Celebrate! Celebrate!

This past weekend, I invited (read: forced) my family to pack up the car and head to the mountains of Northern Georgia to celebrate my 5 year anniversary, free of breast cancer. The first two anniversaries were kind of a big deal to everyone, however, as the years rolled along, it became less of one. However, for all of you cancer survivors out there, every year that date rolls around is special. Anyway, we drove 5 hours to Amicalola Falls again, one of my favorite spots. Some of us had been before but this was Carey’s first time to join us.
February 27 marks 5 years since being diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer. So I thought it would be fun to celebrate with the family and do something special. We decided to pack up the car and head down to Georgia. Carey had never been with us in the past so it was a new adventure for her. We headed out for Amicalola Falls. It took us about 4-1/2 hours (with a couple of stops) and we decided to stop in Dohlonega to eat lunch and walk around the town square. We ate at Chik-fil-a, a safe place to eat I thought, but I ended up getting sick. We did make it to a few shops but I was out of it for a while. We got to the park around 6 and checked in to our cabin. (BTW we’re driving on 1/4 tank of gas, actually a little less, and the nearest gas station is 18 miles away. We’ll see if we make it back to town.)
Our cabin is quite roomy--2 bedrooms with 3 double beds, bathroom, full kitchen, living and dining room. It sits in front of the creek. The family honored me with gifts--Season 1 of “Father Dowling”, Barnes & Noble gift card, Olivia stuffed pig and a Shutterfly book of E and J-Bear. (Yes, I cried.)
We played games, watched some “Monk” and had lots of fun.
Jim and Charley got up early to go to the lodge for a breakfast buffet. Expecting to pay $7 each, the waitress didn’t charge them. SCORE! Free bacon. lol The rest of us should have gone.
It’s really cold outside but we plan to take a hike then head to Helen, a little German town after stopping off at the Cabbage Patch Babyland Hospital in Cleveland. Remember those dolls? Did you have one too?
We took a short walk up to the Nature Center--the docents had a Barred Owl and a Screech Owl out. Before that was a Great Horned Owl and another small one. The corn snake was a favorite with the children there. We headed up to the Reflection pond but Jim wasn’t feeling well so bowed out. The girls and I continued our walk up. Carey wants to try climbing the 604 steps to the top of the falls tomorrow. No one wants to join her so we’ll drive to the top. (Read: cheaters)
After our walk we drove over to Helen, the little German town I mentioned. On the way we saw the Cabbage Patch Hospital so went in to visit the babies. We got there just in time to witness a birth. We saw it right after being removed from the cabbage. The nurse then took the baby to the nursery to weigh and measure. The were a lot of children and they loved it. All around the room were displays of dolls and several with their heads poking out of the cabbages in the cabbage patch. They had adoption waiting rooms and a huge gift shop.
We then headed to Helen, walked around town and stopped in to share a funnel cake. We had dinner at Johnny B’s and now back at the cabin relaxing. Hope it warms up tomorrow.
Still cold but took a little walk to the falls. Carey climbed the 604 steps to the top of the falls. We met her at the top. Then left for home. Had a great time this weekend.