A Football Weekend

Just got back from a mini-weekend to celebrate my wedding anniversary and attend the football season opener of the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. Nothing gets better than this…a beautiful weekend with someone you love, an actual cool fall day and the dawgs playing between the hedges!

Our trip started on Friday and our first stop was historic Social Circle on I-20 east of Atlanta to have lunch at The Blue Willow Inn. Now if you have never stopped at this famous way station, you are in for a treat, and you’d better bring your appetite. The Blue Willow Inn has won numerous accolades as one of the best “all you can eat” restaurants in the nation. The fried green tomatoes are fabulous as well as the desserts. After eating you can walk off some calories by enjoying the gardens and visiting the gift shop.

Leaving Social Circle we traveled a short distance to one of the loveliest small towns in all of America – Madison.  Known for its antebellum homes and as the “town too pretty for Sherman to burn,” Madison is a great place for a getaway. Friday night we stayed at The James Madison Inn in downtown Madison. If you are celebrating a special event, like an anniversary, this luxury inn is a wonderful place to stay. It is a little pricey but we decided one pampered night here was better than two nights at a more moderately priced motel. The inn is charming, comfortable and convenient to the downtown historic district.  The rooms are

spacious and luxurious and the staff is very accommodating. The Inn has 17 guest rooms and two suites, each named for one of the historic homes of Madison. Our room was called the Edmund Walker Town Home Room, named after the Edmund Walker Home built in 1838 in the Plantation Plain style. Later in the day, we walked over to Academy Street to see the real home.

We spent the afternoon wandering around Madison’s historic downtown district and shopping in the huge 20,000 sq foot Madison Market, filled with antiques, art and collectibles. We stopped at the Welcome Center to get brochures to take a self-guided tour of the antebellum and Victorian homes and the historic cemeteries that are the resting place of prominent citizens as well as unknown Confederate soldiers.

We chose to stay in Madison not only because of its charm but its proximity to Athens. Less than 30 miles away,

Athens beckoned us on Friday evening. We stopped along the way at Thomas Orchards, a well-known plant nursery and orchard near Watkinsville. Peaches and plants were on sale! It was fun to people-watch in Athens on Friday evening as the hoards began arriving in preparation for Saturday’s football game. Downtown was jumping and alumni were everywhere taking nostalgic walks around lovely north campus. Later we headed back to Madison and the James Madison Inn for the night.

Early Saturday morning, after a scrumptious breakfast at the inn, we said good-bye to Madison and followed a long line of UGA fans heading for a noon game in Athens. Georgia played Louisiana-Lafayette and won handily. Our new quarterback and new defensive scheme looked great and everyone was pleased with the results of the day.

Tired but happy, we headed back home to Peachtree City to enjoy the rest of the Labor Day weekend. If you are looking for charming places to visit, filled with great shops, restaurants and beautiful gardens, check out Social Circle, Madison and Athens.