review: bee's knees

Bee's Knees
date of visit: 4/25/08


kiwis:
taste: 4
service: 3
ambience: 5

This is one of my favorite places in Augusta. It's just so darn cute. We visited the Bee's Knees after the Blood Sweat & Tears concert (featuring Chuck Negron of Three Dog Night).

The weather was nice, so all the tables on the sidewalk were occupied. We were seated inside right by the window, which made for good people watching. We saw a couple mohawks & some hot pink hair. Inside is cozy, candlelit, fun art on the walls, exposed brick. Trendy but unassuming. Which is why I love it so much. You also get your money's worth, unlike many Atlanta tapas joints.

We hadn't eaten in about 10 hours, so we ordered a lot of food: cheese plate, calamari, shrimp yaki, vegetable tempura, tuna carpaccio, crab quesadilla, tiramisu. Oh yummmm. Everything was so good. The only thing we could complain about was that the calamari lacked some seasoning. Definitely could have used some more salt. My personal favorites of the night were the cheese plate (it had some swiss cheese. I usually dislike swiss cheese. But this swiss cheese was just amazing. Soft and yummy. And a perfect pair to the sliced apples) and the crab quesadilla. I'm getting so hungry just thinking about it. I also enjoyed a glass of the red sangria (they also have white).

Our server was nice and good at refilling our water often, and the food came out in rounds so it was fun guessing what was next.

I definitely recommend this place if you're in the area! Worth the trip downtown :)

Also Chuck Negron is a total rock star!

pure exhilaration

So I am done with my very first 10K!!!!! And my first race since high school, which seems like a lifetime ago. It was pretty amazing, and emotional! Here's the play by play...

5:35 am - wake up! brush teeth, throw clothes on, check & double check that I have everything (but later find out that I forgot things of course)

6:00 am - out the door

6:20 am - arrive at North Dekalb Mall shuttles, scope out other racers to see what they are taking with them

6:25 am - go to McD's to use bathroom & sit with Ryan

6:50 am - get on the shuttle! say goodbye to Ryan. Have my race # pinned on and my gel & Sean's picture in my hand.

7:05ish am - shuttle leaves, meet a new person on the bus who actually went to high school with one of my sorority sister - small world!

7:20ish am - arrive at Tucker High school, warm up. Ran around the parking lot a couple times slowly, did some strides, stretched a lot. Met a cool dude, #3, so I knew he was a fast runner, probably one of the "famous" ones. His name was Sammy, he introduced himself to me, I was a little starstruck! Ryan told me he was definitely in the first 5 people to finish, I think in 30 minutes? When the race results are posted, I'll figure out his name. He asked me where I was from, wished me good luck etc.

7:35 am - done warming up. I walk back towards the high school entrance only to see floods of people leaving. I guess we are lining up at the start now!

7:45 am - and we're OFF!!! In that very moment, I realized why I love running, why I ran track so many years ago. It's just this rush of excitement I get. I wasn't even competing, I just wanted to run the whole thing, but there was still a pure, exhilarating joy in starting a race, starting something big, and oh yeah! Starting something that means a lot to me - a race in memory of my cousin Sean, who died from leukemia. Took a look at his picture and folded it into my hand to carry through the race.

7:56 am - Pass the 1st mile

8:06 am - Pass the 2nd mile, feet are starting to get wet! :(

8:15 am - Pass the 3rd mile, water table! Ok so I have never tried to drink water while running...BIG disaster! I took one sip and water went all over me. ALL over me. So I was like...forget this. Threw the water cup in the trash can (boo to all you runners who threw your cups on the street! That's littering! Be a responsible runner!!). Then took my PowerBar gel. Such a weeeeeird sensation. I just squeezed the gel into my mouth and then kinda slurped it down. The green apple flavor wasn't too bad! It kicked in pretty quickly, I definitely felt energized afterward.

8:27 am - Pass 4th mile. At this point I start seeing runners running BACK to the start line. What are you crazy?!?! They had run the whole 10K and turned around to run back to the start line. Sick! I wonder if I'll ever be able to do that! Also I think it was at this point that there was a tent set up with the music from Rocky blaring over speakers. Two guys were there cheering us on. I don't know if they were affiliated with the race or what but at this point I started tearing up. I just started thinking about Sean a lot, and of being a kid and all the things we did, playing together and everything. And what things would be like now if he were still alive. And how I just don't think of him enough, I was so young when he died. But do we ever think about the past and get those feelings out, those losses that we go through together?

8:39 am - Pass 5th mile. Worked through the verging tears :) Now I'm ready to be done!!!! Volunteers, police officers, all cheering us on. It was really awesome! And then...water table #2! I decide to try again, this time I got 2 sips in before I choked on the 3rd. I am definitely going to have to practice this drinking while running thing.

a litte before 8:50 am - Pass 6th mile. I forgot 10K was 6.2 miles for a second and started to get annoyed - where is the finish line!? Because after mile 5 I started to pick up the pace a little more and pass more people...ready to be done. But oh no, there was still .2 miles to go! Duh!

8:50:30 am - 6.2 miles DONE. AWESOME. There was Ryan just yards away from the chutes cheering me on, taking pictures, the tears start welling up again! I swear I was never this emotional at track meets. I run under the finish line - 1:05:30! I'm happy =) Ryan is there at the end of the finish chute. I don't really know what we said to each other, I was so overwhelmed with emotions. I can't even describe them, but they were some of the greatest feelings in the world.

Post-race - took a last look at my picture of Sean...he was there with me the whole time =) what a great experience, getting to run a race with him!