Sunday, July 24, 2011

Georgia On My Mind . . .

We just got back late last night from a quick trip to Georgia where we attended an open house in honor of Kristen and Peter's wedding.

Lucky for us, Wes has both a brother and a sister who live there, so we received the royal treatment during our stay and had a great time visiting family.

His sister lives in a wonderful neighborhood. Many of the houses look like they came straight from the story books of my childhood. And the thick woods surrounding the houses seem so magical during the day, and almost eerie when you drive through them at night.
(The loud sounds from the tree frogs don't help that eeriness, I must say)

Being from the Arizona desert, looking out her back window to this beautiful, lush view was quite a treat.
While in town, we wanted to soak up some of the local culture, so we made a quick stop at The Varsity, a very popular restaurant in downtown Atlanta, adjacent to Georgia Tech, that specializes in healthy foods like chili cheese dogs, onion rings and orange freezes. This is a really bad picture (my husband took it very quickly) but I got such a kick out of the "tables" which were actually school desks!
We also had to make a quick run by "The Flying Biscuit" for a snack. We got a buttermilk biscuit and apple butter that was delicious!! (The picture is of Wes and his sister, who served as our Tour Guide Extraordinaire)
And in case you were wondering . . . we also ate some southern fried chicken! (Of course)

But our trip wasn't all about the food. We also had a little adventure. We decided to take a tour around downtown Atlanta on segways!!

Here Wes is practicing before we headed out across town.

And here is the three of us near the end of our three hour tour. The segways were a lot of fun and much easier to ride than I had anticipated. You only use the handlebars for steering. To move forward you just gently move your weight to the balls of your feet, to move backward you put your weight on your heels and to stop, you center your weight. That is it!

But as we scurried up hills in the humidity and heat, we did have a lot of fellow tourists give us envious looks. Seriously--I would look for this kind of tour in any city from now on!

And then of course, we also attended the wedding celebration at Peter's parent's house. They have a beautiful home in northern Georgia and just getting there was an adventure--due to bad traffic and gorgeous scenery.

Here they are greeting some of their guests.
We had a good showing from our family as well. Below are two of my nieces who made the drive up. Brittany (r) also brought along her two little boys.
Wes' brother's family also came along with a surprise--Aunt Celeste and Uncle Vaughn. In this picture is Sunny, Lexie and their mother Dawn (who is Wes' brother's wife-and yes, I know she looks like one of the girls rather than their 40 plus mother!!) And also on the right is my husband's Aunt Celeste.
She and her husband Vaughn totally surprised us by driving over from Kentucky!! Following the open house we went to their hotel and visited for about another hour and half.

And then of course we also got to spend a little time (and I mean very little) with the bride and groom who still appear happily married--after one entire week!
I am hoping to soon get up pictures of the wedding and reception in Arizona but I am waiting on the photographer. As soon as I get some though, I will post them.

And now we are back to our heat. I will have a little time at home before I head off to Colorado for the birth of our third grandchild!!

Life is good. And definitely brings . . . joy to my journey.

10 comments:

Shannon said...

Congratulations! I'm so glad everything has gone so well.

Joy For Your Journey said...

That looks like so much fun! I'm sad we couldn't be there. Glad you got to visit the family!

Joy For Your Journey said...

Hahaha... apparently I'm still logged into your account. Oops. It's Camille, just so people don't think that you've resorted to posting comments on your own blog :)

Emma T said...

Ha ha ha!! That is so funny about your daughter posting a comment on your blog while signed into your account. It totally threw me off. For a minute there I thought you might be a multiple personality or something!!

Glad you had a good time in Georgia. I was going to say that I hope the weather wasn't too hot for you, but then remembered you are from Arizona!

LeAnn said...

What a fun adventure with family and friends. Loved the pictures, I especially loved the ones of the homes there. I would love to see more of the southern states. I have ancestory from North Carolina.
Fun post!

Susan Anderson said...

What a gorgeous home!

Looks like a great time, too.

=)

Julie said...

My daughter and her husband just moved to Atlanta and one of the first things she exclaimed about were the gorgeous homes. I must share this post with her so she can check out those local eateries.

CB said...

Pretty homes - just beautiful!
I love that you all (ya'all - ha ha) rode around on Segways - I have always wanted to do that.

And now on to a grandchild. You are all blessed and very busy but it is fun to read about.

just call me jo said...

I'm jo from the book babble blog (try saying that fast five times....) I just read your comment about the boy on the plane reading "The Help" as a school assignment. WTH? Perhaps the teacher could have found a less feminine viewpoint book to demonstrate the civil rights atrocities. Just saying...Having been a high school English teacher, I can't imagine the flack I'd get for that choice for teens. But, whatever... I like your blog. I'll stop by again. Georgia looks wonderful. I've never been--dang it!

Stef said...

Those homes are beautiful! Wow!! Those skooter things look a little intimidating, but I'll take your word for it that they are fun!