Fall Break - Tuesday

Tuesday we started out with one of the best hotel free breakfasts we've ever had. Biscuits and gravy, eggs, chicken, waffles, etc. The kids were just excited to get fruit loops, which I never buy. After breakfast we drove up some windy mountain roads to hike Brasstown Bald, the highest mountain in GA at 4784 ft. Jake pointed out this is lower than the elevation of the city Colorado Springs. But for my southern kids it's pretty high! Gavin was a little nervous on the drive up - I calmed him down by telling him about how Pop pop and Uncle Gary had cried when they were little and their family drove up Pike's Peak. At least our road was paved and 2 lanes. I was not a fan of all the windy mountain roads, even going the speed limit it seemed like we were going way too fast to me. Luckily Jake enjoyed the driving. We parked at Brasstown Bald and hiked the remaining .6 miles to the top up a steep but paved trail : 

 This is when the kids first stopped to really look at the view - they were in awe:

 That white dot in the parking lot is our Jeep, where we hiked from:

Here's what the aerial view looks like, pretty cool:

The kids enjoyed the visitor center and Gavin did a scavenger hunt to win a souvenir carabiner.

 

 Amelia was most impressed by the animatronic park rangers:

Jake and Gavin hiked back down the mountain and Amelia and I took the shuttle. I was afraid she'd splatter on the steep downward inclines. Then we drove over to Sleepy Hollow, a business owned by a former Disney imagineer. He makes whimsical fairy houses, bird houses, and play houses: 

 We stopped for a pizza buffet lunch in Blairsville, then did some hiking in Vogel State Park:

 On the way back to the hotel we stopped for some ice cream and bubbles at the Old Sautee Store:

We all went swimming back at the hotel and went to bed early after a long day of exercise.

Fall Break - Monday

After our Florida trip this past May I started planning a trip to Chattanooga over Gavin's fall break from school. Jake has been wanting to go hiking in the mountains forever and Amelia is old enough to take short hikes now so it sounded like a great idea. Then this summer plane tickets got super cheap, so we decided to fly out to Colorado Springs to see Jake's parents and hike in real mountains. I planned out the whole trip and had the rental car and hotel booked. We were to fly out Oct 6. So that morning we got the kids up and out the door at 1:30 am to head up to Atlanta for our 6 am flight (this is why it was so cheap). The kids got 5 hrs sleep, Jake and I got about 2.5 hrs. On the drive up there were quite a few FL license plates, likely evacuees from hurricane Matthew. Semi trucks were parked all along the side of the interstate, unable to find a spot at full truck stops. We got to the airport, lugged in our 2 big suitcases, 2 backpacks, heavy shoulder bag, and car seat, checked in, and made it through security. We went downstairs to catch the train to concourse D but it was shut down as there had been a fire. So the four of us walked all the way to the last gate on the last concourse with our 3 carry on bags and the carseat. Luckily the kids were troopers and we all made it to the gate with an hour to spare. The kids were excited to see the planes out the window, and had fun eating their special snacks while watching. Then, about 20 minutes after the flight was supposed to board, the flight got cancelled due to mechanical issues. I was handed a paper with a number to call to get another flight. 45 minutes on hold later I spoke to a kind but extremely slow service rep. She kept finding flights, then by the time she entered that we had 4 passengers it would be filled up. Then I asked if we could split up onto different flights, and by then even that wasn't possible. We were offered a flight the next day. I said we'd think about it and hung up. We headed back out to get our luggage off the carousel. At least by this point the train was fixed. By the time we got our bags, went outside, made an emergency bathroom stop, and got to the car we were exhausted. According to Jake's pedometer on his watch we had walked almost 5 miles that morning. Amazingly the kids made it the whole way without having any major meltdowns (Gavin did not care for the tall escalators or the people movers) or needing to be carried. We were quite impressed with Amelia's endurance. It was only about 8:30 am by now, way too early to check into a hotel, even if we could have found one with a vacancy. The news had been reporting they were all booked due to the hurricane. Jake was too tired to drive so I drove home while the others napped, dropping the kids off at my parents along the way so we could get a much needed nap. Along the way we decided to cancel our trip since driving back to the airport the next day with all the hurricane evacuees seemed like a pretty bad idea. And thousands of flights were being cancelled, so there was no telling if things would go smoothly even if we could make it back to the airport. So we went home and recovered from the ordeal. Our plane tickets were refunded and we got $200 vouchers each good towards a future flight. I wanted our family to still have a fun vacation so I quickly planned a trip to the North Georgia mountains. We've never been and the weather up there this week was supposed to be perfect for hiking. And it was! Luckily this impromptu trip went more or less according to plan. We drove up Monday morning, Oct 10. It is only about 3.5 hrs away. Our first stop was in Cleveland to visit the Babyland General Hospital where Cabbage Patch kids are born:

It was a quick stop, but Amelia enjoyed it. The rest of us got a little bored watching the triplet dolls be born but she wanted to keep watching. So we did. Then we ate lunch at the Creekside Deli and made our way up the road to Helen, which I didn't take a picture of but looks like this:

It was pretty busy since it was Columbus day and Oktoberfest was going on. We stopped at the visitor center and then headed out to Anna Ruby Falls, taking the first of many beautiful mountain drives. Gavin was sooo excited to be on a mountain. I didn't bring my good camera this trip because I didn't want to lug it around while hiking, and the kids are not great at standing still to pose for pictures so the pictures are bit lacking this trip. We parked and hiked up (then down) the .4 miles to the top viewing platform for the waterfall. Gavin was scared at first to hike up but he got over it and then had lots of fun. It smelled wonderful in the woods and the temperature was perfect - cool but not cold. A great day to be in the woods.

 Hiking in the mountains makes Jake happy:

 After our hike we checked into our hotel in Helen, within walking distance of everything in the downtown area. They had free cookies all the time which we all enjoyed:

 We then walked around Helen and the kids played at the park for a while:

 We stopped at Wendy's for dinner and then the kids enjoyed a dip in the hotel pool:

A great 1st day of vacation!