How Many Bucket List Items Can I Do in One Georgia Weekend?

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CNN, Coca-Cola, Jimmy Carter, Real Housewives of Atlanta, peaches… Georgia is knownGeorgia Weekend for many things, but never adventure. Yet in a condensed area, you can cross off countless bucket list items and find unique adventures around every corner. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it! I’ve planned the ultimate adventure weekend with dream-like activities lined up one after another. In only two days, I will ride in a hot air balloon, perform aerobatic stunts above Atlanta in a biplane, swim with whale sharks, and zip through trees on a canopy tour. My name is Lesley Carter and I am an adventure addict, but I’m not signing up for prevention meetings just yet. My addiction is to life; some people jump off of buildings and bridges to end their life, but I jump off of them to live mine.

“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt

Balloon AtlantaSaturday morning, beginning at 7am, we will take a hot air balloon flight with Balloon Atlanta. (I found them through Great American Days, where you can find more than 6000 amazing experience gifts for every budget, taste, and occasion.) From our lofty perch, we will see Lake Lanier, Stone Mountain, Kennesaw Mountain, the Atlanta skyline, and the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountain ranges.

Biplane Rides Over Atlanta will bring us back to the sky at 12pm for an aerobatic Biplane Atlantaadventure where we can rediscover the magic of the open cockpit. My last biplane flight was one of the greatest adventures of my life so my anticipation increases by the second for this part of the day. Who wouldn’t want to hang out in the sky, turn completely upside down while being suspended by a seat belt, and spiral in controlled chaos toward the earth before leveling off again?

4:30pm is the most nerve-racking part of the day. We will Journey with Gentle Georgia_AquariumGiants at the Georgia Aquarium. It is the only opportunity in the world where we are guaranteed to swim with whale sharks, manta rays, and more! We’ll suit up and snorkel in the Ocean Voyager exhibit with thousands of amazing animals for the experience of a lifetime! Considering I have a fear of small, colorful, pretty fish, swimming with the largest living non-mammalian vertebrate will be a challenge but, in the words of Bill Cosby, I’ve decided that “I want it more than I am afraid of it.”

ZipliningAs if Saturday isn’t enough adventure for even a junkie like me, we are finishing off our weekend with a North Georgia Canopy Tour. Our 3+ hour tour includes 12 ziplines, two sky bridges, three nature walks, and a rappel. Our weekend of adventure will conclude with a thrilling finale – a 695-foot dual zip over the Hilltop Pond in front of the Observation Deck.

Darren and I have been living life to the fullest and completing every imaginable bucket list item along the way, but this will be the most adventure packed weekend to date. Even our last minute Alaska weekend last year doesn’t compare to our upcoming journey in Georgia.

Stay tuned for photos, videos, and the story of my life.

112 thoughts on “How Many Bucket List Items Can I Do in One Georgia Weekend?”

  5. Oh awesome 🙂 You won’t be too far from me! There really is so much to do around here. I really hope to go to Helen which will probably be the closest I get to Germany lol 🙂 Have a great weekend! God bless!

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  8. As I roam your site, I realize you must be the rare person who never feels anxiety or panic in these adventures. Just the thought of some, scare me. So I like looking around here as I try to understand the super adventureous. I work with someone who did the shark cage, dropped into the water off some city in South Africa, just so he sould see sharks up close. Incredible just thinking about it.

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  18. what a thrilling and adventurous weekend you have, awesome! btw,
    1. i just downloaded alexa toolbar as you advised weeks ago in your post. but i can’t see my own toolbar except the small “A” logo on the top right corner of my Google Chrome. is it supposed to be like that or my download just doesn’t work?
    2. i also downloaded a custom toolbar with links on fb and RSS. but again, i can’t see my own custom toolbar on my Chrome. even though it says “your toolbar is published”. so what do i have to do to make it work?
    thanks for your help!

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  20. One holiday weekend a new friend and I grabbed a white piece of paper, and filled it with random thoughts of bucket list. The goal of the holiday: Cross off as many adventures as possible. We started that vacation with fish tacos, sky diving at sunset, and dancing on stage in San Francisco.That was the beginning of one amazing adventure, and in time led to one crazy engagement… I greatly ENJOY reading your blog. It reminds me that there are still adventures to be had, and to live every day like it’s your last!

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  24. You’re in my home town! Let me add some restaurants to your bucket list. 1. The Flying Biscuit on Piedmont Ave (their biscuits are to die for). 2. Fellini’s Pizza on Ponce de Leon (it’s just $2 for a huge slice). 3. If you want to be really unhealthy but nostalgic, go to the downtown Varsity, Waffle House, or the original Krispy Kreme.

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  26. I admire you for being so… adventuring. And I love reading about them.

    My idea of a fun adventure is to find a new deboning knife, a fresh leg of lamb, and some new herbs & veggies to use for stuffing & rolling said leg of lamb, once boned. I travel safer roads – not highways, those are boring – and paddle down calmer rivers and prefer an engine in my aircraft, which should preferably be a helicopter b/c you can auto-rotate those safely to ground unless you’ve lost the tail rotor and then, what the hell, I still won’t be wishing I was swimming with sharks even as I go splat!!

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  32. I made my bucket list. After i read yours it got me thinking instead of making one based on life, I should make one with the things that I can manage to do. It looks fancy on a blog page but then if you aren’t going to tick off any what’s the point. So a Thank you is in order.

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  39. Wow! I want to face my fears a bit more often and reading this is inspirational! I heard something really great the other day: ‘If you wasn’t to grow, do something that scares you’. You must grow ten feet everyday! 🙂

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  40. The aquarium is amazing. The whale sharks are beautiful to watch. We watched them for what seemed like hours. I can’t imagine swimming with them. I didn’t know they offered that, not that I would have volunteered!

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  44. Have fun in GA. I have lived in GA twice (in Atlanta and Macon). GA is a great state with lots to do. A calmer adverture should include Stone Mountain Lazer Show. It is amazing. You cannot miss one of the best Christmas drive thru light displays in the U.S. at Callaway Gardens. The aquarium in Atlanta is the best I have ever seen. I love how the sharks and more swim on top of you. I have lived in lots of southern states and enjoyed all my adventures in them. Again, have fun in GA. Blessings, Diane Roark http://www.recipesforourdailybread.com

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  45. Sounds awesome! I especially look forward to reading about your brush with sharks. Flying into the sunrise on a hot-air-balloon was the most peaceful and surprisingly un-scary (I am a little nervous about heights usually) experience for me. Enjoy!

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  47. When we visited the aquarium, we had a wonderful time and we would loved to have swam with the Whale Sharks, but at $225/person for 30 minutes of actual swim time, that was just out of our reach. Hopefully some day though because they are so beautiful and it seems so peaceful:)

    Have a great time! 😀

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