Something Fun to do in Atlanta

My mother-in-law likes to give her children experiences as gifts more than just things.  Last Christmas, she got Caleb and I an annual membership to Callaway Gardens, and this summer, she got all us kids a tree top experience at Panola State Park, and most recently she got us slots on a game at Mission Escape.

This was all of our first times doing anything like Mission Escape, but we were pretty sure we were going to have a good time.  Each game is an hour spent in a locked room looking for clues that will allow you to solve the mystery and escape the room.  Of course, if there's an emergency or anything goes wrong, there's a staff member available to free the players.  The staff member also is allowed to give out 3 hints, which ended up being invaluable to our team the evening we went.

Fewer than 30% of teams who play actually win and figure out the puzzle.  Once we heard the odds, our collective competitive spirit rose to the occasion.  We really wanted to beat the game!

Each game at Mission Escape allows for ten people to play at a time.  We kids made up eight, and then two others we didn't know, a super cool couple, were also in our game.  Turns out we needed every mind in the room, because there were multiple puzzles that needed to be figured out all at the same time if we were going to make it out in an hour.  There were secrets, surprises, misleads, and super awesome I won't share because I don't want to spoil anything.  Even with the pressure mounting with every passing minute, we had a total blast.  Everything came to a head right before the end of our 60 minutes, when we were sure we were on the last puzzle.  We ended up breaking all the codes we needed and made it out with just under 3 minutes to spare!  Oh the elation!  The adrenaline!  The glory!

I'd highly recommend visiting Mission Escape Atlanta, bringing all your good-natured friends, and checking this out.  Winning the game sure gave us a good time, but I think that even without making it to the end before the hour was up would still be a blast.

Mission Escape plans to release another game soon this summer.  We're planning on making another trip there as soon as it's available.  It's located right near Atlantic Station, which is super convenient as it's right off the connector of I-75 and I-85.  Tickets are $28 each, but especially if you're going to a team building event or just an off the wall, fun experience, it's worth it.  Enjoy!

Our Lovely Visit to the Duluth Food Truck

Our summer is well underway in our corner of Downtown Atlanta.  I've been busy at work (hence the inconsistency here on the blog), the weather's been hot and humid (except for our current lovely and breezy 80 degrees), and we've been eating a lot of BBQ (Caleb recently picked up my dad's old grill).  Even though the blog hasn't been seeing much new content lately, I do still post on Instagram and Twitter often, and I wanted to share one of my favorite evenings of the summer so far.

Your Repsonse to Tragedy

Last night, in a historic Charleston church, nine people were murdered in cold blood.  A small group praying in church.  A stranger joins them then opens fire.  The murderer is white.  The victims were black.

image from Emmanuel AME Church

Last November, I attended Renovation Church's panel discussion on racial tensions in America.  I took copious notes on what the panelists had to say, but there was one topic that is particularly relevant today.  When asked what she wants most from her white sisters, panelist Pamela Stringfield said this.

LeCrae said our society has lost the art of lamenting. We read the stories and hear the news and move on to argue about it. At the end of he say, I don't care how right you are. I want people to care about what's going on, to share thoughts and questions, to say this isn't how it's supposed to be, and to actually cry. I grieve that we are pitted against each other because this is not how it was supposed to be.