A Blue Ridge Valentine's Getaway

Hey Everyone - 

Happy belated Valentine's Day! As you may know, Glenn and I traveled to Blue Ridge, GA recently - flying first to Atlanta and then driving about 2 hours. Our arrival was less than ideal, because we were staying at a cabin at the top of a very twisty and narrow mountain road, in the dark, and we could not find our place. So we drove in twisty circles for what seemed like an eternity until we found it. 

It probably wouldn't have been easier to see in the daytime - I have added a red arrow to show you the house number (322) which is inexplicably painted the same color as the house! You'll probably have to blow up the pic to see it. 

Despite this initial aggravation, the place was really quite lovely.

Unfortunately, we arrived relatively late Friday night and then Saturday and Sunday were both cold and rainy.  We tried using the outside fireplace but couldn't really enjoy it until our last night there. But Glenn build some beautiful fires (note to self: we needed a place with an indoor fireplace!)

The view off the deck was very woodsy... and we had a little stream and waterfall right down the hill.

We also had a mama and baby deer come visit us on our first day. They were very curious about us.

Hello!

I'm guessing this pic is from Monday because that was the only day we had sun. 

So the first full day we went into Blue Ridge and ate lunch in a very log cabiny restaurant with deer heads on the wall and a giant fireplace (thank goodness, because it was freezing!). The town was very cute with lots of little boutiques and restaurants, and train tracks down the middle. The one thing they had that we did not expect was....chickens.

We could hear a rooster crowing and walked to this little square to find a whole bunch of chickens just hanging out. We were also surprised to discover a bunch of chickens up in a tree. One fell out of the tree while we were there, and there was much flapping and squalking and general disapproval from the others.

This is the chicken tree.

And here are chickens IN THE TREE.

The chickens primarily seem to spend their time being chased by small children.

So anyway, we nosed through the shops and then just went home and hung out. Saturday night we tried to eat at a restaurant named Chesters, but when we got there, they said it would be an hour or more before we got seated (Blue Ridge was surprisingly FULL OF TOURISTS). But they said they had a little upstairs room where we could get out of the rain - a little bar where we could order appetizers. We ended up in this cute, intimate little space that was largely unoccupied, and ended up eating appetizers for dinner and going home.

The next day we had lunch at the real, downstairs Chesters, which still took a long time, but they had gluten free grilled cheese, so it was worth it. 

We had planned on taking a train ride to some nearby towns and then found out that the train doesn't start running until March. We drove to a one of those towns to check it out (on the border of Tennessee) and we never even got out of the car. It was very meh. So, probably glad we didn't take the train, because we would have been stuck there for an hour. 

On our drives, we encountered more deer - these pics are better. 

Sunday night was the Super Bowl and we ordered the worst pizza either of us have ever had. Boooo.

Ah well.

Monday was finally warm(er) and sunny, and so we went on two hikes. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.

In the morning we got on to some back road that just kept becoming more and more remote and, at one point, turned into a dirt road. I was fairly certain that Glenn was planning on murdering me in the wilderness. Fortunately, we found a gravel parking area and a few cars, and ended up on a trail to Fall Branch Falls.

Interestingly, almost before we noticed the falls, we saw these camping (tents? pods? modules?) that were being constructed on the nearby hillside.

Turns out these are for "glamping" (glamorous camping).

Anyway, the falls were very nice.

After hike one, we went to a cute little town called Ellijay, and had a nice lunch here. 

Then we drove to our second hike of the day, which was to Amicalola Falls. (Lots of waterfalls around here.)

At 729 feet high, this is the tallest waterfall in GA, and I'm glad we went there second, because it blew the first waterfall out of the water. (Get it?!) It was truly spectacular.  After a short hike, we were taken to a mid point on the falls.

To give you a sense of scale, here is Glenn on the bridge.

From this point, you could go down a million stairs to the bottom, which Glenn chose to do. I chose to stay put.

Here's the view from the bottom.

Oh sorry, it was only 175 steps to the bottom...and then 175 back up.

We both choose to skip the option of taking the stairs to the top.

NOPE.

Fortunately, we were able to drive up to the top. On the trail back to the parking lot, we noticed this truck, which must have tumbled down the cliff sometime in the 1950s.

Anyway, here's the top...

Look how far in the distance it goes!

Also at the top of the falls was a nice lodge.

So anyway, we had a lovely trip but were, as always, glad to get home. Hope you all are doing well. Love you!