23 Sept 2017, Saturday

This week is the kids’ first Fall break. We rented a cabin in the woods for a few days and spent a long weekend up there — Saturday to Tuesday. (Adam had to leave on Wednesday for work.) We had a fantastic time.  We stayed in the foothills of the Appalachians, on a lake near the top of the intriguingly-named Double Knob Mountain.

We actually had to use 4WD on this trip – all of our hikes were well off the highway on USGS service roads. It was fun to get the truck a bit dirty.

Kitchen area.

Main sitting/TV room.

The covered/screened porch at the back of the cabin. This is where we spent most of our time. We had perfect weather all 4 days … highs in the low 80s, lows in the high 50s and sunshine.

We couldn’t figure out how to get the stove in the kitchen to work (it had some weird deal with the gas turned off) so we cooked all of our meals on the deck grill.

View of the lake from our back deck.

Adam discovered the existence of an old board game called “221B Baker Street.”  It is basically a Sherlock Holmes themed version of Clue … a little different, but the concept is the same.  He bought a copy on eBay for $0.99 and we brought it with us. It was printed in 1977 but still in it’s original plastic wrapper — nobody had ever opened it, so it was like a brand new game. It was weird to see such a new looking game in such an old-fashioned style.  We played it every evening at Wine Time.  We also found a scrabble board at the cabin and played a few games of that.

Isabella when she wins – and she did win the Sherlock Holmes game on night 3.  (Adam won the first game, I won the second.)

24 Sept 2017, Sunday

On our first full day we hiked the Benton MacKaye Trail. The highlight of this hike is the swinging bridge across the Toccoa River. This is the longest suspension bridge east of the Mississippi and it rocks and sways just like you would want it to. Even more when there are 3 kids on it.

Max did NOT like the bridge and we had to leash him up and drag him across.

Now that the swinging bridge is behind him, Max is having the time of his life.  Running top speed through the forest is what he was born to do.

Something about water brings out everyone’s quiet contemplation instincts.

Max is doing his best to maneuver the rocks and not get wet. He does not like water or bridges. He’s much more of a run-wild-in-the-woods kind of dog.

25 Sept 2017, Monday

Breakfast – eggs, chicken and bacon with apple/cinnamon bread from Mercier Orchards.

Max isn’t too proud to scrounge on the floor for crumbs.

Fishing dock in the back yard.

Holden trying his hand at fishing early in the morning before we head out for the day. The lake was stocked with fish, but they were all too small.

For our second hike, we headed deeper into the mountain to Long Creek Falls. This hike is actually part of the official Appalachian Trail. It was fun to run into some hikers who were clearly better geared up, grubby and tired from the long haul.

Holden with his inevitable shoe problems on the Appalachian Trail.

Gorgeous forest, gorgeous weather.

Long Creek Falls.  Not much to do but look at them and rest up for the trip back down to the truck.

Back to the cabin for Wine Time (one of our favorites, Pezzi King), 221B Baker Street, dinner (filet mignon, sauteed mushrooms, onions, spinach and tomatoes), and Scrabble.

26 Sept 2017, Tuesday

Our last hike was the longest – 3.5 miles – doing a circuit walk of Amadahy, a peninsula that juts into Carters Lake. Carters Lake is the deepest of the numerous reservoir lakes in North GA created in the 60s and 70s to provide hydroelectric power and solid water supply to metro-Atlanta.

The kids and Max ahead of us on the winding trail.

Adam and I caught up.  We spent the rest of the hike talking about college, college applications, future jobs for all three kids, hopes, dreams, and fears.  Max sniffed things.

Max runs back and forth enough to do the hike 2-3x what distance we covered.

Then it was the 2-hour drive back home.  Adam had to leave the next day for work, but we managed to get a wonderful mini-vacation full of fun, laughter, relaxation, and memories.