Just moved. Homesick. Suggestions/ (Atlanta, Lawrenceville: rental, hotel, neighborhoods)

[Alicia64]

Any suggestions for dealing w/ homesickness, I'm all ears. We just moved to Suwanee from several states away on Monday.

The heat wasn't turned on in our rental so we're "camping" in a nice, but no-frills hotel with a dog and a cat.

I need to get out and explore a little, but frankly, the traffic is a little scary!

Thanks for ideas!

Alley

[DaBurgh]

Take the pooch on down to Piedmont Park this weekend, it is going to be in the 60's.
Traffic should be ok tomorrow but will get bad again on Sunday as folks get back home. I was out and about today and it was all green

[JoDan]

Originally Posted by Alicia64

Any suggestions for dealing w/ homesickness, I'm all ears. We just moved to Suwanee from several states away on Monday.

The heat wasn't turned on in our rental so we're "camping" in a nice, but no-frills hotel with a dog and a cat.

I need to get out and explore a little, but frankly, the traffic is a little scary!

Thanks for ideas!

Alley

Would be helpful to know your interests, hobbies, etc. You'll get better responses with a little more info.

[Alicia64]

Originally Posted by JoDan

Would be helpful to know your interests, hobbies, etc. You'll get better responses with a little more info.

I love to read, love pizza, love dogs. I have two kids whom I homeschool.

Looking for really fun, iconic Atlanta Christmas things to do -- we left a town that had the silliest, most fun Xmas activities and I'm not sure what to do here.

I'm open to special coffee hang outs you love. Cool dog parks. But they need to be relatively close to Suwanee because your traffic scares the heck out of me!!!

Thanks,

Alley

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Alicia64

Any suggestions for dealing w/ homesickness, I'm all ears. We just moved to Suwanee from several states away on Monday.

The heat wasn't turned on in our rental so we're "camping" in a nice, but no-frills hotel with a dog and a cat.

I need to get out and explore a little, but frankly, the traffic is a little scary!

Thanks for ideas!

Alley

One thing that could potentially help you to deal with your homesickness is to become active with the local chapter of your college's alumni club if you attended college and that college has an alumni club chapter in Metro Atlanta.

Another thing that could help you to deal with your homesickness is to become active with your children's school if you have any children in school.

In Metro Atlanta and throughout much of the Southeast much of the social structure of Southeastern society revolves around sports (college sports, high school sports) and religious worship.....So if you are even remotely spiritually active you might try to find a place of worship (church, synagogue, mosque, Hindu Temple, etc) that fits your family's spiritual needs while becoming active with children's school (if you have children) and your college's local alumni chapter (if you went to college) or the alumni chapter of a college whose sports teams you and your family may be a big fan of.

If possible and if they apply to you and your family, attempting to become active with a local school, a local place of worship and a local chapter of a college alumni club that you and your family favor may potentially help you to become much more integrated into the local community and take the edge off of whatever homesickness and isolation you may be feeling in the aftermath of your big move.

Also, depending on what neighborhood and/or subdivision you move into, some neighborhoods have activities that are tailored to help residents feel like they are part of a community (swim-tennis communities, etc).

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Alicia64

I love to read, love pizza, love dogs. I have two kids whom I homeschool.

Looking for really fun, iconic Atlanta Christmas things to do -- we left a town that had the silliest, most fun Xmas activities and I'm not sure what to do here.

I'm open to special coffee hang outs you love. Cool dog parks. But they need to be relatively close to Suwanee because your traffic scares the heck out of me!!!

Thanks,

Alley

Lanier Islands Christmas is something that you and your family could enjoy that is not all that far away from where you live in Suwanee.
Lanier Islands Christmas

Lanier Islands Christmas is at the Lanier Islands Resort at Lake Lanier on the Hall County side of Buford and consists of a drive-thru exhibit of Christmas lights, free skating after 5pm, a live Nativity scene and a holiday village with amusement rides and a bonfire for roasting marshmallows.

As for anything else that you might to do in the Atlanta area, you probably most assuredly have to get on the very fast-moving freeway system and deal with the intense Metro Atlanta traffic at some point so just mentally prepare yourself to deal with the traffic the best that you can as some activities may require that you drive to another part of the Atlanta metro area to partake in.

[Georgia]

* for the Dog go to Rabbit Hill Park in Dacula. Has a fenced leash free dog park and separate dog run.
* for both go to Little Mulberry Park in Dacula / Auburn
* go north on 85 for 4 miles and go to the Mall of Georgia.
* like little towns and big towns
- downtown Lawrenceville and try Local Republic
- downtown Braselton /Hoschton and try One Blue Duck
- don't want big Atlanta? Get on 85 south to 316 east. 30 - 40 minutes to downtown Athens. So much to do there in the home of The Dawgs.
- want big Atlanta? Get on 85 south to exit 86 Lennox Road, turn right for 1.5 miles and hit Lenox or Phipps, plus many good restaurants. Park and walk.
- stay home and go to Suwanee Center and enjoy a sandwich at Brown Bag Deli
* explore the mountain towns for a Georgia direction novice.
- get on 85 north for 2 miles and fork left onto 985. Stay straight and go and go and go. End up in Rabun county and Clayton. Turn onto 76 to Brasstown, etc., shops, fun, and great scenery.
* like hockey?
- 85 south to exit 108 and turn right to the Geinnett arena and grab a Gladiators game!


Once you try that then we will get adventurous and hit Midtown, Downtown, L5P, etc.
In Georgia the state is your Oyster!

Oh, if you want to give your pooch a break get on 85 south to exit 104 Pleasant Hill. Turn right in the left right turn lane, shoot over to the fist light, left on Venture and go to Pet Smart. The offer Doggie Day Camp and a Pet Hotel. Great Staff!

Enjoy
.

[Georgia]

Stone Mountain!
Snow Mountain is open or opening soon.
Just google Stone Mountain Park Ga.

[Alicia64]

Awesome! Thank you everyone!

The alumni suggestion is a good one, but made me laugh. I went to college in CA. But I love your other ideas.

And I love knowing about the Xmas activities at Lanier -- and the dog park in Dacula!

Alley

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by Alicia64

The alumni suggestion is a good one, but made me laugh. I went to college in CA.

It may sound a little outlandish, particularly since you are about 3,000 miles away on the opposite coast from where you went to school at.

But with a sizable amount of California natives living in the Atlanta area (probably more than you might think) and with big California schools like USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford doing much athletic and academic recruiting in Metro Atlanta (West Coast schools recruit Metro Atlanta much more than you probably think because of Metro Atlanta's status as a hotbed of high school/prep sports), there are some California schools that have very active alumni clubs in the Atlanta metropolitan area...

The USC Alumni Chapter of Atlanta:
Atlanta GA | USC Regional Alumni Groups | USC
https://www.facebook.com/USCAtlanta

The UCLA Atlanta Alumni Network:
https://www.facebook.com/UCLA.atlalu...?tab=page_info

The UC Berkeley Alumni Club of Georgia:
Cal Alumni Association
https://www.facebook.com/groups/458596080828113/

Stanford Club of Georgia:
https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page..._id=0038990756
https://www.facebook.com/StanfordAlumniGeorgia

Obviously as the 4 largest and most prestigious universities in the state of California, USC, UCLA, Cal and Stanford are the 4 most prominent examples of large West Coast universities with a major alumni presence in the Atlanta area but there likely are more.

Connecting with an Atlanta chapter of an alumni club of a West Coast school that you may be favorable towards is a good idea because even if you did not graduate but are just an avid fan/supporter of a school, the personal connections are invaluable because of the group activities that take place from business networking to personal networking, outings out on the town to cultural activities, social events, etc.

And in your situation where you may feeling a little bit homesick and maybe even a little bit isolated, connecting with other Metro Atlantans and Georgians who have a California connection can only help to alleviate whatever homesickness and isolation you may be feeling after moving about 3,000 miles from home to the opposite side of the continent.