Ellijay, GA

Day 1: Saturday May 24th  We met some of our friends from our sunday school class in Lynchburg, TN to eat at Miss Mary Bobo’s.  Southern food at it’s best.  Then, Brent and I headed over to Ellijay, GA.  Our handy dandy GPS (we call her Maggie, short for Magellan) was spot on with directions until we were 2 miles from the cabin.  Maggie said go this way, the directions from the owner said go another and neither of them made sense.  We were on dirt roads, climbing a steep mountain, in the Camry.  So much for washing the car. After turning around multiple times and passing boys on a 4-wheeler that looked at us like we were trespassing, we finally made it to the cabin.  Wow at the view!  Pictures will be posted soon.  Our cabin is named Cedarwood South and it is stunning.  We immediately opened all the windows and doors to hear the calming rush of the stream at the bottom of the mountain.  After getting settled in, we went back down the dirt mountain road and back in to town to find some dinner and grocery shop.  We ate at River Street Grille and got groceries at Ingles, a place I have never shopped for groceries.  Their name brand is Laura Lynn…I wonder if “Laura” and “Ingles” have anything to do with Laura Ingalls Wilder??? 

Day 2: Sunday, May 25th

I woke up at 8.  The sun peeping through the windows gave the cedar wood (which covers the cabin head to toe) an orange glow. I opened the sliding glass door so I could hear the stream and went back to sleep.  We got up at 10 and, after a quick breakfast of muffins, we went to hike Amicalola Falls.  We stopped by the Visitor’s Center to get an idea of the hiking trails.  The Appalachian Trail starts here and we sure didn’t want take that path!  We took a hike to the middle of the falls where there is a bridge that crosses over the falls.  It is a picture perfect spot.  The hike was “moderate to strenuous.”  Definitely on the strenuous side of moderate. We hiked up steep hills and 344 stairs (that’s 1024 steps less than we could have walked if we wanted to go to the top of the falls), took a few pictures, caught our breath, took a water break, and hiked back down.  Then we got smart.  We got in the car and drove to the top of the falls. Amicalola Falls is the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi.  Came back to the cabin, spaghetti for dinner. 

Day 3:  Monday, May 26th  Our 1st Anniversary!

We had a lazy day.  Got up around 10 again.  Had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Drove to town for some shopping at smelly, dusty antique stores and ate lunch at Poole’s BBQ.  We grilled Nathan’s Hot Dogs for dinner and watched our wedding videos.  We forgot the top of the wedding cake, so I guess we’ll eat it later. 

Day 4:  Tuesday, May 27th

Got up early and drove to Blue Ridge.  Boarded the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway to McCaysville, GA/Copperhill, TN.  Other than the breezy open air train ride, the only cool thing about this trip was standing in 2 states at one time.  We ate at a NASTY wanna-be Johnny Rocket’s where the hamburgers were worse than McDonald’s and an employee ate lunch with her children next to us with their stinky dog.  The shops were boring and had nothing worth buying.  However, when we got back to Blue Ridge, we were able to do some shopping.  There are more shops there and it has that cute small town feel.  We were able to purchase a few souvenirs even though it was pouring down rain the whole time.  We asked the locals where to eat and they directed us to The Cabin Grill.  After we were seated, our waitress, Cathy, introduced herself to us and said she “would be seeing about y’all today.”  Never heard that before.  The food was good. Brent got a steak. I was craving some seafood or some kind of fish so I ordered the pecan crusted trout. That is the first and last time I will ever eat trout. It was very tasty, but I didn’t realize that trout came with the skin still on it and that is the most disgusting thing to peel off fish scales and see the iridescent gray flaky stuff sitting on my plate while I eat the meat. Ugh. I think I’ll stick to salt water fish. We came back to the cabin, stuffed, and sat on the porch while drinking coffee.  A perfect end to a not so perfect day. 

Day 5:  Wednesday, May 28th

We will be going home today.  No one is coming to the cabin immediately after us, so we can leave whenever we want.  We’ll take our time leaving town then head over to Mentone to see my grandparents.  Pop just had back surgery and Mom wanted us to come by if it wasn’t out of the way.  Maybe we’ll get to eat at Winward Farms, which we highly recommend if you are ever in the Mentone area. We’ll be glad to get home.  I miss Sanibel a lot 🙂