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…

We rented a car for a week in preparation for our trip to Batumi and took advantage of having a car with AC to take a trip a couple hours out of Tbilisi. My husband wanted to visit the monastery of St. Nino and we booked a horseback ride nearby. As usual we used the Maps.Me map, but we still had to ask for directions! On the way, we saw a small fortress near the road and stopped for a bit. We can never pass up a fortress! There are a lot of lookout fortresses and towers throughout the country. Georgia used to be part of the silk route and…

With life’s recent challenges, I have had to make sure to take time for myself to recharge. Last week, I shared part of my husband’s and I day date (in Marietta, GA) and today I am sharing the first part of our little outing. We decided to hike Kennesaw Mountain since it is about 30 minutes from our house, it’s a fairly short hike and it was a beautiful cold winter day. We brought along some snacks and water as we originally planned to walk this trail with the boys. One of the local vendors of our summer farmer’s market has been holding a small table/booth at a store downtown…

Last weekend, my sister in law came to the house to hang out with her mom so I could get away for a longer period of time without worries. My husband and I decided to go to Kennesaw Mountain and since our boys decided they would rather play with their neighbor friends, we ended with a day date of an afternoon away. After our hike (which I will share next week), we went to Marietta which is just a few miles away. We pass under this bridge every week on our way to church and since we parked on the other side, we got to walk on it on our…

We’ve lived in our town for almost 6 years and I have loved living here. From past blog posts, you know that we are within 15-20 minutes of different places where we can hike, there are some historical places to visit and there are pretty spots for blog pictures. The park, the Indian mounds, a couple ponds are some of the spots I like to take pictures when I do not want to use my house and backyard as a backdrop. I’ve taken pictures a few times downtown but now as often as I should (it is only a 10 minute drive). So earlier this week, I took about 2o…

Last week, our local running group met up at the Corra Harris House for a run, a tour and dinner! This was a trial run for a possible race here to spread the word about this beautiful place that hopes to host limited event venues as well as teach others about who Corra Harris was. Most of us did not know about Corra Harris and this beautiful spot, and enjoyed every minute of our visit. The property is 57 acres and we started our run up the hill, past the spring house and through the barn. There are some trails on the property and our run took us through one…

A few weeks ago, we went to the nearby Indian Mounds for a short outdoors outing. The 3 younger boys came with us as our oldest was taken part in an Academic bowl at his school. We took a walk around the historic site and sat by the river for a while. My youngest went up the tallest mound with his dad while the rest of us relaxed on a bench. This is probably the prettiest time of the year to come as all of the wildflowers are in bloom. Soon they will cut all of this down and roll it into bales. These crimson clovers are so pretty and…