Adventures in Milledgeville

Good morning! I’m blogging from my grandmother’s screened porch. One of my all-time favorite places to be! 😀

We were up early yesterday morning to get on the road. I packed a bowl of banana oatmeal for the drive.

Which I ended up having to shovel down in about 5 minutes because Brandon stopped for a bagel and begged me to takeover driving so he could eat his bagel. Hmm…I think oatmeal is a little more technical to eat in the car than a bagel but I’m sweet so I obliged. I was uncomfortably full for a little while after eating so fast but it finally passed. I ended up driving the entire  trip to my grandmother’s. I was on a mission – no stops!

We arrived to a Southern lunch spread.

Chicken salad, crackers, Hoop cheese and fresh fruit. Unpictured on the side was sweet tea (a treat I rarely indulge in but love!) and pound cake. Yum!

Later that afternoon I had a cup of Yogi Green Tea Kombucha.

I needed a little pick me up. We spent the afternoon talking and watching the Braves game before getting ready for dinner. Mema wanted to take us out to a new restaurant in downtown Milledgeville that’s been getting great reviews. Aubri Lane’s opened in 2009 in the old Bank of Milledgeville space. The restaurant is beautiful and they’ve kept a lot of architectrual details from the original building. They even turned the bank vault into a wine cellar.

We were seated upstairs in a table by the window overlooking downtown. I was thrilled to have natural lighting for my food pictures! Love these long days of summer. 😉

We looked over the menu which Aubri Lane’s describes as “contemporary Southern cuisine.” Everything sounded great. I decided to go with the Carolina Pecan Crusted Trout. It was served with collards and stone ground grits with marscapone. Can’t get much more “contemporary Southern” than that!

I was excited to discover that my entrée came with a salad. Sadly, few restaurants still do this. But first, I had one of the warm rolls they brought to the table.

With a generous pat of honey butter on the side. Mmm….

I chose the house salad which featured mixed field greens, red onion, tomato, carrot and bacon with honey thyme dressing.

I asked them to hold the bacon and picked the onions off. Otherwise, it was a great salad. They honey thyme dressing was outstanding.

My entrée arrived looking amazing.

And it tasted amazing too. Everything was seasoned to perfection. I loved it all.

Of course we had to try their homemade desserts. Brandon, Mema and I agreed to share the Bananas Foster Bread Pudding.

Topped with a generous scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. Seriously to die for. We all demolished this. Not one crumb remained.

Overall, we were all very impressed with Aubri Lane’s and will be returning on future visits to Mema’s. The service, food and ambiance were impressive – especially for Milledgeville. Very happy that someone has brought a good restaurant to downtown Milledgeville. It was really needed!

I’m embarrassed to admit that we got in bed at 9:30 on a Saturday night but we were exhausted. I ended up getting about 10 hours of sleep last night and feel like a completely new person this morning! I immediately put my running clothes on when I woke up and headed out for a run. I was hoping to beat the heat but my run was still extremely warm and humid. Regardless, I managed to cover 5.1 miles in 47:58.

After I showered and cooled off I made breakfast.

Vanilla yogurt topped with Kashi U cereal and tons of fresh fruit. Mema stocked up on fruit for me! 🙂

We are just hanging out the rest of the day before heading back to Charlotte later this afternoon.

Are you close to your grandparents? Do you get to visit often?