Cherry Log, GA - Part One

 I'm back with another summer recap post. Last year, we realized that if both boys went to church camp this summer, that we would have an entire week without them and we could go on an adults-only trip! We hemmed and hawed about where to go and, despite knowing dates and everything ahead of time, we didn't get anything planned. Throw in a few other snags and we were left about two weeks before wondering what to do. We decided on Nashville, TN, and then realized several things we wanted to do would be difficult to plan that quickly and prices were SKY HIGH so we scrapped that idea and I sort of resigned myself that we would stay home. Eddie talked to a couple in our church that owns a few cabins in the Blue Ridge area and after they sent links, he secured one for us for a few nights! 

I was pleasantly surprised at how EASY it was to get to the Blue Ridge area (we stayed in Cherry Log, which is just north of Ellijay and just south of Blue Ridge). Our cabin was WAY up on a mountain and it took us about 10-15 minutes to get to it coming and going. Other than that, it was easy to get to and easy to get around in that area!

We set off on Tuesday morning and headed north! We stopped for lunch and we were close to Reinhardt College  so Eddie decided to drive through to see if it had changed since 1997. We had no sooner entered campus than he slammed on brakes, reversed, and shouted, "Zach?" Ummm....what is happening? Zach was not just a friend, but Eddie's ROOMMATE that he hasn't seen in all of the 21 years that we have been together (at least! probably longer!). They enjoyed catching up with each other for a few minutes, Eddie got the Reinhardt scoop, and Zach told Eddie that we would pass another friend's business on the way to the mountains so later we stopped AGAIN and visited with Jeff. (I didn't see any of my college roommates! Such a disappointment!)

I did, however, enjoy riding around Reinhardt and Cherokee County where there were plenty of nods to my distant family that still lives in the area.

We continued our trek north and finally arrived in the big city of Cherry Log, Georgia, to enjoy life in the cooler mountains for a few days. The views were BEAUTIFUL and I enjoyed a picnic on the porch as well as some reading while we watched the sunset. It was gorgeous!

The week before we left the weather report was rain, rain, and more rain. We'd sort of resigned ourselves that we were either going to miss out on some of the outdoor things or we were going to be wet. But lo and behold, the weather reports were wrong! Wednesday morning we woke up and Eddie declared there was no chance of rain! One of the biggies on my wish list was Brasstown Bald and it was also the furthest from where we were staying so we decided to start there.

We also woke up on Wednesday morning and got a phone call bright and early that James had fallen the night before and hurt his elbow so I began orchestrating how to get that seen about. Big thanks to my sister in law, Kayla, for the guidance on where he could easily be seen and bigger thanks to Grandmamma for taking him, waiting a few hours for all of it, feeding him, and returning him to camp. He was in Dooly County and she went and took him to a neighboring county to an urgent care. AND because we were headed to higher elevation, we had ZERO service a lot of the day which made coordinating things even more fun! I'll do a whole separate post on this injury because it is quite a story!

Back to Brasstown - The closer we got, the darker the skies got. Apparently, the higher elevation didn't get the no-rain memo. When we pulled into the parking lot it was EMPTY and raining. There were clouds EVERYWHERE. One of the appeals of Brasstown is that you can see for MILES AND MILES. It was also COLD. 

Instead of walking up in the rain, we hopped on the shuttle and when I expressed my concerns about it being a bad day, the driver said, "It's never a bad day on the mountain! You can still see the movie and museum and sometimes the cloud will lift around noon!" The video was VERY interesting. The weather on the mountain has been as low as -27* and never higher than 84*. *mind blown* 

After we went through the museum we realized that the clouds were lifting and we were able to see a lot! We couldn't see Atlanta (apparently you can on a very clear day!), but it was beautiful! We did take the path down instead of the shuttle and enjoyed all of the mountain laurel and rhododendron that was blooming. It was really a good morning!

Enjoy this last photo of me "visiting" Brasstown Bald as a kindergartener!

We left Brasstown Bald and headed to the Toccoa River Swinging Bridge. I kept reading that this was hard to get to, but wow! It was 20 minutes off the main road on a bumpy, narrow dirt road! We were glad we went! It wasn't crowded and we enjoyed walking across the bridge, exploring a little, and then returning! 

We had trail mix for lunch between our stops so we got back in the truck and headed to Blue Ridge for an early dinner. We stopped to look at Lake Blue Ridge on the way (I love a clear lake!). 

After we browsed downtown for a bit, we stopped to eat at Chester Brunnenmeyer's. We ordered a wings and ribs appetizer and OMG. The sauce on the ribs was amazing.

After dinner, we headed back to the cabin and enjoyed reading on the porch.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Animal Kingdom!

Our third and final day at Disney we visited Animal Kingdom! It had extra magic hours in the morning that began at 8 and we arrived around 8:30 to take advantage of that. The wait was MUCH shorter to get in here than we'd seen at Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We decided to take it easier on this day and enjoy the park a little more. I have a tendency to GO when I'm in the parks and try to do it all. I took a deep breath on Monday and decided to let it go and enjoy! And we had THE BEST DAY. {Lauren - 1, Anxiety - 0...on this particular day. HA!}

First stop was Starbucks! Woohoo! I realized that my Starbucks gold card worked in the parks so I need to send a big shoutout to all of my sweet little baby students because I was gifted several Starbucks gift cards over Christmas and I was so excited to grab my coffee without spending anything! #littlethings 

After I got my caffeine fix, we headed off to Kilimanjaro Safari. If you've never been to Animal Kingdom, we HIGHLY suggest that you go straight to this ride when you arrive. First, it gets crowded later and second, the animals are WAY more active in the morning.

After we did this we stopped by to see Tarzan {Will wasn't scared this time! Tarzan is his favorite movie, but last time he was freaked out!}.

At some point in the morning we had a FastPass for The Festival of the Lion King. This is a MUST DO for our family. We triple heart love FOLK. It is Eddie's favorite thing at Disney and he is not a show guy. This time, for the first time ever, James got picked to go down at the end of the show and participate. WHEW! He was so excited. Will said that was the worst part of the whole show. Hahahaha! I wish I had the longer video of James marching, but it's on Eddie's phone and it's time to wrap this thing up!

We stopped and got some tree pictures {front and back of the tree} as we were walking through the park...

Because the boys were SO mortified about meeting Ariel on Friday night, we decided to embarrass them again. This time, we got into the line to meet Pocahontas but we didn't tell them we were meeting her. Mwahahahaha. Once they realized where we were, Will was DISGUSTED. He said he absolutely wasn't doing it. We weren't going to force them into it, but we told them both that we wouldn't get their autograph books signed for them. {Autographs are a hot commodity around here.} She was AWESOME. She asked James if he liked to climb trees {Will should've piped in here because he's the tree climbing KING, but he didn't} and asked him to show her his muscles. HA! She totally impressed them by knowing their names without asking {DISNEY MAGIC!}. I think they've decided that princesses aren't THAT bad, but I don't think they'll be begging to meet any. {Eddie has tried to explain that when they're 18 those princesses are going to be really cute.}

Next up was Dinosaur {we were a little bit all over this park just because we were trying to hit our favorites} in Dinoland. Last time, the boys were scared during Dinosaur, but proclaimed it their favorite ride in AK. This time, James loved it {of course}, but Will HATED it. Can't please them all, I guess.

We stopped for lunch after Dinosaur and tried Flame Tree Barbecue. It was pretty good food overall and we enjoyed it. The ribs were excellent and James and Eddie really loved their chicken. The barbecue was just barbecue. Nothing special. The fries and sauce were also really good. Will had a hotdog. He has no taste.

While we were wandering around the park, we decided to try out Wilderness Explorers this trip. IT. WAS. SUCH. A. HIT. They give out these workbooks that kids use all over the park to earn sticker "badges" for different things. James absolutely LOVED this. If you have young kids, it is a great activity for the park. We didn't even complete half of it so we'll keep them for next time.

{Will is SO contrary. I'm not going to smile since you asked me to.}

James spent some time dancing in Africa while Eddie and Will were stopping for a potty break.

We went on Kilimanjaro one last time before heading out...

After stopping to potty one more time, we stopped for a picture with Miss Bunny {we had to ask who she was...she's Thumper's girlfriend!} and we headed for the car.

On the car ride home, we stayed updated on Baby Liam. He joined us at 4:30pm on Monday on our way home from Animal Kingdom. We still had about three hours to go when he came so we hurried home and I jumped in the shower and then headed up to meet him! Squeeee! I'll share some baby pictures soon, too.

Our trip was SUPER quick, but full of fun. I asked the boys tonight at supper if they could go to ONE park, what would it be and Will said Epcot and James said Animal Kingdom. I think Animal Kingdom is probably our family favorite. Magic Kingdom is just a MUST do park for Disney, but if we could only do that and one other we would definitely do Animal Kingdom.