travel
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Rock City, Chattanooga, TN
Since we were not going anywhere on vacation for our week of fall break, I decided to take a couple overnight trips as I was able to get my 2 sisters in law to come over to help their mom who lives with us. The first overnight was a late anniversary trip for my husband and I, and the second was for the boys. I decided on Chattanooga as our destination for its proximity and all of the different things we can do there. We will probably return for another overnight during the Christmas break. Rock City sits atop Lookout Mountain and features many large rock formations, beautiful views and…
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Late Summer Sunrises
I do not have to travel far to enjoy pretty sunrises, I just have to time my runs just right! At the end of August, we had several runs that timed perfectly for some beautiful sunrises. It is sometimes disappointing when it is overly overcast or we pass the picturesque spots before the sun is up. So today, I am sharing 3 morning sunrises because they always bring a sense of wonder and awe to my soul. This field often has cows grazing later in the day… I always enjoy the few large majestic trees in it and the wildness of weeds and bushes not being trimmed. This was a…
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Bike Ride: A Taste of fall
We ended the month of August with a fun bike ride on the Silver Comet Trail. We had planned to rent a truck to carry all of our bikes, but it being Labor Day Weekend, they were all rented out. We were happy to manage to fit all five bikes in our 2 cars: the hubby had to empty his of all his work things, and put down his seats. My youngest had just learned how to ride his bike 2 and 1/2 weeks prior and we knew the trail was easy as it is flat and straight. Ready for a fun adventure? One of the things I like about…
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World of Coca Cola
Back in the spring, my best friend from college came to spend her spring break in Atlanta with her family. Our boys are really close in age and we hadn’t seen here in a couple of years, so we were excited to hang out with her and her family. We went to Six Flags one day and the Georgia Aquarium. While her husband and boys spent the afternoon visiting another roller coaster park, we decided to visit the new (to us) World of Coca Cola: last time I had visited the Coca Museum was with my brother about 20 years ago. The museum is right across for the GA aquarium…
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The Budweiser Clydesdales Come to Town
For the month of the July (our 2nd and last month of summer break), my goal was to have fun, but to do some more budget friendly things after our 2 weeks vacation to Europe and a weekend tubing in the Ellijay. So when I saw that the Budweiser Clydesdales were going to be downtown in our little town for a couple of hours, we made sure to stop by to admire them before going to the movies (we signed up for AMC rewards which gives us 25% of our tickets and $5 Tuesday movies). My youngest was at first unimpressed about going to see some horses. If he wasn’t…
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Republic of Georgia: Last Thoughts from our Trip
Today is the last post chronicling this summer’s two week vacation to Georgia. We were able to visit two areas during our visit, the capital, Tbilisi, as well as the sea port of Batumi. We ate and walked and spent time with our friends. We shopped and ate some more, and really enjoyed what this beautiful country has to offer. This was our 3rd visit (the first two being 7 and 6 years ago), so we knew what to expect, but still were able to visit new parts of the city and country. One thing we had not done before was go to one of the flea markets. There were…
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Mtatsminda Park and Funicular
The funicular from Chonkadze St to Mtatsminda Park is 501 meters long and gives you a pretty view of the city. The amusement park at the top offers fair type rides which you pay for individually (just a few laris each). The ride was 10 laris one way so we paid 20 laris each (the 6 year old was free). That came to 100 laris for the 5 of us (my husband hadn’t come back from church so this was an adventure on our own) which equals to $36 total. The walk was about 30 minutes from the hotel and it was a pretty warm day. We had taken a…
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Batumi Fortress: Gonio Apsaros Fortress
We are nearing the end of my posts about our trip to the republic of Georgia! Today, I am sharing our visit to the Gonio Fortress which is the oldest fortress in Georgia. It dates back to the Roman times. The fortress is 15 km outside of Batumi and 4 km north of the Turkish border. The oldest reference to the fortress is in 1st century. You are greeted at the entrance with 2 large statues. The outside walls of the fortress all remain and it is quite impressive to behold. I have been to medieval castles in France and seen some old ruins in Italy, but never something of…
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Batumi Botanical Gardens
You probably will agree with me after you admire the pictures in this post, but I think this is the most beautiful botanical gardens I have ever visited. And we didn’t even get to see everything because it was much larger than we expected and with all of our walking, we decided to stick to some of the highlights. Welcome to Batumi Botanical Gardens! By Georgian standards, the botanical gardens were a little expensive, 20 laris per person (our 6 year old being free). So we paid 100 laris ($36) for our family of 6 which wasn’t too made by American standards. And it the picture above, you see a…
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Batumi Singing Fountains
On our first walk on the boulevard by the sea (Batumi Boulevard), my hope was to end at the Batumi fountains which I had read about. The fountains move in synchronization with music and with lights in the evening. However, we walked in the wrong direction. The boulevard or promenade is 7 kilometers long and since we had walked probably several kilometers in one direction, we decided to leave the search for the next evening. The second night found us once again stopping for ice cream and this time, we ordered the next size up with was still less than $2! Yum! We walked as it got darker and came…