’s full, relaxing, and a complete disconnect from the daily grind using only three calendar days. I’ve gotten a bit lazy with my vacation planning and have been taking a week off at a time, but from Thursday to Saturday I enjoyed the heck out of the southeast US.
The trip started in the least refreshing way possible, as well. A 5AM flight sounded OK until after I booked it and counted backwards to realize that meant getting up at 2:30 or 3AM. Even worse, our dog was a bit stir crazy and kept us up- all in all we got about two hours of sleep leading into the trip. But the payoff was nice- reaching our destination shortly after 8AM and having a full first day at our destination.
So what was the destination? Short answer- anywhere. Only about a week and a half prior, Christina and I realized we had a few days in a row we could get away, and I checked what flights were available. Flights to/from Atlanta were reasonable, so I nabbed round trip plane tickets and a rental car. Landing in Atlanta, that’s all we had to start with.
My first sketch of a plan involved heading southeast from Atlanta to Savannah, checking out the islands and beaches on the east coast, and then cutting down toward the upper parts of Florida we had never been to. Jacksonville was the last NFL town I had never been to, and this seemed like as good of an opportunity as any to see it.
Our plan blew up around Macon, Georgia. We saw a billboard for the Museum of Aviation at Robins Air Force Base. Christina and I are aviation junkies and headed straight there, spending a few hours checking out the history of aviation with a special focus on the planes and tactics used in World War II. It was fascinating, and even spending several hours, we only saw about half of what the free museum had to offer.
Now south of Macon, Savannah was no longer on the table, and we headed directly toward Jacksonville. We stopped briefly to play the Table for Two escape room at Epic Escape in Valdosta, GA, before grabbing a hotel in Jacksonville.
I’m slowly easing up on my obsession with finding the biggest bargain in hotels everywhere I go. I’ve long been an afficionado of finding a solid $50-$70 hotel room, but with the rough sleep we got leading into the trip, I spent a bit more nabbing a room at a Tru By Hilton – one of our favorite chains ever since stumbling into one in Deadwood, South Dakota. Part of my heart will always yearn for the discount room, but I admit it’s nice not having to wonder if my hotel room will smell like weed.
Day two started with a journey down to St. Augustine, FL. We had a long list of places to explore but ended up spending most of our time at the Mission Nombre De Dios – a church that holds a lot of significance in early American history. The Mission is the site where Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles first landed and settled – fifty years before Jamestown and Plymouth Rock.
We briefly explored downtown St. Augustine, failing at our attempt to get to a homemade popsicle shop in the middle of town. Heading back toward Jacksonville, we played two escape rooms at Game Over Escape, a worldwide chain with locations across the southeast US. We also visited Prototype Escape and played my favorite game of the trip, Dog Days, which was hilarious and the perfect escape room for two travelers missing their dog.
Day three, we started by traveling back down to St. Augustine again in the early morning, followed by slowly working our way up toward Savannah. Once again, Savannah got snubbed, as we detoured in search of the best local peaches (struck out- the gas station stand peaches seemed quite hard) and visiting St. Simon Island in Georgia. In St. Simon, we accidentally turned into the wrong parking lot and found Smallcakes Cupcakery and had to stop. The peach cupcake we got was incredible.
Before leaving St. Simon, we played a Narnia-themed room, the King’s Roar, at Breakout Adventure St. Simon. From St. Simon, we headed to Macon where we stopped at a pub called The Rookery for really good burgers. After dinner in Macon, we headed back to Atlanta to finish our trip.
I blazed through describing a lot of experiences in a sentence or less, but that goes back to my initial assertion- you can do a LOT in three days. Our trip took us on a 900 mile loop around the Atlantic southeast over the course of a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. In spite of that, we were able to get to bed at a reasonable hour, sleep in as long as we wanted, and stop anywhere that struck our fancy.
I’d like to give a special callout to the city of Atlanta as a great base of operations for a road trip. Atlanta itself is a great city to explore (its Aquarium is still one of my favorite places), and spinning an arrow in Atlanta yields something cool for traveling puzzle enthusiasts in any direction. We went southeast this time, but east and northeast have some renowned escape rooms and cities like Charleston and Myrtle Beach. North opens up places like Chattanooga, Asheville, and Pigeon Forge. West has places like Birmingham and Huntsville. Even in the summer heat, there’s a lot to love in the south.
Leave a Reply