Tag Archive for: gardens

CALLAWAY GARDENS LODGE AND GARDENS 2024

Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 11/4/24

Callaway Gardens Lodge & Spa

Naturally, it’s Callaway! John and I recently went down to Callaway Gardens to enjoy their Pumpkins at Callaway and got treated to a weekend retreat in their “stay amidst the wonders of nature,” at the Lodge & Spa. It is a majestic mountain lodge with stunning waterfalls, carefully sculpted greenery, lake views, and walkable, relaxing grounds!

You walk up to the Lodge and are greeted with cozy mountain lodge vibes, soaring stone fireplace, and relaxing lounge. It all feels so natural, a rustic lodge, with modern touches! Up in the rooms, large, airy modern rooms open into spacious balconies to take in the beautiful grounds. When you walk in the bathroom is on the left with a walk-in shower, separate soaker tub make it an oasis. The comfy kind bed and seating area in the room is relaxing and you can open the drapes for views!

On the grounds, the Lodge at Callaway has two restaurants, Cason’s Taproom where we enjoyed their seared salmon and delicious cocktails, also the Piedmont Dining room for more formal affairs. They have a large pool and then trails down to Robin Lake Beach. It wasn’t the season to lounge at the beach or we would have!

Also, during our weekend stay at Callaway Resort & Gardens, we got to explore the gardens that come free with your stay! It is a whole world of butterflies to rustic chapels to breathtaking lake views to winding garden paths all in the Gardens at Callaway!

Butterfly Center & Memorial Chapel


Butterfly Center is my favorite spot in the gardens. A perfectly manicured grounds, soaring greenhouse filled with so many butterflies you’re surrounded by them! It’s like a tropical paradise inside. A must do there is to watch the butterflies hatching. My second favorite spot in the gardens is the Memoria Chapel. It is the place to reflect. Stone structure outside leads into a rustic soaring wood ceiling inside then surrounded and encompassed by detailed and beautiful stained glass. The entire building is surrounded by streams and a lake with beautiful yellow lily pads!

Discovery Center & Azalea Bowl

Discovery Center is for those that love learning! They have crawling bugs in one room, history of birds of prey, birding and plant education and more. But the grounds are just stunning, in the center it is all wood surrounded by their twinkling lights and lake views. Plus, they have multiple bridges and wooden walkways to explore the lake. When you get hungry, they have a cafe on site to enjoy a snack. I heard their French fries were really good! If you are looking for a scenic walk, go to the Azalea bowl! Unfortunately, there were no azaleas in bloom, I’d recommend going in Spring! But the walk through the wood was beautiful and they have a waterfall and lots of lake views!

Pioneer Cabin & More


The Pioneer Cabin is a fun quick stop to explore pioneer days. It is on the way to the Butterfly center, check this out! A rustic old cabin with pioneer history, clothing, living and sleeping area all set up like it would have been then! It was very cool to read about how they dropped the loom from the ceiling to sow! We’d recommend reading all of the information about the cabin to get the best experience. There is also the Overlook Azalea Garden we didn’t get to, and the property also has golf, Robin Lake near the Lodge for swimming in season, and Cason’s Garden (which was taken over for pumpkins at Callaway).

Pumpkins at Callaway

Life is gourd at Pumpkins at Callaway! The main reason John and I recently went to Callaway Resort & Gardens is their annual Pumpkins at Callaway. This is one of fall’s can’t miss events, so mark your calendars for next year mid-September through first week of November.

Save this agenda for your Pumpkins at Callaway trip:
Gardens by day:
🌲 Start at the Pumpkin tree for a photo op when the Robin Lake Beach opens for the day!
🛍️ Head into the large, big top for a little shopping, entertainment, and photo ops.
🌌 Take the trolley to Carson’s Garden to see the NEW Harvest Sky art instillation.
🌻 Take a trip through the sunflower field. It is gorgeous and I spent a lot of time watching the bees pollinate.
🎃 Enjoy the Garden of Giants (pumpkin). They are huge!!
🍺 Grab some refreshments from Carson’s Beer & Wine Garden! They have a great Sunflower cocktail and tasty bratwurst and peppers combo meal!
🌽 If you want to do Carsons’s Corn Maze, we recommend doing it at night instead! Now if you have kids, do it now. There are two, one is easier than the other and they have a map. Take a picture of the map!
Go back to Robin Lake Beach as the sunsets for Glow by night:
👻 Watch the Pumpkin tree sing Monster mash, Ghostbusters, and tell jokes! A must do!
🎃 Go through the mesmerizing Foggy Hollow! Hanging lights, carved pumpkins, glow in the dark animals, foggy creeks, and even smoke bubbles! The best experience they have!
⛳️ Enjoy mini golf? Do a round of unFOREgettable glow in the dark course!
🌽 Get back in the trolley to do Carson’s Corn Maze at night. They have pop music and fun lights!

Next up is their amazing Fantasy in Lights. We went last year and loved it!

LOVE, TITO’S BLOCK TO BLOCK AND FOOD WELL ALLIANCE TEAM UP TO REVITALIZE LOCAL GARDEN FOR REFUGEE AND IMMIGRANT GROWERS

Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 8/29/21

Volunteers Needed for Garden Service Project on Friday, September 10, 2021

 

WHO: Love, Tito’s Block to Block program has teamed up with Food Well Alliance to make significant enhancements to Decatur’s Kitchen Garden, a unique garden space in Atlanta for refugee and immigrant growers led by Global Growers Network in collaboration with the City of Decatur. The produce grown at this site reflects the diverse nationalities and agricultural heritage of the area.

WHAT: Outdoor enthusiasts, garden-obsessed, and those who just like to lend a hand, are all needed to take part in a single-day service project, which will include fun hands-on projects like, weeding the herb garden to prepare it for replanting, installing new debris bins around the garden, watering and mulching fruit trees, and more. For community members who are unable to volunteer but still want to get involved, the garden will be holding a garden tool drive and accepting new items like trowels, shovels, gloves, and soil, on the day of the project. These in-kind donations can be brought to Decatur’s Kitchen Garden on the same day as the service project. Sign up to volunteer and/or donate directly to Food Well Alliance below.

 

WHEN: Friday, September 10, 2021, from 8:30 am to 12 pm

 

WHERE: Decatur’s Kitchen Garden – 500 S Columbia Drive, Decatur, GA 30030

Wild Heaven West End and Gardens: FINA, You Had Us at Walking Taco!

Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 9/20/19

Wild Heaven West End and Gardens introduces new beers and in-house fine foods: FINA.

There was a time we had never been to West End, but with the recent trend to open restaurants, bars, and breweries down there, it’s becoming a must visit locale for anyone interested in Atlanta’s food and drink scene. Case and point: Wild Heaven West End and Gardens. Now with their second brewery and internal FINA fine food, you can sit for a drink, grab a bite, and enjoy the gardens and atmosphere this location has to offer. What we enjoyed most was the hospitality, of course, they have great food and great beer, but their moto is Serve Your Neighbor and they take that to heart. Eddie was so personable, and we really got to chat with him about his passion for Wild Heaven’s beer, as well as their new FINA restaurant. Beyond that, nestled next to Monday Night Garage, Boxcar ATL and Hop City, as well as another brewery coming down the road, you could make a day of it. Did someone say day trip?

Let’s start with what Wild Heaven is known for, their beer. They have staples from their Decatur brewery like Eschaton (Liz’s all-time Wild Heaven favorite), Emergency Drinking Beer, Ode to Mercy, and a ton of others, but what Eddie expressed to us was this location was going to be their more exclusive beers, almost like their “lab” to create and try new things. Garden Beer is a good example! While we were there, Westy was one of their exclusive brews, as well as the Garden Beer series in collaboration with the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The first Garden Beer was lemon, this one called Season Two was peach. That was my (Liz’s) favorite beer we had all day. It was one of those you could work in your garden and sip on all day with a light sweetness, but nothing overbearing. With light peach notes, but enough hop back-bone to support it. The other beer, Westy, almost came off with some Granny Smith apple notes, followed by some hop bitterness. It was well-balanced! I (Liz) don’t usually like IPAs but their Wild Monster Double IPA with prickly pear, which makes it red, is one of my favorite IPAs ever! It’s slightly sweet with the pear, but also has a good balance. I’d get any of these again. John’s favorite was Altair IPA. He said it was smooth and drinkable for an IPA. He got two. That tells you something. Solid beers, check!

Before we get to the food, we’d like to share a story Eddie told us about how Eschaton became a staple beer for Wild Heaven. Back in Athens, Eddie mentioned that he and Eric had an underground supper club called the 4-course man. Clever. One of these nights, Eric did an beer dinner and Eschaton was the one that really caught on that night, and these years later, is still being brewed in the original Wild Heaven location. We loved hearing about how it came about, since that is my(Liz’s) favorite Wild Heaven beer!

There are two words you need to know about FINA, Wild Heaven West End’s in-house fine food establishment: Walking Taco. Yes, they have deliciously creamy guacamole, their Al Pastor Mexican Pizza is creamy, dreamy, and loaded with delicious pork, and their pork rinds are crisp with a KILLER salsa. We’ll get to some of that, but we’d like to highlight the Walking Taco. Eddie mentioned that this comes out of Chicago and is all the rage. No one we’ve mentioned it to has ever heard of it, even one of my friends whose boyfriend lives in Chicago, but it’s really going to catch on. Mark our words, this will be a huge deal! Why you ask? Think about this: take a bag of Fritos with all their salty, crispness, and smoosh all that good taco meat, cheese, pico de gallo, onions, cilantro, and sauce into that bag. Grab a spoon. See where we’re going? It’s crispy, crunchy, salty, sweet, creamy, dreamy, spicy all in one place and if we were asked if there was one food you could have every day for the rest of your life, THIS would be it. Plus, it’s only $4. We’re in love.

Beyond the Walking Taco phenom, we really enjoyed the chicken wings. They were crunchy, large, and had a lemon-peppery dry rub that was tangy, salty, sweet, and had a good bite to them. We were told they were brined for 2 days, roasted, and then dried. Yum. Also, the Salsa Macha that they have with their pork rinds is KILLER. Pork rinds tend to be very salty and take-on whatever dip you put with them. That’s the beauty of using them in that way, this sauce was sweet, very spicy on the back, and so rich that it cut through that salt and really left a meat flavor on the tongue. We want to buy this sauce to go on all our meats! Eddie, are you listening? Put it in a bottle? Finally, we’d like to mention they have a wood-burning pizza oven that Eddie said would NOT be used for pizza. We look forward to the future culinary surprises that FINA will offer, and don’t be surprised if something Lebanese or middle eastern comes out of it.

Whew, we’re stuffed and happy until next time.