my journey, destination unknown
One of my great joys in life, and one that I am eager to share with my kids, is traveling. The girls have been with us on trips to places such as Japan, Turkey, France, Scotland, Ireland and Mexico, as well journeys in the US, such as our recent extended trip out west in our VW poptop, Evie.
As we thought about where to go for Chloe’s “winter” break, I decided it had been too long since I’ve been to the beach. With money being tight as we were in the midst of three different real estate transactions, I knew we’d have to make it a camping trip and keep it short (so…
Year after year, I’ve wanted to join the crowds at Yellow River Game Ranch early in the morning on Groundhog’s Day to see General Beauregard Lee make his prediction. And this year we finally got to go! I thought we were getting there early, but by the time we arrived, the parking lot was packed!…
Generally, when people think of stone outcrops in Atlanta, they think of Stone Mountain. But our favorite outcrop? Much less famous, but one of our favorite places to go, is the Davidson-Arabia Nature Preserve. While my favorite time to go is during the spring when the mountain looks like a magical wonderland, I love to…
Over the past few weeks, a few different friends on Facebook posted photos from what looked like a very fun museum. In thinking to add it to our “list”, I went to the website and noticed that, unfortunately, it would be closing soon and all the cars auctioned off. So instead of being able to…
Last weekend, after our “birding trip” to Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve, we then headed to Mason Mill Park and the Decatur Waterworks. With old crumblings walls decoratively painted with spray paint, it is a lovely “free-range” style playground for the kids. We really must go back soon and bring Pheilx the Dog with us!! This…
This weekend, I asked my mom if she would take the girls on a short birding adventure for National Bird Day. On the suggestion of another birder, she suggested Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve. Despite being just a couple miles from our house, I’d never been — though Rob did once take the girls. I look…
While we were up in Blue Ridge for our traditional New Year’s Eve celebrations, we had a bit of a surprise — SNOW! Given the warm temperatures we’ve been having, I had assumed that we would not see any white stuff in Georgia this winter. While the snow was barely more than a dusting and…
Phelix and I went out for a walk at 7am. We are in the trees and down get a sweeping view, the sky was just lovely to watch nonetheless!
A few weeks ago, we took our new puppy, Phelix, out to Sweetwater Creek State Park. Despite having lived in Atlanta for over a decade now, I had never been to visit this lovely place! We took a nice hike on a loop that wanders along the creek and then up onto the hill. Hiking…
While up at the cabin for Thanksgiving, I had hoped to visit a number of historical sites. In the end, we only visited a few, but we did make it back to Cherokee, NC to visit the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. While Camille greatly enjoyed the exhibits, Chloe was only happy once we hit…
Each fall, we try to make sure to have a “fall outing” to a pumpkin farm, apple picking or a corn maze. As Thanksgiving approached and we had not yet gone on our annual outing, I feared that maybe we had put it off too long. But luckily, we found a corn maze near the…
This morning, after breakfast (and Phelix’s nap), we loaded up in the car and headed out to Sweetwater Creek State Park for a hike with the puppy. We first headed down to the creek and did some rock scrambling. Phelix *loved* the water. The frigid water. He was ready to jump in and SWIM! A…
Back in October, the girls and I headed to Texas for the weekend for our annual pilgrimage to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. When we first started going, it was solely for the kids’ stage, Austin Kiddie Limits. The children’s area has grown through the years, and we still love hanging out there early…
Back in October, the girls and I headed to Texas for the weekend for our annual pilgrimage to the Austin City Limits Music Festival. This year, however, we had a special treat — “backstage” passes! These lovely little red wristbands allowed us to enter the guest areas — free sodas and water, “cleaner” port-a-potties, chairs…
For the past few years, it has been our custom to headed down to Blue Ridge on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. And over the years it has grown and grown in size. My mom plays in the “Tuba Christmas” then we watch the Christmas parade and then we wander around. This year, there was even…
A couple weeks ago at Fernbank Science Center, I was asked to sign a pledge to not text and drive “For the safety of the kids”… No, I will not sign it. I find the current laws to be somewhat ridiculous. I understand the need to convince teens to focus on DRIVING. I’m all for…
While we were Tybee Island back in September, our campground was just up the street from the Tybee Island Light Station and Museum. On Saturday morning, we walked over to explore. Unfortunately, when we got there, we were informed that no bags are allowed in. Not wanting to walk all the way back to the…
For Chloe’s September break from school, I managed to take two long weekends. For the first long weekend, we headed off to Orlando to visit Legoland and Harry Potter World. But for the second weekend, we got to visit a place that I’ve been wanting to visit for a long time…. Tybee Island! I reseved…
As part of Camille’s homeschooling for this year, I decided that an interesting topic for us to cover would be the history of Georgia. Camille has lived here almost her entire life and has yet to see many of the important historic sites. We started out great, visiting a number of “pre-European” sites, including a…
One of the reasons we returned to the “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” at Universal’s Islands of Adventure was that Chloe was finally, at long last, tall enough to ride on the castle ride. And she rode it, over and over again. While we did end up spending a large portion of the day shopping,…