what I did for my summer vay-kay

We just returned from our summer vacation, which was a lovely week of relaxation and snuggle-time. Our 4th anniversary was Thursday, so to celebrate we went to Helen, GA. With help from our family, we were able to get a cabin in the woods for a couple of nights, and take in the somewhat-touristy goings-on in Helen. The cabin was fully-equiped with hottub and jacuzzi, so there was much splishing and splashing going on. Many thanks to those in our family that made the getaway possible. There are more pictures here, by the way.


Since we haven't been on a vacation in a little while, we crammed in quite a few activities. We played minigolf, where we were fed to the mosquitos as we enjoyed the not-quite-challenging course amung the roses. Michelle won by one shot, but if it wasn't for those derned bugs... We also hit the town, which has a german alpine kinda theme (apparently Oktoberfest is the thing here). There were some cute shops, but mostly the usual trinkets, like shotglasses with your name on it. Not quite our speed. Thankfully there is a state park nearby, and since we were there the Thursday before Labor Day, we had the little beach to ourselves (after we found it). So we parked our chairs in the shallows, had the little fish come say hello, and had a splashing good time. Not being big on german fare, we had our anniversary dinner at the seafood place on the river, where Michelle had a large pile of snow crab, which was followed by a romantic and refreshing carriage ride through the town. Sometimes life is better in the mountains.


The next day we found the cure for the trinket stores: a really cool pottery store on a trout stream. They have so much beautiful and affordable pottery that we couldnt resist picking up a few lovely items. They also have some pet trout out back, to which we of course said hello. After lunching by the river, we headed toward home, stopping at Brasstown Bald, which is Georgia's highest mountain. Although it seems odd to be to ruin a lovely mountain by putting a big old building on top, we still couldn't resist going up and taking it in. The weather was quite clear and rather un-Georgian for late August. Beautiful indeed. Oh by the way, apparently the excuse for the building is a fire lookout.


We found ourselves at home a few hours later, and the fun didn't stop there. We declared an in-town vacation, so we went to the zoo, a baseball game, and a park by the lake before the long weekend was over. It was so good to relax together and forget about our daily concerns. Many thanks for your prayers for Michelle's health, as she was feeling great pretty much the whole time. God is so good to us.