Dahlonega, GA, April 2012

Some of you may remember that my family took a trip to Dahlonega, GA a couple months ago. I promised pictures, remember? Oops...

Anyway, my family has gone to Dahlonega for the annual Bear on the Square music and craft festival for the past four years. Mom and Dave set up their crafts (soap and blacksmithing) and I walk around and listen to the music. Yeah...I'm a real help. This year, I didn't get any pictures of the event at all, but I did get ones on the way home. Again, lots of help. We stopped at Amicalola Falls on the way home and that's where I got all the pictures. So, without further ado, prepare to spend the next 37 minutes of your life scrolling through pictures of a waterfall, and those viewing the waterfall. Oh, and the stairs. There are lots of stairs.

Oops...getting ahead of myself. Here's one Dave took (self-timer on the tailgate of the truck, actually) before we left the cabin. Left to right, Dad, Mom, Philip (10) Titus (13) me (23) and Dave (19) No, Titus isn't standing on anything...he just is that tall, somehow. Crazy.

 Now, we drove to Amicalola Falls. We took the truck and trailer up an INSANE incline and we kinda worried about it. When we got out, we could smell something that didn't smell right...and it was coming from the truck.

We got out and walked around a bit at the base of the falls. Me and Mom...being us...

This is the pond at the base...can you see the waterfall?

Hint...it's in the dead center of the picture...try again

Ok, I'll zoom in for you. Actually, I zoomed in for me, but y'all can enjoy the benefit of zooming as well. I'm nice like that.

And here's where it comes into the pond...just a little right of the center...

Close-up...

 We got a kick out of the side-by-side signs posted on the walls of the pond.

Ooookaaaaay.

I think I have my order of events wrong. We stopped at the base of the falls, as pictured above, and THEN drove to the top. That's actually how it went.

So, here's the view from the top!

 See the teeny tiny white dot just slightly above the center of this picture? Well, that's a car.

A car we were parked beside just five minutes prior. Remember that steep incline I was talking about?

And here's the view looking straight out...

 Now, we had to walk down beside the falls. It couldn't be that hard. We're funny.

So, we walked.

And we walked.

Stopping along the way for the view, to get pictures, and the ever-important breath we had to catch.

The view...

Annnnd then we walked.

And walked.

And then we finally got the overlook...

And we looked over.

 The view looking up...

Texting a picture to someone...I forget who... ;)

Awwww

Looking up at the over-look from under it... :)

But really, why stop there?

We went on down and got some more pictures. I was playing with the shutter speed a lot and therefore took approx. 769 pictures, but you only get one here. It's about the only one worth keeping!

And then we walked back. Go ahead, laugh. Wow. It was rough. Titus was exhausted by the time we got to the top of the 175 step section! And we only had 425 left to go!

There was apparently something very fascinating on the side of this hill...

 The boys.

My toes, above raging waterfall.

I got a kick out of the various inscriptions on the way up. I guess they were there on the way down as well, but I was going a little faster and didn't take the time to gasp the oxygen smell the roses on the way down. This one was sweet...

And I like this guy's sense of humor...(the writing on the left!)

 And I could feel this guy's pain...

Alas, I had neither pen nor knife and therefore left without leaving my mark behind. You know, I've never done that...maybe I should put that on that bucket list everyone has...

And finally, just before leaving, we got to see some good ol' red GA clay. None of that here in KY!That and fire ants! I'm still getting over the fact that you don't have to be scared of ants here! The dirt doesn't stain and the ants don't bite. Almost sounds like a song!

That'll wrap this post up. I also have a bunch of pictures from our trip to Louisville a few weeks ago, where we met my grandparents and did some sight-seeing stuff for a few days. I'm trying to catch up here!

Thanks for hanging around!
Kayla