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.

Stone Mountain

 This past week was our school system's fall break, so we decided to head to the mountains.  On the way up, we stopped for two nights in Atlanta to visit Cassie and go to Stone Mountain.  Stone Mountain is actually not a mountain at all, but a large, exposed rock.  On the side of Stone Mountain is the world's largest relief carving.  This carving features confederate heroes Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson on horseback.  Brian and I have not been to Stone Mountain in a long time, and we were surprised by how much they have added.  We spent a full day in the park and were still not able to do everything.






First on the agenda was riding the "ducks"- military amphibious vehicles.  Our driver provided us all with whistles that made duck sounds so that we could get into the spirit of the tour.  These whistles, by the way, were blown almost non-stop by all children for the duration of the tour.  We drove around for a bit and learned about the history of the mountain.  Then it was time for the main attraction- driving into the lake. The kids thought that this was cool, and there were lots of "oohs" and "ahhs" when the vehicle took the plunge.  We cruised around for a bit and then the driver asked if anyone would like to try driving the duck.  Both Owen and Olivia tried their hand at it.  

After our tour on the ducks, we headed to the ropes courses.  The kids were both tall enough to do the high ropes course.  I don't have any pictures because they wouldn't let us have anything in our pockets when we did this.  The high ropes course was awesome.  We were strapped into a safety harness and then we completed four stories worth of obstacles.  We crossed narrow platforms, walked on tightropes, and did all sorts of fun things during our trek.  Olivia was a little nervous about the height at first, but she conquered her fear and was doing all of the hard stuff by the end.  We even completed the challenge level.  Afterwards, the kids did the same types of activities on the low ropes course.  Since these ropes were just a few feet off the ground, they didn't have to have a safety harness (and I could take pictures).

 After completing the ropes course, we had lunch and then took the train ride around the base of the mountain.  The train ride was nice, but it just made us want to get to the top.  So, once we got off the train, we walked over to the cable car and rode to the summit.  From the top, we could see the skyline of downtown Atlanta.  We walked around the top of the rock for a bit and took lots of silly pictures.  After coming back down we let the kids play in the "great barn" play area until it was time to go.  We all agree that Stone Mountain is a fun place to spend the day and we hope to return at some point in the future.

Rec Night

Owen is playing flag football this year.  So far, everything is going well with that.  To show support for the local rec programs, the high school football team invited all rec football players and cheerleaders to participate in the warm-up at one of the home ballgames.  All rec participants and their coaches got in for free (and thanks to a lady at the gate who had an extra ticket so did I).  Owen's team got to sit on the side of the field while the high school players warmed up.  When it came time to stretch, Owen and his team got to go on the field and stretch too.  Then, the high school players gave the younger boys high fives on their way to the locker room.

When it was time for the high school players to break through the banner, the rec players got to follow them through the banner and onto the field.  The band was playing and everyone was cheering.  Owen really liked this. This was the first time I've been to a high school ballgame in about a decade (and Owen's first time).  We had a good night of watching football and eating popcorn.  We only stayed until the end of the first quarter, but the Bears were winning when we left and ended up winning the game.

Timber!

 Daddy is having some of the timber near our house cut down.  He is going to turn this land into a field. We have all been accustomed to seeing this area as a forest for so long that it is going to look weird seeing it without trees.  Hannah and I decided to go take some pictures of this land before all the trees are gone.  The kids wanted to go too, and were interested to see all of the logging equipment.  Below are some of the better pictures.