Racing for Pinks

This past weekend the kids and I participated in the Racing for Pinks 5k and one mile fun run.  It was pretty hot and humid, so this was not an easy race for any of us.  Olivia started out too fast and ran out of gas.  It was a bit of a struggle to get her to finish at all- but she did.  Owen did pretty good and finished strong.  Both kids got a medal and towel for their accomplishment.  The 5k was also pretty hot.  I finished in 25.15, which is pretty good for me.  As always, there was a big turnout for this race (which benefits breast cancer patients in our area).

Homecoming Parade

As you can probably tell, we didn't get the memo that Owen's team would not be riding in the homecoming parade.  Fortunately the yellow team let Owen and his teammate ride on their trailer.  That was really nice of them.  Owen had a ball riding in the parade.

Legos

 Olivia loves Legos.  She made short work of the sets that she got for her birthday- and she did it all by herself.

A Magical 7th Birthday

 Olivia is 7!  To celebrate her big day we invited family over to have cake and ice cream.  Since Olivia is obsessed with all things Harry Potter, the theme of the cake was a no-brainer.  Hannah made the cutest Gryffindor cake with the appropriate colors, round glasses, and a golden snitch.  I also found an inexpensive Gryffindor robe online and ordered it for Olivia to wear.  She received so many nice things including clothes, shoes, books, Skylanders, and a chess set.  Her daddy and I also gave her some Lego sets (which she has already assembled).

 I told Olivia that since this was her 7th birthday that she could have a party.  She said she didn't want a big party but she did want her cousins to spend the night with her.  So, the older girls stayed with us after the party and they had all sorts of fun.  They danced, listened to music, played hide and seek, and watched movies.  They fell asleep around midnight (except Natalie who was up until after 1).  It was definitely a fun night.

Chestatee Wildlife Preserve

 The original plan was to go to Brasstown Bald, Georgia's highest point following our horseback ride.  The problem was that the trails and visitor's center at Brasstown Bald is operated by the federal government, and we could not visit due to the shutdown.  So, we had to move to Plan B (again). Since it was Olivia's birthday we let her choose between the three back-up activities that I had.  She choose to visit the Chestatee Zoo.  We have been to a lot of zoos, but never one like this.  I'm not even sure that it really was a zoo at all.  It looked like a family had decided to start a zoo and had built pens in their backyard.  This isn't to say that we didn't like it.  It was not expensive and there were enough animals to keep the kids' interest.  I just thought that it was funny that we were essentially in someone's backyard.  Literally- we could see the owner's house from almost any point in the zoo, and their kids got off the school bus at the front gates of the zoo/house while we were there.  This zoo didn't have a many animals, but they did have lions, tigers, and bears (oh my).  I think our favorite was the wolf.  We've never gotten a great look at wolves before because they are always sleeping when we go to the zoo.  The wolf at this zoo, however, was awake and very active.  Overall, this was a pretty fun way to wind up our North Georgia vacation.  You can't really go wrong when you pick an animal-oriented activity to the keep kids entertained.
 

Saddle Up

 Olivia's birthday occurred while we were in the mountains.  We wanted to do something special in honor of our birthday girl, so we booked a one-hour trail ride for our family.  Brian and Owen got to ride a massive horse named "Cowboy Bill" while Olivia and I mounted a smaller horse named "Bo".  Our guide was super nice and great with the kids. We took a nice, even pace for most of the ride, but at the end the guide convinced us to try trotting the horses.  That was pretty fun.  The trail ride was definitely a highlight of our trip.  The kids are still talking about how much they liked riding the horses.  

Unicoi Hiking

 Since we left Helen early, we decided to execute Plan B which involved hiking to Anna Ruby Falls.  Unfortunately, when we got to Anna Ruby we discovered that it was closed due to the government shutdown (the falls lie within a national forest).  So, we visited neighboring Unicoi State Park and hiked the 2.5 mile Lake Loop Trail.  Well, we hiked most of it.  Somehow we got lost and ended up on the side of a road trying to figure out where we were. The hike was fun until we got lost.  The kids got tired of walking down the road trying to find our car, so they ended up staying beside the road with Brian while I ran about a mile (uphill) to the Visitor's Center to retrieve it.  They were gathering firewood when I got back.  I'm not kidding.

Babyland and Redneck Bavaria

On our second day in the mountains we explored the region east of Dahlonega.  Our first stop was the Babyland General Hospital- home of the Cabbage Patch Kids.  Basically this was a huge store that sold all types of Cabbage Patch (and other) toys and accessories.  The main attraction at the store is getting to witness the "birth" of a Cabbage Patch Kid.  I thought this would be cool, but it was actually a little weird.  The experience began with an announcement for all medical staff to stand by because "Mother Cabbage" was in labor.  At that point a nurse went to the cabbage patch that was under a magical tree and gave Mother Cabbage an exam (including a "sonogram").  She announced that Mother Cabbage was dilated to 10 leaves and that she was going to get a shot of "TLC" to help with contractions (like I said, this was a little on the weird side).  Finally, a little baby boy doll was born.  The nurse asked for a name- first and middle- from the audience.  Both of my kids' hands shot up.  The nurse called on Olivia, who gave the doll the first name of "Owen".  Then it was time for the middle name.  There was only one other volunteer, so Owen gave the doll the middle name of "Charlie".  So, we witnessed the birth of the Cabbage Patch Kid "Owen Charlie".  Owen Charlie was then taken to be examined by the nurse and then she brought him out for us to hold (still weird).  I thought that it would be a nice souvenir to adopt Owen Charlie, so I asked the nurse how much it would cost.  The answer was $225 dollars.  What??? Needless to say, Owen Charlie is still probably sitting at Babyland waiting to be adopted.  We ended up buying a cheaper doll for Olivia and a stuffed turtle for Owen.

This day just got weirder as it went along.  After we left Babyland we headed to (Alpine) Helen, Ga. This town is built to resemble a German village. It's like the whole town is "in on" the idea of promoting the town as a bit of Germany in the U.S.  Everything from the architecture to the shops to the restaurants is supposed to whisk visitors away to Bavaria.  A lot of people really like coming here, but we just weren't feeling it.  The problem is that this is not Germany and no one around is German.  It just didn't work for us.  We were there for the Oktoberfest festivities, but we ended up making an early exit.  Instead we headed back up to the mountains for some more hiking.

Hiking Amicalola

We spent one afternoon hiking to Amicalola Falls, the highest waterfall in the southeast.  The hike was two miles and was rated moderate to strenuous.  The strenuous part would be the 604 stairs that we had to climb to get from the base of the falls to the top.  We took frequent breaks.  The trail that we took was also a part of the approach to the Appalachian Trail.  The Appalachian Trail begins on Springer Mountain at Amicalola State Park and goes all the way to Maine.  This was the first somewhat challenging hike that the kids have done, and they really did a good job.  There was no whining.

Here are the kids- maps in hand- at the beginning of our trek.

We followed this stream up until we reached the falls.  It was a very scenic hike.

We hiked back along the East Ridge Trail and were rewarded with beautiful mountain views.  Olivia and Owen kept picking up rocks and asking Brian if they had gold in them.  I guess they were hoping to strike it rich.

There's Gold in Them Thar Hills

 Dahlonega, Ga was the site of the first major gold rush in the United States.  This town served as our base for exploring the mountains of North Georgia. On our first day in Dahlonega we visited the Consolidated Gold Mine.  Our visit included a tour of a portion of the abandoned mines.  This was such a neat tour.  I really enjoyed it.  We saw some of the equipment used to mine gold and were told how the mining process developed over time.  They had even excavated a piece of machinery from the turn of the century that still worked (and they turned it on to prove that it still worked).  The echo that that machine made was something else.  I cannot imagine working in the mine with several of those machines going at the same time.  It would be loud. The mine tour was probably my favorite thing we did while on vacation.  I feel that we all learned a lot about the history of Georgia and about mining in general.

 Here we are seeing a demonstration of how workers used to mine the gold by hand.  .

 There were lots of bats hibernating in the mines.

 After our tour, we tried to strike it rich by panning for gold.  It was a lot harder than it looked.  I think most of the gold that we had probably escaped our pans.  We still ended up with a few specks of gold each- which we got to keep.  No nuggets.  Still, the kids thought that it was cool that they found some gold.