Mountains, BBQ and American Girl

If you haven’t read yesterday’s post, please do!  It will explain why we made a trip to Northern Georgia this past weekend.  There were a few non-medical related tidbits I thought I’d share.

First off, I had no clue Georgia had mountains.  Although if I’d stop and thought about the fact I’ve been to Stone MOUNTAIN twice I would have put two and two together.  I struggle with the common sense sometimes.  So I guess I was kind of shocked when we got off I-85 in Georgia and started heading deep into the mountains.  By the time the GPS said we were just 15 minutes away and nearly dizzy from the hair pin curves, we found ourselves atop a mountain with the Appalachian Trail somewhere nearby.  We stopped at this little store perched on the top of the mountain. 

While it looks like it might just be a rest stop, it was packed with high quality hiking gear and local art to buy.  We loved the views.

    

 

Blairsville, GA turned out to be a tiny little town.  They did boast a Zaxby’s, Fatz Cafe, Bi-Lo, Ingles and WalMart but overall, this was a small mountain town still teeming with local businesses.  The hotel I had chosen was family owned.  In fact, the owners live on site.  The decorations were humble but it was super clean, the staff was more than nice and more importantly, cheap.

The funniest moment was Emma trying to work the TV and saying, “It won’t go to 2-9-9!”  Those with DirecTV and kids will appreciate that joke.

Since we didn’t stop once other than the little mountain store, we were all ready to get out and get some dinner as soon as we got there.  We decided on a local BBQ place.  I was hesitant but Scott said you know if you go to these local places, they do it right.

This particular restaurant had recently moved to a new location.  Don’t those roosters crack you up with Scott sitting there?  Well, dinner was no laughing matter.  It was DELICIOUS.  Honestly, some of the best BBQ and baked beans I’ve ever had.

After dinner, we made a quick loop around town.  Speaking of, on the trip we ran into all these small towns that had one huge building in the center of town with a round-about   Here is the picture from our hotel parking lot of the center of Blairsville.  Do you have these in your town?  I think there might be some here in South Carolina but ours isn’t like that.

 

We realized that this little town was still holding up many locally owned business.  Isn’t this little grocery store Foodland a hoot?  The last thing our town had like that was Piggly Wiggly and they closed probably 20 years ago.

We realized quickly that most of the town shut down about 6pm.  Scott couldn’t talk the girls into strolling the aisles of Home Depot for the evening so we settled in to our hotel room and watched American’s Funniest Home Videos on Netflix on the laptop.

Saturday morning I was happy to eat at the nearby restaurant Cook’s.  If the town’s BBQ was any indication, breakfast was going to be good.

And it was.  I tried to stay healthy and only ordered one egg and grits with orange juice.  Emma got toast and you could literally squeeze the butter out of it.  So bad but so good!  We were drooling over the biscuits and gravy at the next table.

After the doctor’s appointment which ended about lunchtime Saturday, we headed south 90 minutes to Alpharetta, GA, the home of one of the American Girl stores.  We nearly took the girls at the beginning of January.  I had the hotel booked and everything but decided against it last minute.  I’m so glad we were able to bundle all this together!

The girls had an amazing time.  Lexi was beside herself driving up to it.  She had her hands over her mouth and I said, "Lexi, where are we?” She just said, “I can’t even say it,” through her hands.  Cutest thing ever.

The store was an absolute mad house even given the size. This is only about a third of the store.

 

What I loved though is that every single outfit they had was on display on a girl.  No more looking at catalogs and the Internet!  We tried to get into the doll salon to have their hair fixed and the bistro but they were booked solid.  The girls ended up with two really cute outfits.

 

I had the girls pick out the outfits online before we went so we wouldn’t be there too long.  Emma is so indecisive.  Well, they were done in less than 20 minutes and that included a potty break.  We got done and had plans to explore the mall.  We spotted a carousel and a sign for the Cheesecake Factory but we were all so ready to go home we hit the road right away.  Well, with Starbucks in hand.  So yes, we drove 90 minutes for a 20 minute excursion.  Whatever.  The kids were satisfied and Scott and I in a mall are dangerous anyway.  One day we might get back to Atlanta to visit the Coke Museum and Aquarium.

When we got home at 8pm, we couldn’t believe that we had been home at lunch time just the day before.  It certainly was a whirlwind 30 hours.  As hoped though, very productive and full of great memories.