travel
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Christmas at the Beach
Have you ever wondered how they decorate in beach towns. Since we stayed on 30A for Thanksgiving, I knew we would see some beautiful decorations as some of the towns along this strip of South Walton beaches are a little fancy to say the least. We usually stay in the more affordable towns of Seagrove or Blue Mountain which are a short bike ride from Watercolor, Seaside and other pretty towns. Our first full day at the beach, I took my youngest to Seaside and we enjoyed a fun snack and snapped some pictures. I had seen some of these nutcrackers before, but there were more this year. Since I…
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Ponce City Market in Atlanta and Meeting up with Kathrine
A couple weeks, ago, Kathrine reached out to see about meeting up while she was in Atlanta visiting her son. Since it was a short visit, we decided to meet around lunch time for a little midday snack and shopping. Her mom and sister were along on this trip and I got to meet both and we had a lovely visit. It is always fun to visit another fellow blogger especially when we have been reading each other’s blogs for a while. I always feel like small potatoes when comparing Instagram numbers to others, but when it comes to blogging I feel like I have developped some friendships through the…
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Bell Mountain, GA
Once I decided where we were spending our anniversary trip, I looked up activities in the area. The one thing that stood out to me that we had not done in the past was to go up to Bell Mountain. The google search describe the drive up as paved and very steep, but the views would be incredible from the top. I concur on both accounts! The drive up was very steep and I would not have enjoyed driving it myself because it was so steep and there were a couple sharp hairpin turns, but the views were worth the effort. It appears that the top of the mountain has…
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Fun at Brasstown Resort and Spa
It is always nice when there is fun to be had on property! We actually are planning to return to this resort for an overnight trip with the boys at the beginning of the boys Christmas break. Apart from the activities, I am sharing today, there were 2 games rooms for children, a gym and puzzles and game in the lobby area. One of the activities we chose not to take part in is horseback riding, but that is the one we will do with the boys. It’s really fun to be a little competitive with one’s spouse. I know that I am unlikely to win at some of these…
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Backyard and City Creatures
I have been coming across some critters recently and was able to take pictures of most of them (sadly, not the fox trotting down the street). So today I am sharing those pictures with you as I always love seeing them and I thought you might enjoy them too. First, we have a throwback to a dragonfly while going down the river by our neighborhood. There were a couple that kept landing on my leg and shoe as we floated down. Then, this praying mantis welcomed me when I went out to grill dinner. My youngest was afraid of it, so I took a picture so he could see the…
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Brasstown Resort and Spa, Young Harris, GA
Anniversary trips… We had a number of years when the children were young when we did not make time to schedule anniversary trips, but now that they are older, there hopefully won’t be a year without one. The boys are almost old enough to where the oldest at home will be able to supervise his brothers with a little help from neighbors. It is nice to have several neighbors in our cul-de-sac that are friends and would be able to check on them. For this year though, we dropped the 3 boys at some church friends’ house for 3 nights. I knew we wanted to stay somewhat close by and…
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Apple Picking in Ellijay, GA
A couple of weekends ago, we drove up to Ellijay in North Georgia to pick some apples. We had not been in about 3 years and the somewhat short drive of 1h15 would allow us to go and come back with enough time to relax before Saturday night church. We chose to go back to R and A orchards which has less kids activities which means less people. It was still busy, but very enjoyable. I always like to photograph the fun, colorful and strangely shaped pumpkins at the front of the country store. I never buy any because it is usually still hot most of September and October, and…
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Booth Western Museum: Western Costumes from the Silver Screen
A few weeks ago, I decided to take a gander at the temporary exhibit at our local western museum. I am trying to plan more regular outings in my weeks, so it is not all about errands and necessities all of the time. It can be something as simple as a picnic or a visit to a local farm, or in this case, a local museum. The exhibit was part of the Davey collection. John Davey lives in New York and has been collecting Hollywood related items for several decades. He has more than 3000 Hollywood and fashion related items, many of which are from western movies and television programs.…
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The Alice in Wonderland Exhibit at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens
The Alice in Wonderland exhibit features 38 large sculptures grouped in seven installations. We were greeted with the white rabbit and his hat (27 feet tall) as we descended the stairs from the building that holds the orchid permanent exhibit as well as the rainforest space. Of course we had to take some pictures next to it and the size of this sculptures was impressive. We were then greeted by the queen of hearts chess set army. These were really fun to look at and to notice all of the details that are involved in the creation of these living sculptures. As we visited, we noticed people trimming the different…
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The Enchanted Trees Exhibit at Atlanta Botanical Gardens
One of the things I enjoy about botanical gardens is that they often have a couple of different exhibits each year, which makes your visit more interesting. While seasonal plants and flowers do catch my eye, some of the different exhibits that come to the botanical gardens can be really impressive. One year, they had these giant trolls (read post here), another year, it was giant origami sculptures (read here). This year, in addition to the Alice and Wonderland exhibit which I will share next week, there was a display of 11 “Enchanted Trees”. The trees range for 9 feet to 17 feet tall and on a sunny day reflect…