Bavarian Village & Tallulah Gorge

 

The second day my mom was here, we had another big day planned. My cousin recommended we visit Helen, GA. It is a Bavarian Village about an hour away from here. They happened to be having a Corvair car show going on. We walked through quickly before hitting the town!

This truck/bus was so cool! We had never
seen one before!!

 It was so fun to walk through all of the shops! We met some very interesting locals :) As we were leaving her shop, one lady told us a story about her trying to quit smoking... Her husband bought her a vapor cigarette. The first time she tried it, she felt like she was doing something wrong, so she was hiding it from everyone! She had a deep southern accent, and made the story VERY animated! It was so funny to watch haha

One of our favorite shops was Windmill Dutch Imports.

For those of you who don't know, Josh is Dutch. His Dad is very heritage oriented (??? I don't know how else to say that!) We love to look at all of the wooden shoes and windmills. Of course the candies are the best! Hoppies and Almond Fingers are a must buy every time we see them :) My mom and I spent some time in a quilt shop looking at all of the beautiful patterns. There was a fun candy shop with amazing fudge! For lunch we found a traditional German restaurant. They had amazing German Potato Salad! (It is made with vinegar and nearly mashed potatoes. Served at room temperature. Yumm!) Before we left, we found a coffee shop that had just roasted fresh coffee! It was so yummy :) The town was filled with so much character! We can only imagine what it might be like during Octoberfest!

Don't we look cute!! Next Halloween??

Wooden Toy Shop
We played there for way too long :)

 

After wearing out our legs, we decided to get back on the road and head toward Tullulah Gorge for a short hike. Everybody sells boiled peanuts and pork rinds on the side of the road here. We don't care for the boiled peanuts (they are like beans!), but we LOVE the pork rinds :) I know the whole concept is kind of gross, but when a local character offers you his homemade goodies, you don't say no :) We had seen a sign on our way into town, so we went back. It was a little shack with something smoking out front. My mom and I went up to buy them while Josh waited in the car. Oh man did we find a character!! My mom could hardly understand him. He offered us a taster of his Brunswick Stew. When he handed mine to me he says, "Ur gramma get a taste uh that she be jealous!" HAHAHA I couldn't help but laugh!! I asked him what came on his rib plate. He rattles off a list of about 5 sides then says, "And if you want some uh tha Brunswick Stew I put sum uh that on top too." This guy was hilarious! He insisted we go inside and take a "tour". We thought it was just a road side shack, but oh boy were we wrong. He showed us the kitchen and little convenient center storage area before taking us out back to a deck with picnic tables. He pointed to an old 5th wheel trailer and says, "Go down there and getcha self a 6 pack. When it gets dark we'll light a fire n you can getcha self another." Please read that line one more time and just picture this old redneck. The best part is... I think this scene is my brothers dream! I bet he could have stayed there all day with that old man :) I wish I would have thought to take a picture with him, but I guess the memories will have to do!

Tullulah Gorge is in Tullulah Falls, GA. It is where the Tullulah River cuts through the rock dome forming a giant waterfall. The series of 5 falls drop 460 ft. in 1 mile! We walked down over 1,000 stairs to get to the bottom of the falls. The Gorge floor was closed due to water release. We crossed a suspension bridge in the middle. It was kind of freaky but completely sturdy :) Josh took some awesome pictures as always! It was the perfect end to another great day in the mountains!

TBT: Braves Game & Stone Mountain

This Throwback Thursday only goes back a couple of weeks. I haven't had any time to blog the last two weeks, and then our internet got shut off :( This is the first chance I have had to catch up on all of the happenings the last few days! There will be multiple posts, so stay tuned :)

Josh really likes baseball, and neither of us had ever been to a professional baseball game. We were planning to see one on our way home, but then we decided to make a quick trip down to Atlanta to watch the Atlanta Braves play the Washington Nationals. The game started at 1:30, so we left early and stopped off at Stone Mountain on our way. Stone Mountain is the largest exposed stone slab in the world with a Confederate Memorial Carving on it. It depicts three Confederate heroes of the Civil War: Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee, and Lt. General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. It was carved by the same artist as Mount Rushmore. They have turned the surrounding area into a theme park. We weren't interested in the theme park, and most of it was closed since it was a Sunday, but the mountain is amazing. They have laser shows at night, so we wish we could have seen that.

 The carving is 3 acres, larger than a football field. The deepest point of the carving is 12 feet deep.

We headed straight to the game after walking around the park. We wanted to check out the stadium and avoid as much traffic as possible. We were glad we did! Parking was crazy!! There were a lot of tailgaters, and some not so nice people. We made it through safely, and watched a little show in the entrance of the stadium. There were little games to play, and the Braves Marching Band was playing. 

One of the attractions inside was a pitching station. Josh threw 71 miles/hour! Some of the other people said it was clocking them slower than their home fields, so he can probably throw even faster than that! 

We got our yummy ball park food and found our seats to watch them warm up! 

We had great seats just behind the Nationals in the second section up. We were able to see the whole field, yet we were still close enough to see the players. We and a perfect view of Braves dugout. 

Josh got some great pictures of the action on the field! 

 We had high hopes to catch a foul ball, but they all went to the right or left of our section :( Here is a picture of a home run hit!


We had a cute old man take our picture. He is an usher, but he was really bored! haha

Day Trip to Atlanta - Coca-Cola Factory!

This weekend we decided to spend Josh's one day off in Atlanta! The drive there was so beautiful! The flowers and trees are really starting to bloom :)

 

It is a little over 2 hours away, so we left around 8 in order to make it there in time to attend the 11:00 church service at Atlanta's Most Historic Church: The Catholic Shrine of The Immaculate Conception. It was amazing! It was the most traditional yet unique Catholic church we have ever been to. They were the most accepting, progressive congregation I have ever met. We were accepted with open arms from all colors, shapes, and sizes :) It makes me so happy to know that such a historical church (built in 1847) is accepting the trends of today's society. There was absolutely no sign of prejudice what so ever! In fact, I loved this experience so much I am going to dedicate a post to it :) 

 

After church we grabbed some lunch at the Waffle House! They are everywhere here, but we had yet to venture into one. They truly are the best waffles! We were in a pretty sketchy part of Atlanta, so the "scenery" was an experience in and of itself. (Yikes! We don't EVER want to live in the city!!!)

 

Next stop... the Coca-Cola Factory!!! We had no idea Coca-Cola world was in Atlanta until we started asking around for things to do. It was the best suggestion! We had a blast :) We planned to spend an hour or so there before heading to a giant park.... 3 1/2 hours later we walked out with a caffeine buzz and a tummy ache :) Not really, but we did try over 60 flavors of soda! Some were pretty nasty, but we discovered a few new ones we wouldn't mind drinking either! 

 

Apart from trying all of the soda, it is quite the attraction! We started out watching/listening to a little history while looking at old and new artifacts. 

We then watched a short video before going into a theatre to watch Coke's new campaign Moments of Happiness. It was a very neat movie on a 2 story big screen. They showed clips of all different happy moments in every day life. After watching the video, the screen raised up to let us enter "The Hub". 

We were free to explore at our leisure. There were different rooms to explore on two levels. 

The Vault of the Secret Formula is supposedly where the only written copy of Coke's formula is... they don't actually let you see it, so I am still skeptical ;) 

 

 

The Milestones of Refreshment room tells the story of how the company evolved with many different ad campaigns displayed. Coca-Cola truly is a brand, not just a drink! 

Coke campaigns with Santa Claus

Olympic Torches

Next is Bottle Works where they show you an actual "bottling factory". They have the machines slowed down to show the process, producing 20 bottles of coke per minute. Most factories produce 2,300 bottles per minute! Josh's favorite, the Fizz Bot, was in this room. Slave Labor haha! We forgot to take pictures in this room! :( Oops!! Here are a few other "bottle" pictures from another room :)

Upstairs was a 4D movie. This was Josh's first and my second 4D movie experience.  The video, Search for the Secret Formula, was in 3D, and our seats moved, we got poked in the back, and water was shot in our face. Kinda different but fun! 

Also on this level, the pop culture gallery showcasing how fans have made the brand an icon, Perfect Pauses Theatre showing TV advertising for Coca-Cola throughout the years, and the Taste It room! 

 

 

The syrup was originally made in a copper bowl
and stirred with a wooden paddle

The syrup was then added
to a dispenser. Fill cup with
soda water & add syrup!

Inside the Taste It room, the soda flavors are dived into continents. There were flavors from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and North America. They also had all of the typical Coca-Cola flavors well known in the U.S., including Powerade and Dasani flavored water. We would taste one continent, then tour a room, taste another continent, tour another room, so on and so forth. It was really fun!

The Melon Frosty was really strong! The next one over tastes like carbonated carrot juice :( Our favorite here was Smart on the end! 

Beverly on the right is nasty!! It tasted like grapefruit peel ground up in soda water! We liked the Mezzo Mix and Fanta pineapple. The bonaqa was basically flavored, carbonated water. AquArius Libre wasn't very good either. 

The Stoney was gross! Both of the Bibo's were basically carbonated juice. We liked the BonBon Anglais the best. 

Here Josh liked the Inca Kola from Peru. I liked Manzana Lift from Chile (it is apple flavored!) 

 We also had our picture taken with the Coca-Cola Polar Bear! 

You get a bottle of coke to-go!

We tried to tour CNN, but it was closing right when we got there :(

 

 Coca-Cola world wore us out, so after we grabbed some dinner at The Flying Biscuit. No, the biscuits didn't actually fly like on TV :( We were kind of disappointed, but the food was good! Josh had school this morning, so we headed home right after. It was a fun little day trip getaway! Well needed, and well worth it :)