Finally Back Home!

Page One of our journey to and from Georgia this past weekend, with the primary goal of attending the "80th Birthday Celebration of Life" for my husband's cousin "Sonny", who passed away right around Thanksgiving.  He had told his wife Joy, while he was seriously ill and in ICU, that he wanted her to go ahead with the plans for his 80th birthday celebration regardless of the outcome of his illness. Plans had already been made to have such a birthday party, decorations had been ordered, and he assured her he would be there in spirit if not in person.  I will share more about that "Celebration" in a later post, but first I wanted to take you along on our little trip,  which was also a mini-vacation with our son and his wife and their two sweet pups, Sugar and Spice. To begin with, we had decided to rent a "mini-van", which turned out to be a Chrysler Pacifica, for the trip, so that we could all ride more comfortably and have plenty of room for all the "cargo".  That turned out to be a very good decision, and we enjoyed having that vehicle with all the latest bells and whistles (literally) and plenty of room for our long-legged men, we medium legged ladies, and also our short legged Pekingese pups and their crate. I wish I had taken a picture of us all packed in there, but you can imagine I am sure. 

My apologies to my Facebook Friends, as you have probably already seen most of these pictures.

We started out bright and early (well, it was actually still dark) at 7:00 a.m., and hit the Florida/Georgia line around 9:00 a.m.  Of course we all waved 'Good bye Florida, Hello Georgia" as we passed the signs. Do you do that? That's something we've done since childhood every time we go from one state to the other. I just wonder if everyone else does that?

We made a gas/pit stop around noon at a Buc-ee's...have you ever been to one of these super gas station department stores? 

Here I am meeting "Buc-ee" outside for the first time:

 It's not a truck stop, but a mega-pit stop with food, souvenirs, and all manner of things to see and buy, if you can stay long enough, and not get lost... I found it a bit overwhelming and also a bit concerning while I stood outside waiting for my hubby to come back out the door he and entered when he went to find the restroom. I was going to direct him to where the kids had moved the car after getting it filled up and where they were walking the dogs.  I stood there waiting for at least 15 minutes, and I was getting a little frightened when he still had not returned. I was about to go get our son to go inside and look for him to see if something had happened in the restroom, when I saw my son waving to me to come back to the car.  (Now, keep in mind, this is a very big place).  I motioned back to him that I didn't know where Daddy was. He motioned for me to come on.  That's when I realized that "Daddy" had already returned to the car, and apparently had gone out a different door from the building than where he had gone in.  I cannot begin to explain the sense of panic I had begun to feel, and then the relief that he was there safe, but also a bit angry at him for doing that to me! Of course, he didn't realize I was standing outside waiting for  him, so he was perfectly "innocent" and sitting in the car eating his sandwich while mine was getting cold.  I was thankful that all was well, but I also let him know exactly how I felt...sweetly of course. LOL.

Moving right along, I settled back into my seat and tried to relax for the next leg of the trip. Soon we were in Atlanta, amazingly we managed to drive through it with no major traffic issues. Thankfully we got there before rush hour. (Which, in Atlanta, is actually most of the time, but this was a bit of a lull in the action)

Here's a few pictures as we entered the city...

That's my sweet DIL trying to capture a picture of the gold dome of the State Capitol. I was doing the same thing...

Surrounded by skyscrapers and big buildings on every side...

Hey, there's the "Google" building, and TBS, (Turner Broadcasting System).

More buildings being built everywhere we looked as well...

Finally we got outside of the city and headed out toward the mountains...and there they are in the distance!  What a beautiful sight!:

And after a few more hours of driving, and then a VERY winding, steep, scary, nail-biting drive up into the "resort" where we had reserved a cabin for our stay,  we finally arrived at our destination:

The "Red Door Cabin":

It said to "Come on in & cozy up"...among other fun ideas...

And this little hand embroidered sign was on a table at the front door:

And yes, we gasped with joy as we entered the "little cabin to keep" and saw the soaring ceilings and the  stone fireplace climbing up the wall:

It wasn't long before our smart daughter in law figured out how to light the "gas" fireplace and the room began to warm up so that we could "cozy up" as the doormat had invited...

Oh, and look at the view out the back door...those are mountains in the distance:

They became more blue in the sinking sun at the end of the day...

And the cozy ambience of the fireplace and the candles soon helped us all to relax and settle down for the night.

The next morning brought about "coffee time"... (and I had to learn how to operate one of those fancy Keurig machines). Thankfully the hosts of our Airbnb had provided complimentary coffee k-cups and even several choices of tea bags...

Which suited me to a cup of tea...even a red whistling tea-kettle!

One of the funny things in this cabin was this hallway of doors...we played "what's behind door #1, or door #2, or door #3, or door #4, or even door #5?  Steps to the basement, which was locked off, were behind #1, Our bedroom was #2, A small closet was behind #3, our bathroom behind #4, and a small laundry room behind #5!  I won't tell you how often I tried to open the wrong doors...lol.  I didn't take any pictures, but the kids had the 2nd floor, complete with a little den, their bedroom with another balcony overlooking the back yard, and a master bath with a jacuzzi tub!  All very lovely...

This was the view in the morning as the sun's rays were reflecting on the trees and mountains...

Looked like the trees were on fire!  So beautiful...

And then, this happened:

Deer started arriving next door and then they came over to our yard...and apparently they are used to being fed by the guests...but we didn't have anything to feed them at this time...

They were still very hopeful...

Lots of young ones and young mothers too...

As a matter of fact, as we drove out for the day, we saw them all  through the neighborhood wandering around from house to house. There must be hundreds of them living in this area...and they are quite tame...

Oh, this was the sign on the wall above the dining table:

And these were the windows in the living room:

Here's where I sat for a while having a cup of tea in the afternoon...

And yes, we did go buy a bag of deer corn, and look how many showed up for dinner!

This young buck was asking if there was any "seconds" for him...LOL.

On Saturday we met up with hubby's brother and his wife for lunch and then we walked around the little town of Ellijay, shopping in all the shops (don't think anyone bought a thing!), and just talking and laughing and having a good time. Here's a few pictures to show you how much fun we were having:

Outside of "Linda's Outback Antiques and More" shop was this cute sign, so we each had to take our turns getting our picture taken.  Above is Rose and Benton.

Here's Peggy and Billy

And here's the true antiques, yours truly and hubby John

Here are the three Steiner men

And the three Steiner ladies.  

Just walking around having fun. This was a cute toy store. It was good family time.  Later that evening was the "Birthday Party", so we had to go back to our respective quarters and get ready. But I will share more about that in another post.

On Sunday it was very cold, rainy, and foggy...not a good day to go out driving on that treacherous road for us flatlanders. So we stayed home and relaxed inside and played Yahtzee, made popcorn, and enjoyed a quiet day inside.  I had not played Yahtzee in years, so I had to relearn. But guess what? I even won a game!! It was fun doing this with our "kids".

We also made pizza for lunch and the boxes of "Sicilian Pizza" we had purchased had these silly mustaches as cutouts on the boxes. So DIL Rose and I thought we'd be funny and try them on:

Then son decided to get in on the act and we decided he looked a lot like Teddy Roosevelt!

Rough and Ready Teddy! LOL.

I should include a picture of the sweet grandpups, Sugar (the white dog) and Spice, (the brown dog).  Sadly, Sugar had picked up a tummy bug of some kind and was not feeling too perky, along with having to be taken outside quickly and quite frequently all night long. That made for a lot of stress and concern, but I am happy to report that she is just fine now. Apparently something just had to literally work its way out.

Tomorrow I will share more about the Birthday Party and other pictures.

For tonight I would just like to thank the Lord for being with us all the way there and back, and that except for Sugar having a tummy bug, everything else went very well.

Psalm 66:1-4

1 "Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!

2 Sing out the honor of His name;

Make His praise glorious.

3 Say to God,

“How awesome are Your works!

Through the greatness of Your power

Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.

4 All the earth shall worship You

And sing praises to You;

They shall sing praises to Your name.” Selah

Amen and Good night for now.