Little River Canyon, Alabama

Today we left Dalton and went south through some back country roads to the bottom of Little River Canyon in Alabama. I discovered this place a few years back and was wanting to get back and drive the whole route. It has some serious twisting curvy roads. When we first got on it I was sure I had made a mistake. The roads were so steep you almost needed 4 wheel drive to get up them, but it got better quickly and soon we only had sweeping........................

curvy roads.............. some

went down steep grades and other went up.......................

If you click on this picture you can see the road that follows the canyon. It is to the left of the river gorge. Quite an adventure.

The falls wasn't doing much today. I'm sure it is after a good hard rain.

This is the canyon below. The road you follow goes down on the left side and winds back to the right.

This was mushroom rock. They built the road around it.

Little River falls from a distance and then.....................

up close. There was a nice walk way to get closer to the falls.

This is the Tennessee River in Chattanooga from the Boathouse Restaurant where we had lunch

Great ending to a very gorgeous fall weekend get-a-way.

Georgia Mountains

Today we headed east to the Georgia Mountains. We followed twisty curvy roads and came upon Amicalola Falls. Of course we went the hardest way you could go. There were 425 steps down to get to this point of the falls and another 157 more steps to the bottom. (which we didn't do)

This picture was taken with my zoom lens. The sun was beautiful shining on the water.

And yes we were in for our workout for the day. 425 steps back up to the top. Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After leaving there we drove through more curvy roads before getting to Helen, GA. We have been here two other times, but it is such a cool town. All the buildings are built the same. They all have the German look to them.

This is Paul's restaurant which has the best Prime Rib I have ever had, but the main restaurant didn't open until 2:00 and we were ready to eat. The very back far left is all an open area that overlooks the creek. It is more of a sports bar, so that was were we ate.

These were some beautiful birds. This sweet looking one took a chunk out of my hand.

There she is acting all sweet and innocent.

This lady was holding this bird and said she was very shy and all of a sudden he jumped over to..

Buddy. He was a bit surpised and wasn't sure what to do. I think she liked him. :)

The flowers are just beautiful here. Not sure how much longer they will last.

After leaving there we took Hwy 60 back toward Dalton, and yes Buddy had some fun on the curvy roads. We passed several motorcycles at one of the sharp turns and one didn't quite make it. He was in the ditch and not moving. Sure hope he is okay. Several emergency vehicles were headed that way.

This was at an overlook at Fort Mountain.

Weekend Get-A-Way

We had some free nights ChoiceHotel points we had to use before the end of the year, so decided to take off for the weekend. At first we were going to go the Eastern part of Kentucky with lots of twisty curvy roads. But, after seeing how cool it was going to be we decided to head south. Just south of Chattanooga is the Battlefield of Chickamauga. There is a seven mile driving tour that takes you all around it. The visitors center closed at 5 so we weren't able to get a map to be able to tell us what we were seeing, but it was very interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chickamauga Tomorrow we will be taking back roads through the North Eastern Mountains of Georgia.

Shelby's 2nd Birthday Party

Shelby's birthday party was today and all she wanted was a purple flower cake. This has been the easiest cake we have done. The ice cream cones were two different size cupcakes and then you put icing on them and they look like ice cream cones. The party favors were the bowls that Kristin found at Hobby Lobby. They fixed their own sundaes in them.

You could either have a brownie sundae, make your own sundae or the specialty made by Cindy Holland, a good old fashion banana split. This was where you started and then you moved on to......

Oh my, can I say sugar heaven. You add your own toppings to your ice cream. Of course first in line was........

the birthday girl, with her own special bowl. She loves ice cream. Then along came big brother.....

Mitchell and he made his own sundae. Then after all the kids were served...........

they ate outside. All of them getting on their sugar high. Sorry, mom's & dad's.

You could have a 1 scoop, 2 scoop or a 3 scoop boat. Most chose the 3 scoop. This was Danielle's

I think Jonathan's had to be the best of the show. Thank's Cindy for your creative work. And then there was a nice..................................

Fruit tray for the healthy folks. Hmmmmm. Don't look like it has been touched. After the carb high, it was time for Shelby to..........

open her presents. She got lots of dress up stuff. That is her favorite thing to do. Loves beads. She got necklaces, rings, hi-heels.

Books

Cleaning things, because she loves to help clean house. I hope she still likes it when she gets older. I will sure put her to work, because that is my least favorite thing to do.

After opening all her presents, it was time for the...............................

cake. After blowing out the candles..................

she very gently put her fingers in the cake. Unlike the last several that we have made for the boys. and then it was time for a taste. She wanted to share so she gave...............

Grandmother a bite. If Ice Cream & cake wasn't enough, why not have......................

an Ice Cream Cone Cupcake........... It was funny when she took it, because she thought it was a real ice cream cone. She was licking it. And if that wasn't enough sugar for the rest of them, some

others had to have more. Mitchell just made his own sundae in his mouth. And best of all..........

we got a picture with Mom & Dad with all their great grandkids. Baby Garrett is a sweetie and now there is another one on the way for Jeremy & Katie. What a great day.

Our little princess. I hope you had a good day Miss Shelby.