Our Belated Anniversary Trip

Once upon a time, I had grand plans for our tenth anniversary trip...something big and expensive.  Fast forward to the present when money and time off of work is tight. Such is life!  Justin and I decided to plan a long weekend in the North Georgia Mountains for a shorter and cheaper anniversary trip.  Neither one of us had stayed in the area so we rented a cabin south of Helen, Ga.  It was fun to try something new together and explore new surroundings.  The kids stayed with my parents and I was told they were very well behaved (thank goodness!).  

We left last Thursday night after work and drove back on Monday, in plenty of time to pick up the kids from school.  Thursday night we stayed in Duluth, Ga (north of Atlanta) and got up Friday morning to drive the rest of the way to Helen - approximately an hour or so. There wasn't much going on in Helen that day so we stopped at the visitor's center to get a few maps of the area.  We walked around Helen, did some shopping and then ate an early dinner at the Nacoochee Village Tavern and Pizzeria. It was delicious and since we were early, we beat the crowd.  We took our leftovers and went to the cabin to check in.  Justin picked a one room cabin about 10 minutes south of Helen called Allure.  It was the perfect place since it was just the two of us.  

 The creek that runs through Helen - so peaceful.

Our Cabin: 

 Inside view:

On Saturday, we spent all day outdoors.  That morning we went to Anna Ruby Falls - one of the popular waterfalls north of Helen.  We arrived around 10:00 and there were already a crowd of people.  It was a paved path and nothing too strenuous but it was still a good workout. This might have been one of my favorite spots during our trip.  

 At the top of the falls!

Another picture at the top of the falls. 

On our hike back down, the crowds had arrived.  I was so glad we had gotten there early.  We drove back into Helen and could tell the weekend guests had arrived.  The weather was perfect and the leaves were all changing colors so it was a gorgeous weekend to be in the mountains. We ate lunch at a great little BBQ place called North Georgia BBQ and then we headed west of Helen to do some more sightseeing. We went to a vineyard (another new thing for both of us) and stopped by another waterfall hiking trail that afternoon. 

Views from the Cottage Vineyard and Winery in Cleveland, GA: 

 Our hike that afternoon was down into a gorge...another new experience for me.  There were "bathrooms" there which did not consist of neither plumping or running water.  I was roughing it!

Sunday was our last full day in Helen.  Justin requested we hike up Mount Yonah - yikes!  I was really nervous because I wasn't sure what to expect but once we got out there I relaxed.  There were a handful of people on the trail going up and several hiking down to the parking lot after camping overnight. 

The view of the mountain from the parking lot:

 Getting started...

  Not the clear path I expected to see.

 Along the way, Justin saw some survey boundaries...always the surveyor.

Back at it.... 

 I was huffing and puffing at some points along the trail.  Whew.

 We made it to the top!  The view was well worth the effort.

Mountain top selfie.

It took us about three hours to hike up and down the mountain.  We went to Helen that afternoon for a little bit before heading to our cabin to relax the rest of the day. We had a wonderful weekend together and it was a nice break from our daily routine.  We really appreciate my parents for keeping the kids - I'm not sure they missed us. :)