We Are Finally Home!

 

No, not this home! LOL. This was a beautiful setting somewhere in the North Georgia mountains.

Wow! What a week!! It was perfect in every way, but you know the old saying, "there's no place like home!".  However, we saw such beautiful scenery and stayed in such a gorgeous place, I might could have my arm twisted about making that my new home! LOL.  I have so much to tell you and show, I don't know where to begin.  I know many of you have already seen a lot of the pictures from our trip on Facebook throughout the week.  I haven't shared any yet from the wedding, out of courtesy to the family as it should be their right to share the wedding pictures first, so I am going to save that for last and maybe a different post as I am waiting for permission to share some that were taken by the family.  

Anyway, I missed visiting with all of you throughout the week. I only had my cell phone with me, and that is very difficult to use for blogging, so I just decided that it would be a week off from blogging altogether.  Now it will be a while before I can get caught up with all of you. I hope and pray you've all been well and having a good week as well.  

Where do I begin? "Let's start at the very beginning! A very good place to start" (the first line from "Do Re Mi", with Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music).

As you know, we were headed to the mountains of North Georgia for a few days in a mountain cabin with our kids Benton and Rose and grandpuppies Sugar and Spice, and also joining us was my hubby's brother Billy and his wife Peggy. We all arrived on Monday evening after long drives from Florida to the mountains.

Along the way we passed some cotton fields in full bloom:

They looked like fields of snow!  What a beautiful sight! We had heard that cotton crops might have been damaged in the recent hurricanes, but judging by the many fields we saw ripe unto harvest, I'd say they survived the storms, praise God!

Nowadays they have big machines that pick the cotton and roll it up into huge bales, much like the big round bales of hay you see on the farms.  Can you imagine back in the olden days all that cotton was picked by hand by slaves. Their life was very very hard, as we all know from that dark chapter of history.  I am thankful that modern industry/technology has made it possible for this to be accomplished without breaking the backs of human beings.  Yes, some modern inventions are very very good.

After hours and hours of driving (Thank you, son Benton, for all of your hours of driving!! You did a great job, and got us there safely!)  We finally started seeing some beautiful fall colors and lovely views of the foothills of the mountains...

We were so mesmerized by the beauty around us that we missed our turn into our destination...

We saw all these deer running in the field to our right, and didn't realize that our "house" was just across the road to our left!

I mean, wouldn't you do the same thing?  What an unexpected welcome!

But our Google Maps person started telling us that we'd missed our turn, and we looked across the road, and saw this:

Wow! Is that it??? Yes! We finally made it!

There's a funny story here about this picture below...

This sign and stacks of fire wood was in the driveway just beyond our driveway.  We never saw it until AFTER we had driven all over the countryside looking for firewood for the firepit!  It was right there all the time, and we didn't see it until the next day! LOL.

Welcome to the cabin:

They had a lot of cute little beaver figures, in keeping with the theme of Beaver Mountain Resort...

But apparently they also like owls, as there were quite a few owls perched all around the house:

And one lazy bear...

There was a lovely fireplace, but again, we had to buy wood to use it, and we decided the house was already a bit too warm for a fire, so we used the firewood that we found for our firepit later...

Beautiful view from inside looking out those huge windows...

"Uncle Billy and Aunt Peggy" were already there when we arrived, and Sugar and Spice found them to be very welcoming!  They really hit it off quite well together!

Thankfully, they are "doggy" lovers too.

Walking the doggies became a family affair...

And the firepit night was a lot of fun around the campfire:

I still don't know what Rose was doing in this picture below,  but it was funny, and Peggy was "sharpening up" the roasting sticks I guess...LOL.

Rose and Benton had a great time...

And so did I, roasting marshmallows for s'mores...

Assembling the s'mores...

And eating the s'mores!  Yummy!!!

Oh, and we did have roasted hot dogs too, before the s'mores, but I liked the s'mores best! LOL.

The next morning I had my cup of tea on the deck,  and watched the deer frolicking in the field in the front yard:

Perfect mug choice, right?

Hello! How are YOU this morning?

This Psalm came to mind...

Psalm 42:1-2 

"1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,

So pants my soul for You, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

When shall I come and appear before God?"

You may want to sing this little song while you look at the pictures of the deer...

I could've stayed out there and watched them forever. It was so peaceful and beautiful in the morning mountain mists...

That sure was a beautiful way to start the day, don't you agree?

But we had plans for the day to go to the apple orchard and get some fresh apples and apple cider and apple cider donuts, so I had to break away from my reverie and meditation and get a move on. Besides, the deer had all gone back in the woods by this time.

It's a huge place, full of all  kinds of interesting stuff and apples and gifts, and a bakery, etc.

You can sample each variety of apple here and figure out which one(s) you like best for eating and/or cooking:

You can watch them sorting the apples as they come in from the orchards too.

And you can buy some Apple Cider Donuts and Apple Cider and have it for breakfast the next morning if you want:

That's what I did!

One day we met John's cousin Sonny's (RIP) wife Joy for lunch. She lives in the area and it was really good to visit with her.  John's cousin passed away in late 2022, and we went up for his Celebration of Life. in January of 2023.  Billy and Peggy's daughter Shannon surprised us with a visit. She was traveling with a college friend and they met us for lunch as well. So it was a fun time and some good food.

Another day we decided to all go see the Amicalola Falls State Park.(You can click that link for more information than what I can tell  you).  What started out as a nice country drive through the mountains to get there...

soon became a dusty, gravelly, dirty narrow treacherous "little known shortcut" through the woods and hills!

Billy and Peggy were leading the way in their car, but we were in an area where there was no cell phone service, and the maps soon disappeared from our phones.  Billy had been that way before and thought he remembered the way, but unfortunately he made a wrong turn too soon and we ended up on this crazy back road that scared the bejeebers out of us several times. LOL.  

Our car windows became coated with dust and dirt and it was almost impossible to see where we were going...

But we finally made it all the way through and it did end up on the right road eventually! Just not a way that we would recommend ever taking again!  When we got to our destination, we were all not really physically able to do the long hikes/walks to see the best part of the waterfalls, but we did go to the very top and look down (since there was a road to get there and it was an easy walk from there)  So here are the few pictures I got from the very top of the waterfalls.  To see the whole waterfall please look at that link for the website above.

Psalm 42:5-8

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him

For the help of His countenance.

6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me;

Therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan,

And from the heights of Hermon,

From the Hill Mizar.

7 Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;

All Your waves and billows have gone over me.

8 The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,

And in the night His song shall be with me—

A prayer to the God of my life.

It certainly was a breathtaking view! I'm glad that the railing on the little bridge we were on was quite secure.

Well, I think this is enough of our travelogue for one post. I'm sure you are yawning by now anyway. I will save the wedding photos for tomorrow and anything else that pops up.

Just a couple more beautiful pictures to leave with you for today.  Thank you for coming along on this little bit of our vacation with us.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Psalm 42:11

11 Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;

For I shall yet praise Him,

The help of my countenance and my God.

Until later...