Its been awhile, but. . .

We've been travelling some more. We made our "Christmas" trip to Georgia to visit Trey's side of the family and some friends we haven't seen in quite a while.

We started with a trip to the "mountains" of north Georgia and the home of our friends, Nikki & Nathan. The mountains were a bit shorter than what we're used to, but very pretty nonetheless. We suggested a little geocaching to get some exercise and explore some more country. To Nikki's dismay, we may have signed up another 'cacher in Nathan. Hopefully the search for a GPS doesn't interfere too much with his work and school! Jason & Nathan try to get into the first geocache at Ellijay, GA. Aside from the graffiti, the view was great.

Nikki and Nathan were troopers and hiked more than half a mile with us to find this one near Cherry Log. It made us late for lunch at the apple house, but we worked up an appetite for the homestyle southern cooking (and sweet tea!).

Lets just say the scenery was the 'cache at this location. Between hurrying because of the chilly weather (yep, it followed us--they closed school the next day when they called for snow) and the trees (ALL the trees!) messing with the GPS, we didn't find this one. Very cool creek, though.

After our too-quick stay in Ellijay, we hooked up with Trey's parents closer to Atlanta. After a "family day" with Grandpa and Grandma (and a visit to Lenny's sub-shop!), we took a road trip with Trey's parents. This time we went south of Atlanta to the Griffin area.

We used the gift certificate my parents got us for a bed and breakfast there (yeah, for our anniversary almost a year ago) and Terry and Linda were good enough to chauffer and join us for the adventure.

Besides the 150+ year-old plantation houses and history of the area (of course) Trey was quite excited to find a Dwarf House--one of the original "Chick-Fillet" restaurants. I was quite excited to feel so tall (for once) at their main entrance.

We knocked off another geocache in a confederate cemetery before leaving Griffin. This one was marking the lone "yankee" buried there. I found the interpretive signs quite interesting--Seems as though folks in the South are big on the details of their valliant fight with the North, but the signs don't say much about how the Civil War turned out.

After a "quick" stop at an outlet mall for the gals to do a little shopping, we headed back to start preparing for Trey's big birthday party.

Okay, so it wasn't all work. Terry got his Harley out and I scored the bike for a quick ride in between our draining a tank of helium and most of guests arriving. Most surprisingly, I didn't notice Terry breathing the gas or drinking anything before he offered me the keys!

Between the owner of the mexican restaurant donning a set of Groucho Marx glasses (complete with giant eyebrows and matching nose) and singing to her, all the visitors, and the trip, Trey had to have had a happy birthday. I was too busy listening to all the stories and eating to notice for sure, though!

Of course it all went too fast. Then, we had to rush from the airport to our house, change clothes and hit the ice for our last regular-season broomball game. Despite the jet lag (and all the sweet tea), our team held the veteran team to a 0-0 tie. On to the tournament. . . . and still trying to catch up at work, get the final details in order for the kitchen remodel, travel for Leadership Wyoming, teach a Hunter Education class, and . . . . .