We're Back!

We had a wonderful time.  Caution: vacation pictures ahead.  Read on at your own risk!   We really didn't go very far afield, but we did go to the North Georgia mountains which are about a 45 minute drive from here.  We left Wednesday after noon.  We went out to lunch to kill time until we could check in , we thought, at 1:30.  Unfortunately we arrived at the cabins only to find we had to wait to check in til 3 pm.  We decided to drive around a bit and ended up in a little flea market.  Not much to write home about, but it killed some time.  We also found a covered bridge my dad told me about

This bridge was built in 1890 after the original bridge was washed away.  I am sorry to say there have been quite a few people vandalizing the bridge.  If you look closely you can see the vandalism.  But we walked across the bridge and it seems so solidly built I am sure it will be here for another century.
.  By the time we got checked into our cabin there really wasn't much we could go do in Helen.  Most of the shops start to close down around 6 or so.  Instead we went to an ice cream parlor.  They serve Mayfield Ice cream and it was yummy.  Yea, I come by my weight honestly.......Anyway.  Thursday was our main gallivanting time.  We set out to breakfast at this cute, cute cute restaurant called Hofer's restaurant in Helen Ga.  Helen is a small town in White county Ga that is built to resemble a Bavarian Town in the Alps.  Hofer's lives up to the image.  It is a bakery/ restaurant.  Everything in the restaurant is Shipped over from Germany.  The waitresses all wear dresses with full skirts and a ruffled apron.  Cute.  I tried to get a picture of a gorgeous dough bowl on top of the china cabinet, but I couldn't get a good enough pic to do it justice.  I was however enamored of the coffee pot with which they brought our coffee. Here it is

And there are no coffee creamer packets.  Oh no.  They bring the cream in a little matching pitcher with cute little coffee cups.  I felt like we were having a tea party.  Oh and should you guys think I would forget about the food(you don't know me very well).  Our breakfast was great and plentiful.  We were planning on stopping back by to purchase some baked goods to take home, but never got back.  We will remedy that later.  Here are some shots of the temptations we were faced with:

I can feel my waist expanding as I look at these.  Yummy.  Now I know why fat people are jolly.  Beats the heck out of  a celery stick!  Anyway.   We also went to Habersham winery and tasted a couple of different wines.  We bought a peach one that was really good.  We went to a coffee shop called Jumpin Joe's and bought some caramel delight coffee.  It was really good.  The lady running the place was very sweet and helpful........and....uh....ENERGETIC!  I commented to my Dh that I believe the saleslady had tried a little too much of the product.   Just sayin.  My absolute favorite place is Nora Mills.  It is a water powered stone mill that still mills its grains each day to sell.  In addition to that it has all these little things like old fashioned candies, home canned goods, cast iron pots and other old timey kitchen essentials.

I have found they have the best price on wheat germ so next time I need some wheat germ that is where I am going.  They also have 50lb bags of wheat berries you can buy for $35.  These wheat berries do sprout so Kristen that is for you....and me if I can steal your bread recipe!  Went went a few other places: The Old Sautee store, lunch at the Nachoochee Grill, a two floor antique shop, a collectibles shop, and we topped it off with a hike to Dukes Creek Falls.  The trip down to the falls if fine cause you get to go down hill, and down, and down.  It is a mile down and a mile back.  The path zig zags.  You have three levels til you reach the bottom.  The middle level is deceptively "level"  When you are coming back you realize it is not level, but is still a gradual incline.  The final level before you reach the parking lot (this is one the way back up) will increase your prayer life exponentially.

So that is our mini vacation.  We came home Thursday night instead of leaving first thing in the morning Friday Morning.  Much to our sons dismay, who were loving having the run of the house.  Nice to be missed right?
So today has been an out door gardening day.  I have picked tomatoes, limas, my watermelon, pinto beans, navy beans, and a couple of peppers.  Now I am going to sit and watch something and shell beans, and more beans, and more beans.....   Fall is looking pretty good right now.  So I have to go now.  See ya round the block!