Tuesday, September 8, 2009

All Good Things Must Come to an End

An old English proverb says that "all good things must come to an end," and, unfortunately, that is true of our family vacation. The time passed way too quickly, but a good time was had by all, and we have lots of fun memories to last until next year's trip. Of course, we will see each other again before then, but our vacations are really the only times we have a whole week together under one roof.

And speaking of one roof, here is a picture of the Fallen Timber Lodge, where we stayed in Blue Ridge, Georgia ...

Fallen Timber is just one of several luxurious lodges available from Mr. Gary Knight at Cabin Rentals of Georgia. If you are planning a getaway to the Blue Ridge area, I highly recommend that you visit Gary's beautiful website and check out his gorgeous accommodations.

I'd like to share a few pictures I captured of the beautiful Ocoee River, near the Ocoee Whitewater Center, which is about 20 miles from Blue Ridge.

The Ocoee Whitewater Center site was constructed for the purpose of holding the 1996 Olympic Canoe and Kayak Slalom competitions. This was the first time these events were held on a natural river and it was appropriate the Ocoee should be chosen as the site as it was already one of the most popular whitewater rivers in the world. And they don't call it "whitewater" for nothing!

[I hope you will click on the pictures to enlarge them]

I'll have more pictures of the rapids (complete with action shots) in another post, but for now I'd like to share a few of my favorite pictures of the river.

I love the contrasting colors of the leaves and grasses and rocks in this picture ...

I'm not sure what the little yellow wildflowers are, but aren't they pretty growing along the river's edge and in and amongst the rocks ...




I love these drifting along with the currents under water ...


I hope you enjoyed seeing these pictures of the Ocoee River. I'm looking forward to sharing some of my action shots of the kayakers and rafters, as well as pictures of our granddaughter Avery Grace's first boating adventure.

I hope you will come back to visit soon.

4 comments:

Merisi said...

Such a basketful of memories,
thank you for sharing them!

I fondly remember my travels down there.
It is a beautiful country, indeed!

RachelD said...

Oh, Janie!!

What a lovely, peaceful place! I especially love the pictures with all the yellow flowers; the first one is just a rampant abundance, with the long stems of their pinker fellows stretching their necks highhigh as if the joy of the sun has caused their tips to burst into flame.

And the little ones beneath the water---I wonder how they live there---they seem to just bow with the flood and keep their feet. There's a parable in there somewhere.

Looking forward to more!

Beth at Aunties said...

Oh Janie,

I am so glad I had time to visit today and see some of your lovely vacation with loved ones.
It all looks spectacular! What a gorgeous place to go to build lasting memories.
I so enjoyed the picture of Avery Grace with her great granddaddy.
I am glad you had a wonderful time.

Just maybe someday our family could rent one of his lovely lodges in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains! We are 21 strong with just our kids and grandchildren as of last Wednesday. We will have our 12 grandchild in Feb! So we would need a very large lodge:) But oh, how fun! Love your photos!

Marjorie (Molly) Smith said...

As I always say, your pictures are so beautiful. I love that River the views are always so beautiful and you captured them perfectly.