Leaf Looking 2009

We packed up last Wednesday and headed North for a few days in Ellijay, Georgia.

We arrived at the cabin owned by some family friends around 1:30 a.m. The house is just beautiful, and I didn't take any pictures of it! What was I thinking?!?! I did take this off the porch of the creek:
Thursday morning, it was nice and cool! We all got to wear long sleeves and sweaters...what a nice change for us, Floridians!

We had lunch at a little cafe in town, went to buy some groceries, and rested up at the house for a couple of hours. Late that afternoon, we headed over to the pumpkin patch. On our way, we stopped by Aaron's Apple House to buy some apples...

After taking the "scenic" route, we finally arrived at Burt's Pumpkin Patch.

We've been going to Burt's for several years now and loved getting to take Annabelle this year. Cooper LOVED the Pumpkin Patch when we took him, and there are definitely sweet memories there. We are so thankful to get to include his baby sister in some new ones, too!

After the Pumpkin Patch, we drove into Dahlonega. It's a pretty little town with sweet brick sidewalks, beautiful trees, and lots of window shops... It was late in the afternoon when we got there, so most of the shops were closed, but the Fudge Shop wasn't! We made our way over to the Smith Housewhere we were meeting up with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. The Smith House was like a smaller Dillard House... The food was very southern (stew, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fried okra, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, white gravy, cream corn, etc...) and it was served at the table, family style. It was good to sit around the table like a family and enjoy a meal with Beau, Kristy & Garrett. Annabelle thought so, too!

The Smith House was actually built on top of an abandoned gold mine and in 2006 (I think), they were doing some remodeling when they discovered the mine shaft. They made that part of the restaurant a "look-out" where you can go to see the old mine. The food was really good and the history of the house was neat...

After dinner, we parted ways... Mom rode back with Beau & Kristy to their house to spend the night, because the next morning she and my Aunt Kay were headed to Charlotte, NC to a cousin's wedding.

This group headed back to Ellijay.

On Friday, it rained. That afternoon, we headed into town to do some "shopping"... that deserves a post of it's own... While we were out and about, we drove past this house. It's shaped like a castle, had a mote around it and everything, and had garden gnomes on the columns by the gate. Interesting..... When we got home that evening, my in-laws & little sister-in-law had made it over. (They'd spent a few days in Franklin, and then drove to spend the last day with us)... That night, we made chili, grilled hotdogs, and dipped caramel apples.

Saturday, we got up with plans to visit Blue Ridge. I'd seen the Blue Ridge Expressway in my Southern Lady last month, and wanted to check it out. We missed the 10:00 ride, and when we went in to ask about the other departure times for the day, they were completely sold out. Oh well, maybe next time. We did make it to town in time for "Paws in the Park"... the parade was going on when we got there... yes, a dog parade.....that included llamas and alpacas. AB watching the parade

We had to watch where we stepped for sure. There were dogs everywhere. Big dogs and little dogs. Dogs wearing clothes, dogs wearing uniforms, dogs even wearing costumes. There were even puppies for sale. This little guy called to me. I think it was the tiny sweater that did me in. Or it could have been the fact that his Daddy looked just like "Uncle Charlie" (my Granny's dachshund, "Charlie" that died a few years ago). Whatever it was, I wanted him. Annabelle loved him, too. I told DW we may need to buy him. That's when my sister in law, Lauren, reminded me that I don't even like dogs. Oh, yeah. (DW was quick to tell her to keep it down, we weren't wanting to cause some kind of dog-lover riot at the dog day). I gave the mini-Uncle Charlie look alike back and we kept going, not to stop again, until we saw THESE....

Hello, "Get a Llama in your Life"... I told Devin I felt like we needed to get a llama in our life, and I thought we'd made wonderful foster parents of a llama. He didn't. They're so funny looking, but you can't look at one and not smile. They just scream, "personality" to me... and I would SO have some headbands for our llama, if we had one.

Lauren, "Llama", & Me

After that, we strolled around the shops. We went into one store that sold all kinds of bird things. Bird feeders, bird houses, bird baths, bird seed... anything bird, they had it. Annabelle is smiling here, because she saw this and thought Pop & Grammy needed it, since the squirrels eat all the bird seed in their bird feeders..... It's called the "Yankee Flipper" and they even had a DVD playing showing how it works. It keeps the squirrels from eating your birdseed. You should see this thing sling the squirrels off. It was hilarious. We watched it over and over and over... we were hoping they sold the DVD, but they didn't. The price tag on the Yankee Flipper, was $119.95, so we left empty handed. Sorry, Dad.

After all that walking around, we worked up an appetite, and decided to make some lunch plans. We had seen a sign for the "Nifty '50s Cafe" and when we put it in the Nuvi, it was only 6 miles away, so we tried that. It sat right on the river that divides Georgia and Tennessee.

We headed back to the cabin for some rest. That afternoon, we decided to take a walk. We walked up the driveway and I was ready for some more resting. Walking uphill is beyond difficult. I am so glad we live on flat land! Of course I might be a couple sizes smaller if we didn't. Ha...

We walked to the other house that the owners of the house we stayed at own. It sits just up the road from the other, but it felt a lot farther than that! We went down this driveway... Can you see all those curves?!?! Last year, this was the house we stayed at, and we had to drive down that driveway at 1:00 in the morning when we got there! Ahhhh! Scary.... And when I say "we had to drive", I mean DW or Adam drove and I sat in the back with my eyes covered.
We stopped long enough to rest by the creek... We decided to take a different way back. We walked along the creek and took the low road. It was so much easier and the canopy of trees was just beautiful.

That night, we grilled steaks and got ready for the Gator game. By game time, Annabelle had already had enough football for the afternoon and she and I hung out in our room downstairs. We watched a movie, and then when she went to sleep, I watched the 2nd half of the game.

The next morning, we got packed up and headed home. We stopped in Atlanta at Bass Pro, to meet Beau & Momma. Beau had met Aunt Kay & Mom and brought her on down to Atlanta to meet us. We ate lunch and then headed for Florida!

It seemed like a lot of driving and going, but it was a good time. If you really want to test your relationship with your family, you should travel together. Ha. We're home and everybody still loves each other, so that's a good thing!

~annie~