Girls' Trip to Helen, Georgia

Paul and Daneen lived in the mountains in the far northwest corner of Georgia for a couple of years after we moved here to NC. While they lived there, they introduced us to Helen, Georgia. It is the cutest and kitschiest place you've ever seen. Since Caroline doesn't get to drive across the country with us this summer (booo!), I decided we need to have a girls' trip with the three of us before Whit and I left for Utah. AND since my girls love shopping in cute little main street shops, I thought Helen would be the perfect destination.

It's a little under five hours of driving for us to get to Helen. We planned a few stops along the way. First, we stopped at a public library in Newton, NC.

They had a GREAT garden outside that we had fun exploring.

Except Whit was getting eaten by mosquitoes.

They have an art-o-mat inside.

Care Bear got a ring and W got some earrings.

Getting into the mountains!

Next stop: Waynesville, NC.

We had never been here, but it was PERFECT.

They had fantastic shops and good restaurants.

We LOVED it.

Quirky artwork.

They had a Mast General Store,

which we had never been to and fell in love with.

Super cute shop with a Flower Bar in the back.

We stopped at an Italian restaurant for meal.

Since we only really eat one meal a day on the road,

we've started just calling it MEAL. We usually eat

between 2-4 and then snack before and after.

I loved their ceiling!

Isn't is gorgeous?

Love hanging out with these girls!

We wanted to stop at two other small towns,

but ran out of time. So we hit the road again.

Our cute little hotel, The Helendorf.

Helen is a total tourist trap.

Lots of drinking and overpriced souvenirs.

But the buildings are so cute.

And the Chatahoochee River runs

right through the middle of town.

Isn't it adorable?

A teeny waterfall in town.

Also a windmill.

It's called Alpine Helen.

We caught the very tail end of a saxophone concert.

And were greeted by an interesting sunset/tornado

when we got back to our hotel. :)

The next day we got up and headed across the street

to ride the alpine coaster. Yippee!

You can get a glimpse of the mountains surrounding Helen.

I was all excited to try riding down with no brakes again,

but the lady in front of me was SO SLOW and I had to 

use the brakes to not hit her. Darn.

The Helendorf has some cheezy murals. :)

Then we headed to Anna Ruby Falls.

It was a great little hike.

It was just over a mile round trip.

The trail was paved.

It took us about 40 minutes.

And there's a great payoff at the end!

It was perfect.

After that, we headed to Babyland General Hospital,

home of the Cabbage Patch Kids.

Look at this place, y'all!

It's a beautiful mansion!

What the heck???

With CPK statues on the lawn.

They have fun rockers on the porch.

Original Andy Warhol paintings inside!

And a little museum of Cabbage Patch Kids from years past.

The centerpiece of the whole place is Mother Cabbage.

A giant tree surrounded by creepy cabbages with 

baby heads inside of them. This is where CPK's are born!

Some of the baby heads even move!

We were lucky enough to be there to witness a birth!

It was filled with cabbage-pun humor.

It's a girl!

There's also a room full of decorated Christmas Trees.

In July.

Such a memorable free place to stop!

Since Caroline is into crystals,

we also stopped at one of those gem mining places.

The girls had a great time sifting through our

bucket and finding cool rocks and crystals.

After relaxing in the room for a couple hours,

I talked the girls into going for a walk around

town to look for some geocaches.

Stopped at a park.

Crazy silo house.

I think we found 4 out of 4 that we looked for!

And then stopped for a yummy dinner at Cowboys and Angels.

On the way back to the hotel,

we dipped our toes in the Chattahoochee.

The following morning, we checked out of our hotel

and headed for another hike.

This time we hiked to Dukes Creek Falls.

This one was almost three miles round trip

and took us about an hour and half.

More gorgeous falls at the end.

We got to watch a really cool Nat-Geo-worthy

snake fight. There were two snakes fighting

over food of some sort. We think maybe a 

mouse or a vole.

Not very easy to see in the picture,

but it was SO cool and memorable to watch!

Hooray for hiking!

I love the mountains!

On our way home we stopped in two new small towns.

Franklin NC wasn't our favorite.

But Sylva NC had some fun little shops.

And a cool courthouse.

That was supposed to have an art gallery.

But we couldn't find it.

This plant shop was fantastic.

And they had a yummy ice cream shop, too.

We stopped by Waynesville again to pick up

one of Whit's purchases that she had misplaced there.

While we were there, we stopped for yummy Asian food.

When you eat meal at 4 pm,

you pretty much have the place to yourself! Ha!

And we saw a pretty rainbow on the drive home.

So grateful for a fun couple of days spent with my girls!

Oh, how I'll miss Whit when she moves away!

I'm already more emotional about her leaving than

I was about B. Not sure if it's because I'm getting older.

Or because she's a girl. :(