Albany, Georgia

Yup, you read that right.  Our next stop was Albany, Georgia.  Have you been there?  Yeah, probably not.

When we were planning our driving route, I knew with the boys we needed to break up the driving into something that was manageable.  A stop on the map that look about the right distance was Albany, Georgia.  I did a little research and it quickly became my top choice for the next stop.

When I told Pat he was definitely a little skeptical.  Although I assured him I was certain it was a perfect stop, there was part of me hoping I hadn't led us astray.  As it turns out, I loved it there.

There were a few things that attracted me to the city.  It is the birth place of Ray Charles.  There is a beautiful monument dedicated to him at a plaza in the park right across from our hotel.  They pipe in his music at a fountain.

There are keyboard benches around the sides of the fountain that the boys loved playing on.  

The Ray Charles Plaza has a playground next to it.  I thought this would be a great way for the boys to get their energy out.  They were loving the playground, but since the mosquitoes were so bad we decided to head back to the hotel pretty quickly and go back to the park in the morning.  But before we left we made a little detour to see the turtle artwork with the boys.  They had a patriotic turtle on a street corner, but unfortunately we didn't stop for a photo.

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but all the above attractions are right at a riverwalk along the Flint River.  The next morning we went out walking on the riverwalk.  We came straight from breakfast and I didn't have my camera with me.  So I took Pat's point and shoot and captured these photos on the riverwalk.  It was gorgeous.  

After walking and enjoying the beautiful morning there, we went over to the Flint Riverquarium.  It is a small scale aquarium based off the river, but it was a great size for the two little boys.  I didn't take any photos there, but if you ever end up in Albany, check it out.  

There is also a park/zoo called "The Parks at Chehaw"in Albany.  Maybe we'll go there on our next trip through, whenever that may be.  

During my research online, I had seen some people talking about the best hot dogs at a place called Jimmies.  It's a cash only type of place.  They steam their hot dogs, and that is a weakness for my hubby. We didn't intend on going to find it, but on our way out of town we spotted it.  Pat convinced us to pick up a few hot dogs for the ride.  While he was in there getting the dogs, there must have been at least 15 other customers going in/coming out--and all at 11:30 a.m.  Pat says they specialize in chili dogs, but we just got the regular ones for the sake of our new car.  They were good hot dogs, although I'll warn you that they were rather bright pink.  It was nice to get a taste of Albany as we left.  These next two shots were from my cell, so pardon me that they aren't the best quality.  

And the last thing about Albany that won me over (although it was doing pretty well before this), was this sign posted right at the park.