Y’all know I’m a sucker for an old classic made new again! Given the choice, I’ll take a remade classic over a new design anyway. The other day, Camry came calling to ask if I’d participate in a campaign featuring their 2015 model, and since it was all about putting a bold, new twist on a classic, I was in like Flynn.
The idea of the campaign was to take an old tradition (like the #1 selling car in America – the Camry), and be bold about doing it a new way. Since the 2015 Camry has been totally redesigned (a bold move, for sure!), we were to totally redesign our tradition as well. There’s nothing more traditional in the south than SEC football, so we went BOLD with a weekend in Auburn.
Let me back up a little. I am an Auburn graduate, but my husband went to Mississippi State. Through the years, we have had a fun rivalry between the two of us, and we have passed it on to our children. Although I look back on my time in Auburn as one of the best seasons of my life, our roots have been planted in Mississippi State since we married fifteen years ago. We take our girls there, attend ball games there, and it has been our “home team” for years. In fact, we have been to countless Mississippi State games over the years, but I have NEVER, not even once, taken my family to Auburn for a ballgame. This year I decided to get BOLD and do a weekend in Auburn RIGHT!
Of course, we needed a Camry for the weekend and Toyota graciously supplied us with a 2015 model to drive. Now, you know I drive a big ‘ole SUV, so I wasn’t sure how we would make it for a whole weekend in a sedan. Well, let’s just say we gained a whole new perspective about how well our family of four fits into a car. We had PLENTY of room, and I really enjoyed zipping around town in the Camry.
When I was a student at Auburn and people came to visit, the best place to stay was in one of the local hotels. Auburn wasn’t really known for having the best lodging choices, but how things have changed. Lake Martin is about 30 minutes away from Auburn, and it has really developed with tons of cottages that you can rent for ballgame weekends. So in the spirit of making BOLD changes to the old classics, we stayed at a precious home on Lake Martin.
And the food, oh the food! It was so, so fun to take my family back to one of my favorite hangouts, Cheeburger, Cheeseburger. The atmosphere was exactly the same, but the food was even better than I remembered. It was also a blast to take them to an old classic which was new to us, Kowliga on Lake Martin. The catfish poboys were to-die-for, and I could easily see us driving down for dinner one night soon. And you gotta love a place that brings out a six-pack of sauces…
But we upped the ante this time with a meal at Acre. You guys. I had no idea this place existed until I saw an article in Garden & Gun or Southern Living. But one look at the online menu, and we made a beeline right for it.
Chef David Bancroft has built his entire menu around putting a bold twist on southern classic dishes. And y’all, it just WORKS! Everything on the menu WORKS. I’ll write another post all about Acre, but I’ll leave you with the Sweet Potato Bread Pudding…
But the real highlight of the weekend was taking my family back to my old stomping grounds. I showed them my old apartment, which was in surprisingly good shape.
Then we headed over to a VIP tailgate in the basketball arena. We enjoyed Jim ‘N Nick’s BBQ while watching the ladies’ volleyball team practice. The girls even stocked up on TP, should we need it at Toomer’s Corner after the game. (Unfortunately, we got to take that TP home with us. Sadly, it wasn’t needed for a post-win celebration.)
And then I tok my family to their very first Auburn game. It was the first time I’d been back since my college days, and it was definitely more fun to share it with these three…
It was a bucket list experience to have them with me, and to see this guy in orange and blue was icing on the cake. It suits him, don’t you think?
I have such respect for a company like Toyota that takes a classic like the Camry, which is the most popular car in America as it is, and totally re-invents it to keep it at the top of its game. That’s a bold move that inspires me to be bold. What kind of bold move do you want to make?
Toyota sponsored this post and the weekend it describes, including the use of a 2015 Toyota Camry for the events. All opinions about the car and the trip are entirely my own.
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