vacation in the rain

We had a lovely time on our quick getaway to the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was refreshing to have no "have-tos" hanging above our heads. And, it was especially wonderful to get uninterrupted time with Josh. Both Kate and I couldn't get enough of quality time with Da-da! We didn't get to do as many outdoor activities as we had hoped because of the constant rain & drizzle, but we still got to to enjoy the outdoors via scenic rides in the car. We particularly enjoyed the Aska Highway following the Toccoa River. I couldn't get over the fact that the little town of Toccoa wasn't the only place the Toccoa River flowed through. On our second day we took a road trip to Lake Nantahala & tramped around on some prospective pieces of property that Bob, Ben, & Josh have been interested in buying. Kate was so excited to see her Mima & Papa in such an out of way place. We passed some of my favorite vistas on our way back to Blue Ridge. Pastoral scenes of mountains covered with grass, cows grazing, and treed mountains providing a more rugged backdrop. It's those pockets of farmland that were so charming to me. I marveled many times over the work that the pioneers in this area must have done to tame this wilderness into fertile farm land. Mima and Papa returned with us to our cabin in Mineral Bluffs & had a Final Four party! Granted, I spent part of the Final Four party in the bed with my book, but who's counting! On Sunday, the clouds finally broke, and we were able to see the view we had been missing for most of the time. It was gorgeous! That was something else wonderful about the cabin -- it had a lot of windows and was very light! On our way home, we took a little tour through Blue Ridge, GA. Quaint, artsy, and not for one year olds. Thankfully, there was a cute little playground by the railroad tracks, and boy did Kate enjoy our picnic lunch and going down the "side" many times!

I loved the open floor plan. My kitchen at home is virtually closed off from the living room, so it was wonderful to be able to chop veggies at the island and still be able to talk to people lounging in the living area. This pic is taken from the back door. The kitchen is the to the immediate left and the eating area is to the right. The downstairs bedrooms is behind the staircase wall on the left of the living room. And, the 'master' bedroom was upstairs stacked on top of the lower bedroom.

The master bedroom only because the bathroom upstairs (although not in a suite w/ the bedroom) had the whirlpool bath tub & double sinks. Let me tell you about that whirlpool bath! I made the mistake of turning on the whirlpools after I'd had washed Kate's hair & body in the same water. The water, which had looked pretty clear & non-bubbly before, went bonkers! I felt like I was in a Curious George book where the man in the yellow hat tells George not to get into trouble but he always does! It was trouble on that sort of scale. The bubbles kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally, I turned the whirpool off & sat in 12 inches of water and 12 inches of foam. There was a pretty big picture window next to the tub, and I had thought it would be lovely & relaxing to have the mountain & wood view while I was bathing. There was something else in the view, too -- the next door neighbor's cabin. My plan was to close the blinds before I got out of the bathtub. Well, those blinds didn't want to come down again! They were stuck in the upright & locked position. I had to call Josh into the bathroom to grab my towel so I could leap out lightning quick! This bedroom had a large enough closet that we put Kate's pacnplay in there. It was much more convenient than having her sleep a whole floor away from us. She didn't seem to mind sleeping in the closet; she slept from 8 to 8 every night.

Private deck off the master bedroom (upstairs). This was the same view as from the lower deck.


My favorite scene on our way to & from the town of Mineral Bluff to our cabin. There was a farmhouse at the top of the hill to the right. I just imagined how cool it would be to have that viewpoint on all your land & animals.

View from house on Friday. There was a certain beauty to our misty mountains.

Picture taken right as we were leaving on Sunday -- the sky is still a bit cloudy, but you can see the distant mountains, which we weren't able to for most of the previous two days.

Our little dare devil.

Mommy & Kate.

Hmm, Mom, something about this isn't right! She kept clicking the red button on the side of the stroller that helps collapse the stroller to no avail. She worked on this stroller for quite a while! Hilarious!

Kate's favorite feature of the playground-- the "side". Other playground words: la-la (ladder), whee (swing), spin (that spinning fireman pole), and her cutest one shee-shaw (see-saw. Incidentally, this sounds very close to her word for Jesus). She thinks she can climb ladders (yikes!) and she loves going up and down the stairs (steps, I think she says). Since she gets to play on a huge playground almost every day at school/church, she's quite the proficient.

Up & Down