Road Trip 2011 {Georgia}

Road Trip 2011 {Georgia}

This is the final post about our road trip in June.
Post One showed photos from our first day on the road.
Post Two was about Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
Post Three and Four showed the greatness of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

After we left the Smokies, we drove through North Carolina and into North Georgia.  We stayed with extended family.  They are relatives of Mark's grandmother, and they live in Dawsonville and Cumming.

One of the highlights of the trip was visiting Dahlonega, Georgia.  It's a neat town with a charming downtown square.

Mark and Jerry are having ice cream with their cousin Gina.

Gina's mom, Linda, was our tour guide.  Linda and Will showing off their ice cream cones.

We didn't leave Ben out.  He shared Mamaw Carol's ice cream.

Probably one of my favorite photos of the entire trip.  The boys were playing with slinkies in the General Store.  This photo wasn't posed or set up.  I just got lucky and captured the moment.  I bought the boys each a bag of marbles from the General Store.  They are in a neat little bag stamped with the name of the town and store.

This is our gracious hostess, Edna.  She's Jerry's cousin.  Will had so much fun getting sprayed with the water hose.

We visited Mark's cousin, Jaime, and her family.  She has two precious little girls, Morgan and Lauren.  She and her husband Jason have a gorgeous home in Cumming.  We went swimming at the pool in their neighborhood.  It was a really hot day and the kiddos took a break from swimming for a Capri Sun.

Will wanted to change out of his swimsuit so he could play on the playground.  Well, when the mushroom was turned on he ran right into with all of his clothes on and got completely soaked!  He had a blast splashing in the water and didn't want to leave.

We ate at the best little BBQ joint in Dawsonville.  We had lunch and breakfast there.

Sorry about the quality of the photo; it's from my phone.  The photo may not be very good but the food sure was!  I really liked the vinegar sauce.  That's not normal for Texas BBQ so I really enjoyed trying something new.  They also served pork and chicken, which is a little different than Texas.  We're used to beef brisket BBQ.

I'm a little jealous of the beautiful hydrangeas that grow so easily all throughout Georgia.  We can't ever get them to grow in Texas.  These were in Edna's yard.

When we left Dawsonville we went to Athens before we headed back to Texas.

I wrote about meeting up with my blog friend (and now real life friend) Katie from The Southland Life here.
Katie wrote the sweetest post about our visit.  You can read it here.

In front of the Arch on the University of Georgia campus.
We didn't walk under the arch.

Photo with Mark's parents

Katie and I

Mark in front of the stadium

We headed back to Texas by way of Alabama.  We stayed the night in Tuscaloosa.  Note to self, don't spend the night in a college town (University of Alabama) if there's freshmen orientation and a football camp  all scheduled at the same time.  We had no idea, and we had the hardest time finding a place to stay.  Luckily we found rooms that were in a nice, clean hotel. 

Here are the boys at the Alabama Welcome Center.

That concludes our Road Trip 2011.

I can't wait for Road Trip 2012.  We're planning to take on Yellowstone National Park and more!