A Blue Ridge, Georgia Family Vacation

This week my family and I will be getting ready for our annual family vacation, which we are going to spend in a beautiful lodge located on a mountaintop overlooking the Toccoa River, near the quaint little town of Blue Ridge, Georgia. This will be our fourth trip to Blue Ridge, and there will be ten of us, ranging in age from 5 to 84.

If you are within driving distance and planning a family vacation or reunion, you might want to consider the Blue Ridge, Georgia, area as your destination.

We love the mountains and the reason we enjoy Blue Ridge is because it offers something fun for everyone, regardless of interests or age. For the adventurous, there's whitewater rafting, hiking, horseback riding, trout fishing, and exploring waterfalls. You can also take a ride on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, explore the abundance of antique and gift shops in the area, or just sit on the cabin porch and enjoy the sights and sounds of the Toccoa River below.

While all of those things are fun to do, I think one reason our family vacations are so enjoyable is because of where we stay. When we first decided on the Blue Ridge area, my daughter and I "googled" luxury mountain cabins trying to find accommodations that would suit the needs of our family. We needed a cabin that would provide enough room for 10 people to comfortably sleep, eat, and relax without being crowded.

We soon realized that that was not going to be an easy task. Oh, we found lots of luxury cabins, but some didn't have enough bedrooms ... others didn't have enough bathrooms ... and still others had (horrors!) carpet and upholstered furniture, which we didn't want (I know, we're picky!). But we're also diligent ... and, finally, one day all our searching paid off. That was the day we discovered a website called Cabin Rentals of Georgia, and we were thrilled with the incredibly luxurious lodges described there.

We soon discovered that they are just as beautiful "in person" as they are in the photos featured on the website.

Custom-built, owned, and maintained by Mr. Gary Knight and his wife, Lissa, the lodges range from 3-5 bedrooms and are elegantly decorated with upscale furnishings and accessories. They feature large gourmet kitchens with top-of-the-line appliances, granite countertops and eating islands, game rooms (with pool tables, air hockey, or table tennis), luxurious bathrooms with granite countertops, hot tubs, fireplaces ... well, I could go on and on, but you can click here to visit Gary's website (Cabin Rentals of Georgia), and see these extraordinary vacation lodges for yourself.

The lodge we'll be staying at this year is called Fallen Timber Lodge. We stayed in it last year and it was so spacious and comfortable for our large group, that we reserved it again this year. Here are a couple of photos:

I know this probably sounds like an advertisement for Gary's cabins, and perhaps, in a way, it is ... but it's because I know what we went through trying to find a perfect place for our family vacations, and if I can help someone else discover the pleasures of Blue Ridge, Georgia, and Gary Knight's beautiful cabins and gracious hospitality, then, so be it.

Working with Gary is truly a pleasure and I know you won't be disappointed. He appreciates your business, and goes "the extra mile" to make your vacation experience a happy and memorable one.

We are all counting the days until this weekend and are looking forward to a happy, memorable, and fun week with all of us under one (large) roof in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. It just doesn't get much better than that!

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.

Good Morning, Sunshine!

This is what greeted me from the porch of our mountain lodge in Blue Ridge this morning. It was foggy and cloudy, but the sun peeked through the clouds long enough for me to capture it with my camera.

I hope your day is filled with sunshine, too!

A Family Getaway in Blue Ridge, Georgia

On April 14th of this year, I wrote a post about planning our family vacation in Blue Ridge, Georgia. Well, 138 days and a lot of planning and list-making later, today's the day we all have been waiting for since that day back in April.

This will be our third trip to Blue Ridge, and there will be ten of us, ranging in age from 4 to 84. We have reserved a mountain lodge located on the Toccoa River, near the quaint little mountain town of Blue Ridge ...

If you would like to read my post from April, and learn more about what there is to see and do in the Blue Ridge area, you can click here.

I'm looking forward to capturing with my camera some of the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains to share with you this week.

A 4th Picture Tag ... "Avery Goes Fishing!"

I was recently tagged by my friend Sheila at The Quintessential Magpie to post the fourth picture in the fourth folder of my pictures file, and here it is ...

It was taken during our family vacation last summer, and that's our little granddaughter Avery Grace trying out her new fishing rod in the Toccoa River near Blue Ridge, Georgia. She was so proud of it and had "practiced" throwing it for weeks before our trip.

Here she is in our courtyard with her daddy giving her a few tips (click on the pictures to enlarge them if you'd like to see the different expressions on their faces up close, especially the last picture) ...

I love the look of concentration on her face in this shot ...

And the look of amazement on both their faces in this picture, as if they're thinking, "WOW! ... what a throw!"

This was a fun post and I appreciate Sheila including me in her tag. I hope you will visit Sheila's beautiful blog, if you haven't already discovered it. She is a sweet, gracious, funny, and smart lady who has a wonderful way with words ... and I know you will love her.

Sincerely,

A Blue Ridge Vacation ... the Rest of the Story!

I recently wrote a post called A Family Vacation in Blue Ridge, Georgia, in anticipation of our vacation, which was August 24th through August 30th.

This is my follow-up story about our actual vacation which, unfortunately, didn't turn out exactly as we had planned.

In order to put things in perspective, I need to back up to July 2007, which is when we spent our first vacation in Blue Ridge. There were 11 of us, ranging in age from two to 85, and we stayed at a luxurious new three story, five-bedroom lodge called "The River's Edge," located on the Toccoa River.

"River's Edge" was built, owned, maintained, and managed by Mr. Gary Knight of Cabin Rentals of Georgia, and was truly elegant, clean, well-appointed, and comfortable. We spent a wonderful week there and have many fond memories to treasure of our time together.

In fact, we enjoyed the Blue Ridge area so much that we decided to spend our vacation there again this summer. Several members of our family like to fish and since the "River's Edge" lodge didn't have easy access to the river for fishing or picnicking, we decided to look for another lodge which did. In January 2008, after "googling" literally hundreds of cabin rentals in the Blue Ridge area, my daughter and I found this pretty house called, "River Ridge Lodge."

[Photo]

The deciding factor was its sloping access to the Toccoa River, and this wonderful gazebo beside the river, complete with fireplace ...

[Photo]

We were so excited and immediately reserved it for August. For seven months, we all looked forward to spending our vacation in such a beautiful house and envisioned a happy, fun week of fishing, picnicking, roasting marshmallows, and just "hanging out" in the gazebo by the river.

Unfortunately, it was not to be ... at least, not at the River Ridge Lodge.

At 7:00 a.m., on Sunday morning, August 24th, we were finally on our way. Upon our arrival (weary after a very long day of traveling, but excited to finally be there), we were very disappointed to find that the condition of the lodge was deplorable. Oh, it was a beautiful house, all right, as shown in the pictures on the website, but those pictures didn't show the debris that greeted us at the front door ... or the disgraceful condition of the refrigerator/freezer and oven ... or ... well, I could go on and on about the dirty and downright unsanitary condition of the house ... but I'm not. Suffice it to say, we were absolutely sick with disappointment.

By this time, it was 10:00 p.m., and after calling the owner/rental agent (who is in California) and advising her of the situation, and getting no support from her or help from the local "caretaker" of the property who is responsible for cleaning the cabin, I called our friend Gary Knight, from whom we rented the River's Edge cabin last year, to see if, by any chance, he might have a five-bedroom cabin available. Luck was on our side ... and Gary was, indeed, our "knight" in shining armor (sorry for the pun, but I just couldn't resist). His Fallen Timber cabin was available and we could check in the following morning, which was Monday.

Needless to say, we were so relieved and after making arrangements to spend the night at River Ridge, we all fell into the "not so clean" beds, too exhausted to do anything about it.

The next morning we packed up and moved to Gary's Fallen Timber lodge, and were delighted to find it clean and spacious and everything we had envisioned River Ridge would be. Here are some pictures of what greeted us at Fallen Timber ...

Views of the Toccoa River from the cabin ...

After surviving the disappointment, stress, and unpleasant situation related to the River Ridge Lodge fiasco, we enjoyed our visit to Blue Ridge. And, although it wasn't what we had planned, we had fun playing games, watching movies, cooking together, sightseeing, hiking, and fishing. Even Avery, our three-year-old granddaughter got to go fishing with her daddy and use her new fishing rod ...

One day while we were there, my husband and I took a short drive to a quaint little "alpine village" called Helen. I loved it and wrote a post about it called, appropriately enough, A Visit to an Alpine Village in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia.

If you ever plan a vacation in the Blue Ridge area, I suggest you contact Gary Knight at Cabin Rentals of Georgia, and check out his beautiful cabins. Working with Gary is truly a pleasure and I know you won't be disappointed.

As for what happened at the River Ridge cabin ... well, that's a story I'd like to stay at the River Ridge cabin.

A Visit to an Alpine Village in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia ...

This is a story about a tiny village called Helen, which is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the Chattahoochee River in Northeast Georgia. Before I share my personal visit to Helen, I'd like to give you a brief history of how it became the quaint Alpine Village it is today.

Helen has a rich history linked to the Cherokee Indians and Indian burial mounds, as well as early settlers who arrived to mine for gold and cut virgin timber for a thriving lumber industry in the early 1900s.

Gold was discovered in the area in 1828, and thousands of miners mined in the foothills for over a century, generating thousands of pounds of gold. The mines around Helen were mined extensively, until mining operations ceased by the end of the century, and settlers moved on.

Timber officials came into the valley, saw huge virgin timber, and built a great sawmill and lumber company in the center of Helen on the Chattahoochee River. The lumber company continued sawmill operations until 1931, shipping to Europe and the United States, until all timber was cut. Settlers again left for opportunities in other places, and by the 1960's, there was nothing left except a dreary row of concrete block structures.

In 1968, local businessmen met to discuss what could be done to improve their town. They approached a nearby artist friend, who had been stationed in Germany. He sketched the buildings, added gingerbread trim, details, and colors to the buildings, giving an Alpine look to the entire town.

In January 1969, business owners and local carpenters began turning ideas into reality. Now, all downtown stores have been renovated and many buildings and cobblestone alleyways added. Faces of buildings were painted with scenes of Bavaria and North Georgia, mirroring the migration of early settlers.

Helen has accomplished much in those 39 years: it has created a new town and industry, providing jobs for more people and boosting the economy of the entire area.

From mid-September through October, Helen hosts the longest
Oktoberfest in the South, bringing in thousands of visitors.

On Friday, August 30th, 2008, my husband and I drove from Blue Ridge, Georgia, down to Helen, which is about a 55-mile drive.

After passing through the town of Blairsville, the road starts climbing and curving around the mountains which is kind of scary to this Mississippi girl to whom the hills of Vicksburg, are quite high enough. The scenery is absolutely gorgeous, though, with water cascading off the high bluffs of rock on one side of the road and picturesque vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains as far as the eye can see on the other side (as long as I didn't look straight down, I enjoyed the views).

This is a picture I took from one of the overlooks along the way ...

After much climbing and zigzagging up the mountain, we finally hit a plateau at about 3,000 feet, and arrived in the quaint little village of Helen.

I had researched the Blue Ridge area before our trip, and Helen was one of the places I really wanted to see while we were there ... and I wasn't disappointed.

My first impression was that it was so clean and pretty and looked like it had been transported from Bavaria, complete with cobblestone alleys and Old World towers.

I have to admit that one of the reasons I wanted to go to Helen, was to visit some of the shops there. The one I was most looking forward to visiting was this shop called "Windmill Dutch Imports" ...

I absolutely love windmills and have collected several paintings and pictures of them, so I was delighted with this beautiful little shop filled with treasures imported from Holland. There were Delft plates, tiles, vases, teapots, clocks, spoons, lamps, and ginger jars, plus wooden shoes, Dutch dolls, and windmills.

Here are some pictures I took while I was in the shop.
(You can click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like)

I bought a couple of the tiles which I plan to
have framed and a little windmill pitcher ...

After leaving the windmill shop, I joined my husband for a walking tour and we couldn't resist going into the Hansel and Gretel Candy Kitchen ...

I'm glad we had already eaten lunch before we visited this delectable shop, because I've never seen such beautiful and delicious looking candy all in one place.

Jelly Bellys !

We bought some peanut brittle and it was so good, we ate most of it on our trip back to Blue Ridge.

After leaving the candy shop, we drove to the edge of town and crossed the bridge over the Chattahoochee River (yes, that's the same river Alan Jackson sang about) ...

I took this picture standing on the bridge ...

It was getting late and after looking at the river, I spared my sweet husband from visiting any more of the shops and we headed back to Blue Ridge.

If I ever have the chance to go back to Helen, here are some of the shops I'd like to visit ...

The Gourd Place(I'm really sorry I missed that one!)
The Christmas Shoppe
Southern Comfort Quilts
Scrapbook Bugz (in Sautee, Georgia)
The Willows Pottery
The Glass Mountain Gallery
Cottage Garden Furniture
Glassblowing Shop, and
The Nacoochee Village Antique Mall

Another fun place to visit which is near Helen, in Cleveland, Georgia, is the Cabbage Patch Babyland General Hospital ...

Known the world over as the birthplace of the "hand-stitched" Original Cabbage Patch Kids, BabyLand General Hospital is a very real place that offers tours Monday through Saturday.

If you'd like to see a list of all the shops in Helen and its vicinity, click here.

I have more things I want to share with you about our trip and hope you will visit me again soon.

Sincerely,