The weekend before Memorial Day, we packed the car (to the roof) and headed to North Georgia for three nights of camping. We stayed at Unicoi State Park and visited nearby Helen, Georgia. The Alpine Village of Helen was kitchy, but fun. We like kitch...a little. It's modeled after Bavaria and boasts the third largest tourist traffic in the state of Georgia (behind Atlanta and Savannah, in the event that guessing the top two towns should keep you up at night). We recommend it should you want to buy an old time photo, eat sauerbraten, and buy a t-shirt that may or may not have anything to do with Germany.
Rosemary was tuckered out from the loooong trip to get to Unicoi (we hit rush hour Atlanta traffic). She napped for a few hours in Jonathan's arms. I took advantage of this and napped too. It was quite relaxing. The first night was pretty chilly so it was nice to sleep while it wasn't so cold out.
Our first full day there we hiked up to Anna Ruby Falls. Well, Rosemary didn't hike. It was a bit steep for her. Plus, we would probably still be there if we went at her pace. She likes to stop and smell the mountain laurel...as well as anything else that strikes her fancy.
Once at the top, we looked around for a bit. We think that this reminded Rosemary a bit of the Butterfly Rainforest as she kept sticking her foot through the rails. Luckily for us, this time her shoes were on good and tight.
Hofer's. The best thing in Helen. By far. It's a quaint little German bakery and everything looked so good it was hard to choose what to buy. After some commiseration, we finally decided on a Bavarian filled donut, a glazed twisted donut, an apple turnover, and a Bavarian pretzel. We liked it so much we even stopped back in on our way home.
Rosemary enjoyed Hofer's too.
On the second full day, we hiked around Unicoi Lake. After some confusion about which way the trail went, we managed to make the full loop. There were some swimmers in the lake, but the water was cold! It had gotten down to 45 degrees the night before.
Jonathan and I took turns carrying Rosemary on the hike. Good thing she's still relatively light.
We ate our lunch in a grassy field near the campsite. I laid down in the grass which meant that Rosemary wanted to climb on me!
She climbed on Jonathan too!
Our camping family.
Rosemary climbed her first tree.
Since there were no bathtubs at the campsite, we had to improvise when it came time to give Rosemary a bath. We filled up our five gallon bucket with some warm water and bathed her during one of the warmest parts of the day at our campsite. She usually loves to get a bath, but this one just seemed too weird for her. At least she was clean.
Jonathan, aka Fire Master, got the fire started for us each day. We typically cooked at least one thing over the fire for most of the meals. This time I think we were going to be having hotdogs. Rosemary wasn't allowed to go past the railroad tie that Jonathan is sitting on in this picture. She did pretty well with that rule.
All in all, we had a wonderful trip.
On Sunday, we spent a few hours on Siesta Key. It was insanely warm and incredibly crowded. I think that I am an east coast girl. I missed the waves of the Atlantic.
For dinner that night, we ate at Marina Jack. Boats could pull up right beside the restaurant and everyone on board could grab a bite downstairs. We ate upstairs in the Dining Room and had a beautiful view of the bay just before sunset.
After dinner, we walked over to Bayside Park.
At the Ringling estate on Monday, we walked in the shade of huge banyan trees. It made such a difference to be in the shade and out of the sun. It rained later in the day--apparently the first rain that they'd had in the last six weeks!
Mabel's Rose Garden
This is from the second floor of Ca d'Zan looking down. It's one of the few houses that you can go through that actually has many of its original furnishings since Ringling left the house to the state of Florida upon his death.
The front exterior of the house.
Here we are on the back terrace, by the bay.
The bay.
The back exterior.
