5 years ago this month, we arrived in Atlanta, Georgia exhausted, happy, and naive after a 10 state road trip from our previous state of Utah.  We ended up in Atlanta after applying to jobs in Phoenix and Nashville.  So, you can imagine how shocked we felt to end up somewhere where we didn’t know a soul.  From our hotel room, we spent the next two days looking for rental properties all over the metro area without much preference.  We were so clueless and frankly overwhelmed looking for a place to live because there are a lot of great places to live in the Atlanta metro and I had never lived somewhere so huge.  Well, we ended up in Marietta, Georgia and we’ve been here ever since!  While any move has its ups and downs and people that I miss, I have always loved this town.  There are a lot of places I’ve found here that I love and this is our Marietta, Georgia guide after five years.

1 | VISIT THE HISTORIC HOME DISTRICT

I thought Marietta was charming, but overwhelmingly large.  I grew up in a small historic town on the river in Kentucky with a strong rail road presence and beautiful historic homes.  I found it incredibly comforting the first time I realized that Marietta was much the same way.  The historic homes are incredibly beautiful and there are so many of them!  When people come to visit us, we often download the Zillow app on our phones and we walk by the homes while being able to see all of the stats for them; if we’re lucky- sometimes pictures are included so we can see how beautiful the interiors are.

2 | VISIT MARIETTA SQUARE (DOWNTOWN)

There are always a lot of festivals and events going around Marietta Square.  We usually go to Chalktober to see all of the chalk murals every year and we love visiting the farmer’s market (which is open on Saturdays from 9 AM to 12 PM year round and also seasonally on Sundays).  Beyond festivals and the fun place I went to for hot yoga once, the food.  The food on Marietta Square is insane.  We haven’t even tried a fraction of the restaurants on Marietta Square, but the restaurants are delicious and almost always packed!  What I love too?  All of these restaurants are local 🙂 .

RESTAURANTS WE LOVE ON MARIETTA SQUARE

• Taqueria Tsunami
  Location: 70 South Park Square, Marietta, GA 30060
  This is an Asian and Mexican fusion restaurant where everything has honestly always been so good!  I’m a huge fan of their tacos with Asian flair, but Devin has usually gotten their rice bowls and really enjoys them.
• Douceur de France
  Location: 277 South Marietta Parkway SW, Marietta Georgia 30064
  This is a French restaurant with seriously the best breakfasts and sweets.  I absolutely love their croque monsieur and their macarons are so delicious!!
• The Australian Bakery
  Location: 48 South Park Square, Marietta, Georgia 30060
  Devin lived in Australia for two years so this was such a fun find for us within our first few weeks.  We absolutely love their meat pies, but the sweets they have are absolutely delicious too!

3 | RESTAURANTS IN MARIETTA, GEORGIA

Well, we’ve established that there are excellent restaurants just in Marietta Square (which is a pretty small area), but Marietta is loaded with excellent restaurants from hole in the wall places to established local favorites.  Here are some of my favorites to visit with Devin in the area, but honestly, these are just my top four restaurants throughout Marietta.

• The Brazilian Bakery
  Location: 1260 Powers Ferry Rd SE # A, Marietta, GA 30067
  Every year on my birthday, we go here and grab a slice of three milk cake (bolo de leite condensado).  I have never had cake that tastes better and I don’t know that I ever will.  I look forward to my birthday every year just so I can down a piece of this cake… I am OBSESSED.
• Tassa Roti
  Location: 224 Powers Ferry Road SE, Marietta, GA 30067
  We love going here for their amazing Caribbean buffet!  There is so much spice and flavor and everyone we have taken here has absolutely loved it!
• Marietta Diner
  Location: 306 Cobb Pkwy S, Marietta, GA 30060
  This place has a ridiculously huge menu and is owned by a group that owns several amazing restaurants in Marietta (all with a different theme).  The food is pricier than what we usually go for, but the portions are so huge that we usually end up having another meal from the leftovers.  We love going here to celebrate and it is pretty nice because the diner is 24/7!
• Mountain Biscuits
  Location: 1718 Old 41 Hwy NW, Marietta, GA 30060
  This place is only open until brunch, but I love grabbing biscuits and gravy from here.  Seating used to be really hard to find, but they recently expanded the restaurant as well as the parking lot; so, bring your friends!

4 | GO OUTSIDE FOR SOME FRESH AIR

Something I really love about Marietta is beyond the summer, I could stay outside in Georgia the whole year.  The springs and falls are absolutely amazing here and winter is usually pretty mild too.  Yeah, we totally have had Snowmagedden and the Snowpocalypse, but it was bad.  I know how to drive in snow from living in Utah for five years, but that doesn’t mitigate all of the schools and work places being closed at once and 6 million people having to get home at once.  We’re going to pretend like none of that ever happened though and I’m going to tell you about just a few of the places that are so beautiful to visit.

• Sope Creek Trail
  Location: Brook Hollow Cir, Marietta, GA 30067
  When you come to Sope Creek Trail, you need a few bucks to pay for the parking/upkeep.  I love walking these trails (they are not stroller friendly) because they have pre-civil war historic paper mills and a beautiful pond that you can see on the hike.  The paper mill ruins are huge and so amazing to be able to see.  Additionally, the hike leads you right to the Chattahoochee river… so beautiful!
  
• Noonday Creek Trail
  Location: 2999 Bells Ferry Rd NE; Marietta, Georgia 30066 
  I love this little trail right in between the mall and the burbs.  It is surprisingly very open and you don’t feel like you’re around people.  I walk this trail usually once a week and it is nice for people with strollers, there are bikes you can rent, and I love that I can see open spaces, trees, and a huge pond on the trail.
• Kennesaw Mountain
  Location: 900 Kennesaw Mountain Dr, Kennesaw, GA 30188
  This is right next to Marietta and super close to Marietta Square.  The trails here are really beautiful and completely void of feeling like you’re in the suburbs.  I really love coming here and being able to see the full tree canopy while hiking.  This is the preserved site of an 1864 Civil War battle and has a visitor’s center with a film and artifacts.  They also have reenactments and cute events here like Easter eggs for kids!

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While we really had no idea where we were moving to Georgia,  ForRent.com came up with some local guides to metro areas all over the US to help you find places to live!  We really lucked out because we love the location where we live and I absolutely love our house (I could shout this from the roof tops), but when you’re moving somewhere and you don’t know anyone… I sure think these guides could make gathering info a lot easier.

Here are the local guides to four places we heavily researched because of proximity to family while we were preparing for our cross country move:

• Local guide to Phoenix, Arizona (more info on Arizona here)
• Local guide to Houston, Texas  (more info on Texas here)
• Local guide to Dallas, Texas  
• Best places to live in Tennessee

We have 1-2 more years with Devin’s current job and then we have the decision to either stay in our cute home or move on to another location.  The longer we have lived here though the more sentimental I feel about Marietta, but who knows what will really end up happening?  I’ve learned so much from our move and I’d really like to set down roots, but I’m also really curious about other places.  We will see what ends up happening 🙂 .

Have you ever moved cross country?  What are some things that make home feel like home for you?