Around Atlanta {Starlight Drive-In}

I’ve mentioned a few times that some of our good friends from college own a technical recruiting firm (Hunter Technical Resources).  These guys have been an integral part of Honey’s career for the past ten years, helping him grow and expand into different roles.  Well, out of nowhere, they presented a great opportunity to him a couple of weeks back.  He wasn’t looking for something new but literally over the course of 24 hours he had interviewed, received an offer and accepted a new job at a new company!!  His last day was last Tuesday and I was excited to surprise him that evening with a celebratory date night from our 40×41 (or 40×42 in his case) lists!!!!  With the top down in the jeep and a picnic dinner in the back seat, we headed off to the Starlight Drive-In Theater!!  This Atlanta landmark opened in 1949 and is the last of its kind.

I packed his favorite Pub-sub (Publix deli), a cooler of ice cold Coca-Cola’s and some brownie brittle for our evening.

We parked the jeep and settled in with our dinner about an hour before the show started!

It’s was an incredible experience, watching a movie under the stars.  And while this was our first time at a drive-in, we could certainly appreciate the nostalgia of how things were back in the day.  Oh, and we both loved the movie!!!

If you go:

• Admission is $9 per adult and $1 per child.
• The Starlight Drive-In features four screens, each with different movies.  There are two shows on each screen every night and your admission gets you in to BOTH shows on your screen!!  So, you can really make a whole night of it!  Our screen had Jurassic World playing at both times (it had just come out that weekend), but the other screens all had two different movies.
• We arrived an hour before the show started not knowing what to expect.  The parking lot is sloped downwards towards the screen so there really isn’t a bad seat in the house.  We were front and center a few rows back.  I can’t say how weekends are, but we definitely didn’t need to be there so early.
• A lot of people in SUVs and trucks backed into their spaces and laid out on sleeping bags and pillows.  Some people in cars brought along tailgate chairs and sat right outside of the car.
• You get the sound through your radio – I had no idea how that would happen :-)
• There is a snack bar, but I was SUPER glad we brought our own food.
• There are also bathrooms.  The ladies room was very old, but very clean.  Honey said the mens room left a lot to be desired in that department.
• Before the show started it dawned on me how wonderful this would have been when we had babies… to strap them into their car seats, put them to sleep on the snooze cruise to the drive-in, and then enjoy a wonderful double header movie night while they counted sheep.  Well, as it turns out, LOADS of people were doing this!!!!!!!  I can’t tell you how many had sleeping babies in the back seats.  Genius.
• A lot of people brought entertainment for before the show.  The car next to us was a dad with 5 middle school aged kids.  They sat on a blanket and played spades.  The car in front of us had two kids around John’s age and they threw the football before hand.  We just sat and talked, which was lovely!

I cannot recommend this experience more – it’s good clean old fashioned fun!  It’s not a glamorous set up and the surrounding neighborhood was a little intimidating, so don’t let those things discourage you.  It’s something every Atlantan needs to do!!!!!!!!!  We can’t wait to take the littles back!!!

Congrats, Honey.  I’m super proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
xoxo