Mountain Trip – Days 1 & 2

We just had a wonderful weekend in one of our favorite places and today I’m recapping the first couple of days!

The kids got out of school at noon last Wednesday for fall break, so we decided to head on up to my aunt and uncle’s mountain house right after they got out of school.  B took the whole day off, he and I packed up the car while they were getting their learn on, and then we grabbed them in the car line and headed straight out.  They were so. excited. 

Unfortunately my fall allergies had settled in the previous afternoon so I made a quick stop at the acute care place that morning because I wasn’t about to risk being in the middle of nowhere without some kind of meds.  I have really bad asthma issues this time of year and it has gotten scary at times, so I wanted to take all of the proper precautions to ensure we didn’t get ourselves into any kind of bad situation.  EEKS!

We grabbed some Chick-Fil-A on the way out of town and hit the open road!  Turns out, I really didn’t need much medication because the fresh mountain air mostly cleared my head and lungs.  Just as soon as we got past the north side of Atlanta my breathing regulated, the ringing toned down in my ears, and my head stopped feeling so explode-ish.  ;o)

It was a picturesque and easy drive and we arrived at the house in the late afternoon.  We unpacked the car, took a little tour of the house, spent a few minutes on the back deck, and then it was dinner time!  We tried a little Mexican restaurant just down the road from the house in Hiawassee, GA that we had never tried, Monte Alban, and it was good… very similar to a couple of our favorite places back home.  B and I opted for margs and the kids enjoyed every little bit of their food because they love Mex just as much as B and I do.  See the chip basket in Olivia’s lap?  Yep, my girl loves some chips and queso!  I could eat it like soup.  Like mother, like daughter, I guess!

We decided to make a DQ stop for dessert since the kids had been so well-behaved on the drive up, and on the way I stopped by the little boutique that has the angel wings wall mural outside!  Y’all know I can’t resist a good wall mural… even if I took a picture there last year!  DQ had a slew of new fall Blizzard flavors, but I opted for my beloved Pumpkin Pie Blizzard while B opted for one of the new ones… Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough.  I had a little taste of his, and y’all, the next time I’ll be getting that one!!  It is THAT GOOD.

Our last stop for the evening was at the grocery store to load up on the essentials for the house – milk and craft beer.  Lol.  Those were literally the only two things we bought.  I had brought a whole bag of snacks and other food plus a cooler, so we really didn’t need much.  But we did need milk and craft beer.  ;o)

Thursday morning we were up with the sun to head out to my personal favorite mountain activity – apple picking!  But first, a quick stop at a tiny hole-in-the-wall donut place – Heavenly Bakeshop in Young Harris, GA.  It was so tiny that they didn’t even take credit cards.  Say what?! 

We usually go apple-picking at a place called Hillcrest Orchards in Ellijay, GA, but since it was a weekday we wouldn’t have been able to pick our own.  So instead, we made a stop at a different orchard – BJ Reece – to pick apples there before heading to Hillcrest for all of their fun activities.  We had never been to BJ Reece before, but I have to say, their orchards were prettier and they had way more apples than the other place has ever had!  The apples for the picking that day were Rome Beauties and they turned out to be a good choice!

Since we arrived so early the ground was still pretty dewy and wet and I had made the mistake of putting sandals on Olivia and me – because HEAT – so she was a bit whiny at first because she didn’t like her feet getting all wet and covered in dirt.  Normally we would wear boots for apple-picking, but the weather has just been so ridiculously hot that I wasn’t even thinking about anything other than staying cool!

There wasn’t much to do at BJ Reece other than apple-picking, but they did have a tunnel slide that the kids wanted to try.  Jacob had a blast going up and down and up down but Olivia got her little butt soaked the second time she went down (from the dew) so she got all out of sorts again for a bit until it dried.  Fortunately it was sunny and warm, so her dress dried quickly and then we were all good to go!  We stopped by the little market on the way out to look around and the kids were excited to see some honey bees working in their hive.  After that we headed down the street to Hillcrest Orchards to do all of the other fun stuff!

At Hillcrest, we took a tractor ride around the property, the kids played on the slides forever, and then we went to the petting zoo.  They had baby chicks and goats and my personal favorite, a fuzzy little pink pig.  Oh my word that pig was the absolute cutest!  I wanted to take her home so bad!

The kids got to feed the goats, and they especially loved the goat that would stand in the tall tower and pull the bucket up when the kids would put hay in it.  They thought it was hilarious.  There was also a really funny moment when Olivia was playing with the pig and a little baby goat came over and started munching on Olivia’s hair thinking it was hay.  Haha.  B snapped the camera at the absolute perfect time and it makes me laugh every time I see it.

Once we finished up at the petting zoo, we let the kids play on another one of the playgrounds for a bit to burn some energy and then we headed back to the car for the drive home.  It was starting to get pretty hot by that point and we were all getting hungry for lunch, so we stopped by Subway in Blairsville on the way back to the mountain house. 

Back at the house we all relaxed for a couple of hours – I may have even dozed on the couch for a bit – and then we headed out around 4:30 to go to our favorite winery.  The winery is family and pet friendly so it’s really laid-back, and B and I bought a bottle of our favorite red there and sat out on the picnic tables enjoying our view of the orchard.  We set the kids up with some snacks and then they had the chance to run around for a bit while B and I finished our wine.  We took a little walk through the vineyard afterward, and the weather was absolutely perfect.  It was a little warmer than it should be for this time of year, but it wasn’t remotely hot since evening was settling in, and it was a nice little break from the crazy high temperatures we’ve been having back home lately. 

After our walk through the vineyard the kids saw the bocci ball area at the winery, so B taught them how to play.  They could barely throw the big balls, but they had so much fun trying and didn’t want to leave.

By the time we left the winery everyone was hungry for dinner so we tried a new-to-us restaurant in Young Harris, GA called Brothers Restaurant.  Olivia was overly exhausted from waking up so early, doing all the things, and not taking a nap, so she was pretty whiny all through dinner.  She wouldn’t touch her food and all she wanted to do was go to sleep, so she and I headed outside early while B and Jacob finished up.  By the time we arrived back at the mountain house she was exhausted and she and Jacob both fell asleep almost immediately.  B and I followed not too far behind them and we ended up getting over nine hours of sleep!  That’s pretty much unheard of.  But it was definitely a nice thing.

And that wraps up the first half of our trip!  Stay tuned and I’ll be back with the second half of the trip soon… assuming this Hurricane Michael that is barreling right towards us doesn’t knock out our power before I can get the post up!

Happy Wednesday, y’all!  And if you want to see my By the Numbers recap, see below!

By the Numbers

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