Days To Remember G's Blog

 

Helen, Georgia is a bit like Pigeon Forge only a smaller scale.

It is fun to go sight see, the little town is has a German architectural style.

It is cute, but the shops are mostly souvenir shops.

 

Page, my resident photographer, captured some beautiful landscape photos of the falls.

He also was able to capture some amazing shots of our kids and family.

I am so thankful to have these wonderful photos to capture our vacation.

Memories made and photos to remind of us those memories.

 

While in Sautee-Nacoochee, Georgia we stayed very close to Unicoi State Park where Anna Ruby Falls is located........right near Helen, GA.

Maggie Beth is living the thug life.........she cracks me up.

The Falls were beautiful.  

We hiked a lot this vacation.  This was just one of the three Falls that we went to.

The kids found all kinds of creatures on our hikes.

 

 

At the gold mine we learned the history of mining in Georgia and learned about the gold rush.

Fun fact......this particular mine is now underneath a Wal-Mart.  

And this is where they had the largest find of gold in quartz veins.  Above you can see where they found the largest deposit.  It was very cool.  

We walked about half a mile into the mine.

Our guide demonstrated the techniques of the old time miners.

Here are some old mine carts.

Hezekiah got to be a guinea pig for our guide to show how the miners use to pick to mine the gold out of quartz.  Hezekiah was a bit uncertain about holding the nail that the guide was going to hammer at.  

We went over to Dahlonega to pan for gold and mine for gems.

This was a great trip for Eli.   He told me a few weeks ago that when he grows up he wants to be a gold miner, a potter, and a LEGO designer.  

He got to check out 2 of the 3.

Panning for gold was pretty cool.  There is a method.  We watched a video on how to pan, but we had a nice fellow help us out too.  All of my children were ending up with water all down their front as they panned.  They were panning toward themselves instead of away.  

 

Maggie Beth is checking out her pieces of gold.  

 

We also got to find gems in a huge pail of sand.  

The kids absolutely loved doing this.  

Maggie Beth even had to do it again later in the week at another fine mining establishment.

 

After mining our gems and panning for gold we went on a tour of the old gold mine.  

We also learned about the history of gold mining.  

 

Above is the Nacoochee Mill, where they use a hydraulic powered mill to grind corn, etc.

Here we got to see the Chattahoochie River flow and turn the mill.  

This was a really cool place. 

 

Also in Helen, Ga the only real place to stop and see is Betty's.  

The rest of Helen is kind of like Gatlinburg on a small scale with lots of souvenir shops and some restaurants.  If you are into that kind of thing you will like it.  I am not much of a souvenir girl.  But Betty's is a nice country store.  A bit overpriced for the groceries, but it is the only grocery in town and it is old and cute.  

Sautee-Nacoochee, GA,

Located  near Helen GA, was our home for the last 7 days.

This was our first time renting a cabin.

I saw it on Home-Away and we decided to contact the owner and rent it for the week.

It was exactly as it was described and the pictures matched the pictures on-line.  (I was a bit scared since we never had done this before........Page and I joked that we would end up going to an open lot).

It is 3 levels, a play room with it's own indoor basketball court, pool table that can be converted into a  ping-pong table, and a hot tub. 

It was AWESOME!! 

Quiet, lovely, and this was part of the drive to the cabin.

If you are interested in renting here is the information:  http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p235861
Please use my name as a referral so we get credit for our next vacay!

The cabin comes with its' own guard dog named Bear.

This dog is super sweet and nice and Eli even enjoyed him.  

 

I tried to come up with every way possible that I could take this log cabin home with us..........it was so incredible.  We were super thankful that we were able to take a family vacation here and that the Lord has blessed us to be able to do this.  

We had a blast!