Augusta—home for the holidays?

Teddy

@scooterdawg said:
Wow..no idea so folks were from the Augusta area! I grew up in Atlanta but my whole family is from there. My mom’s side from Augusta proper and my Dad’s used to own a lot of land in Columbia county from revolutionary times. They met at Richmond academy. Most of my cousins went to Episcopal Day and/or Westminster but I think a couple may have gone to the aforementioned Lakeside.

I’ve been making the trek there for every Christmas and thanksgiving since I can remember but my family seems to have gotten more contentious over the years so I don’t end up staying more than Christmas Eve a lot of times now lol. I usually stay at the Partridge Inn bc it’s near my aunt’s house but I guess nowhere in Augusta is particularly far away so let me know if y’all get something going. Might stick around for an extra night.

Interesting to hear about the new places..I havent been downtown in years. Or tried any new restaurants. I just wish that Wifesaver(hole in the wall fried chicken local chain) hadn’t apparently gone out of business. My grandmother used to really like the French Market place in Surrey Center. Don’t know if it’s still there anymore.

French Market is still there. And there’s Wifesaver’s all around town, just not that one location anymore.

Kasey

@Teddy said:

@scooterdawg said:
Wow..no idea so folks were from the Augusta area! I grew up in Atlanta but my whole family is from there. My mom’s side from Augusta proper and my Dad’s used to own a lot of land in Columbia county from revolutionary times. They met at Richmond academy. Most of my cousins went to Episcopal Day and/or Westminster but I think a couple may have gone to the aforementioned Lakeside.

I’ve been making the trek there for every Christmas and thanksgiving since I can remember but my family seems to have gotten more contentious over the years so I don’t end up staying more than Christmas Eve a lot of times now lol. I usually stay at the Partridge Inn bc it’s near my aunt’s house but I guess nowhere in Augusta is particularly far away so let me know if y’all get something going. Might stick around for an extra night.

Interesting to hear about the new places..I havent been downtown in years. Or tried any new restaurants. I just wish that Wifesaver(hole in the wall fried chicken local chain) hadn’t apparently gone out of business. My grandmother used to really like the French Market place in Surrey Center. Don’t know if it’s still there anymore.

French Market is still there. And there’s Wifesaver’s all around town, just not that one location anymore.

I used to work at French Market. Haven’t been back since Chuck retired though

Teddy

@Kasey said:

@scooterdawg said:
Wow..no idea so folks were from the Augusta area! I grew up in Atlanta but my whole family is from there. My mom’s side from Augusta proper and my Dad’s used to own a lot of land in Columbia county from revolutionary times. They met at Richmond academy. Most of my cousins went to Episcopal Day and/or Westminster but I think a couple may have gone to the aforementioned Lakeside.

I’ve been making the trek there for every Christmas and thanksgiving since I can remember but my family seems to have gotten more contentious over the years so I don’t end up staying more than Christmas Eve a lot of times now lol. I usually stay at the Partridge Inn bc it’s near my aunt’s house but I guess nowhere in Augusta is particularly far away so let me know if y’all get something going. Might stick around for an extra night.

Interesting to hear about the new places..I havent been downtown in years. Or tried any new restaurants. I just wish that Wifesaver(hole in the wall fried chicken local chain) hadn’t apparently gone out of business. My grandmother used to really like the French Market place in Surrey Center. Don’t know if it’s still there anymore.

Stillwater downtown isn’t bad. If I need to get away from my family for some of grandpa’s cough medicine I’ll send out the bat signal. Probably a Friday or Saturday

They turned Sky City into a beer garden if you wanted to check that out. But yeah, StillWater and Metro are usually my go to spots dtown.

LowcountryDawg21

@scooterdawg said:
I just wish that Wifesaver(hole in the wall fried chicken local chain) hadn’t apparently gone out of business.

Dang. Wife Saver. An Augusta original. My HS girlfriend worked there. Whenever I mention it to someone not from Augusta (we had one in N. Augusta too), they just chuckle (at the name).

Teddy

@LowcountryDawg21 said:

@scooterdawg said:
I just wish that Wifesaver(hole in the wall fried chicken local chain) hadn’t apparently gone out of business.

Dang. Wife Saver. An Augusta original. My HS girlfriend worked there. Whenever I mention it to someone not from Augusta (we had one in N. Augusta too), they just chuckle (at the name).

And their slogan “put a little south in your mouth”

BigDawg279

If a get together happens, I am in.

JimWallace

Augusta isn't Atlanta which is a blessing. There's lots to do here in the Garden City, but > @Teddy said:

@Kirbstomper said:

@Teddy said:

@Kirbstomper said:
Think i may be moving to the Augusta area in January. Is there anything to do out there?

Yes, there's things to do. Where are you coming from? If you're coming from say Atlanta, then there's less things to do obviously, but there's plenty to do. Guess it depends on what you like to do on whether it will be a good fit for you.

Grew up in an Atlanta suburb and live now in south Texas in a college town. Definitely gonna be prepared for a culture shock of boredom, but I just want to know exactly what I’d be signing up for.

It's definitely not a crazy college town. There's Augusta University with about 9,000 students, but for things to do here's a some things I recommend:

1. Downtown/Broad street area is the best for both bars and restaurants, there's some other decent places off of Walton Way a few miles from downtown. A couple of breweries have popped up in the last 3 or so years. I like the Savannah River Brewing Co. the best of the two.
2. Go to the Masters, might as well even if you don't like golf, these are the hardest tickets in all of sports to get. You can see what an unlimited budget can do for your landscaping. You can usually find people that end up not being able to go getting rid of their tickets, or can find people outside the course giving their tickets away when they leave early.
3. Not much to-do with high level sports being played here, there's minor league baseball team (Augusta Greenjackets) that just built a nice stadium on the river in North Augusta. They do thirsty Thursdays if you want to go on the day most folks go.
4. If you like outdoors, there's the river and lake to go out and enjoy. Plenty of golf, disc golf, etc around town too. Several adult sports leagues if you want to play softball, flag football, corn-hole, kickball, volleyball, etc.
5. There's several venues you can check shows out at; Imperial Theatre, Miller Theater, Bell Auditorium, James Brown Arena, Lady Antebellum Pavilion/Evans Towne Center Park.
6. There's a few museums (art and history) if you're into that, as well as historic tours around town. The tour on the canal boat was pretty good. Gives the history of Augusta, mainly during the Civil War, while going down the Augusta Canal.

Guess I should've asked what you liked to do, as that could help determine what I put on the list. But the above is the basics. Also, if you're not digging Augusta, Atlanta is 2 hours away, Columbia is a little over an hour, Savannah is 2 hours away, the beach (depending on which one) is 2-3 hours away.

Good post.

I've been here since 1976, but grew up and lived in other places such as South Georgia, New Orleans, Atlanta, San Francisco, rural Tennessee, etc.

Augusta is not rural, but it's not the big city either. We have traffic, but nothing like Atlanta. You can get where you want to go without too much problem. We have many excellent restaurants and more cultural activities than I can take in or even find out about. Still, it's not San Francisco.

Whether you find anything to do anywhere depends entirely upon what you like and are looking for. For example, Augusta is the hub of a wonderful bicycling community. Riding road bikes in Richmond and Columbia county is dangerous, but there are thousands of miles of great, safe bicycling roads outside of those counties + there is really great mountain biking and some good biking paths. Of course, that doesn't matter if you don't like riding bicycles.

Hiking, same deal.

If you play golf, Augusta is the place. Also, disc golf.

You see what I mean. Depends what you are into.

We also have the Dawgs on tv and the campus is not a long drive at all when you have tickets.

Go, Dawgs!