[Waxhaw, NC / Greenville, SC / Athens, GA, Apr 2-3, 2025]

I worked for the first half of the week and even moved locations. On Wednesday, I picked up my rental car from the airport and drove to Waxhaw, NC, a suburb on the south side of Charlotte, where my friend Lena lives. You might recall our visit to her house in October 2023. Unfortunately, we both had to work that day, but we managed to squeeze in a couple of walks during the day to catch up. After work, we went out to dinner to a new shopping center near her house, The Bowl at Ballantyne. We enjoyed some brats and brews from OMB and some ice cream after that.

I took the next couple of days, Thursday and Friday, as vacation days. My only objective was to end up in Atlanta by Saturday afternoon, so I had a couple of days to sightsee in between.

On Thursday, I decided to make my way to Athens, GA via Greenville, SC. I had heard many great things about Greenville over the years, and I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. And Athens had been on my radar ever since I lived in Georgia a long time ago. This college town, home to the University of Georgia, was supposed to be a lot of fun.

The drive to Greenville was super easy and I got there right around lunchtime. I was hungry and I wanted a view, and the rooftop of the Embassy Suites met both needs. I ordered the shrimp & grits, which is my standing order when in the South.

The hotel was on the edge of the Falls on the Reedy, the 32-acre park that runs right through downtown Greenville. The highlights of the park are the waterfall and the 355-foot suspension bridge over the river that provides unobstructed views of the waterfall. Greenville was founded on the banks of the Reedy River and the falls has served as the center of downtown throughout the city’s history.

But these unobstructed views were not always there. In fact, a four-lane highway used to run right through here. This 6-minute video is great if you want to learn about the evolution of this area and what the waterfall looked like with the highway on top of it.

I also checked out the famous Greenville bookstore M. Judson Booksellers. There are not that many independent bookstores left in the world! And this one is women-owned! The bookstore is named after Mary Camilla Judson, who was the first Lady Principal of the Greenville Female College. The bookstore is in the old courthouse, which is a beautiful building. The building across the square from it was also gorgeous.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stroll through Greenville and I could see why people loved this little town!

It took me just over 2 hours to get to Athens. My hotel was right on the edge of campus, but I quickly realized that UGA Is too big for me to see on foot. I browsed around on Google Maps and noticed the Georgia Art Museum on the edge of campus. It was open late on Thursdays, which was perfect! Driving there allowed me to see the rest of the campus from the car.

There were some great exhibits at the museum. The first one, Beyond the Medici, brought some Florentine Baroque art to Georgia for the first time. It just closed in May but you can see it at the Phoenix Art Museum August 28 – July 26, 2026. I just visited the Phoenix Art Museum in February and can attest that it’s another one worth a visit.

I especially enjoyed the 20th century paintings from Ukraine. The artists in the exhibition were active from 1930 to 1980, covering both the ideologically rigid Grand Style (before 1956) and the more realistic Severe Style. Having spent the first ten years of my life under communist rule, I was quite familiar with the imagery.

Finally, Waffle House Vistas provided a unique perspective to the beloved Southern breakfast chain. The Waffle House interiors were similar across locations, but the view outside its windows is different. I loved seeing the Gulfport, MIssissippi Waffle House, as I was just there about a year ago.

In the permanent collection, I enjoyed seeing works by some of my favorite artists.

To close out the evening, I walked to an ice cream place near my hotel. I sat on a picnic table outside and watched the troves of young people around.

I covered just over 200 miles and 3.5 hours of driving but I took all day to do it. I very much enjoyed this slower road tripping pace.