Hiking Bear Creek Trail

Ryan had been wanting to go for a hike for awhile so, with rain predicted move in on Sunday, we decided to spend Saturday adventuring.

The place Ryan picked to hike was Bear Creek Trail, outside of Ellijay, Georgia, about 1-1/2 hours from here.

The trail itself is a 7-mile loop, but we only walked about a mile in to the Gennett Poplar tree, aka the second largest living tree in Georgia.

18-feet around,

Tree huggers, lol.

After months of drought, and it being after Fall - before Winter, the forest wasn't lush and green and gorgeous as it would usually be in the summer, but it was peaceful and a fun, easy walk.
And no bugs!

At Bear Creek campground,

After that, we drove back to Ellijay and walked around downtown, checked out an antique store and a thrift shop.  Bought a square of delicious chocolate-walnut fudge to share, and I found a set of salt & pepper shakers from Washington D.C.

Later we headed to Col. Poole's BBQ for a delicious BBQ sandwich, baked beans, and a bowl of hot, yummy, Brunswick stew,

Another great, family adventure day!

Paradise Cruise

November 12 - 17, 2016
Carnival Paradise cruise
Ports: Grand Cayman & Cozumel

All aboard!

First things first, hit up the Swirls and buffet,

The Lido deck is beautiful at night,

Boarding day is rather exhausting, Goodnight!

Our first day of the cruise was a day at sea. Haven't done that before, usually we're up and out the next morning.
It was soooo nice to sleep in and not have a thing to do but eat and lay around all day.

The next day we ported at Grand Cayman.

I had printed out an itinerary and rented a jeep to drive around. Only to find out it was Pirate's Week and Remembrance Day and downtown was closed off, eliminating about half of our plans.

We were able to visit Hell,

Ryan photographing Hell,

And the Grand Cayman Turtle Farm,

 
We stopped at a Public Beach and got our feet wet. The water was gorgeous. Next time we go to Grand Cayman we'll just plan a beach excursion.

For the Cozumel port, we had planned to go on the Coba Ruins excursion, but then they didn't offer it, so we had to find something else to do.

We settled on Xplor park and are soooo glad it worked out that way. That place was awesome!

We ziplined, first time for all of us,

Sometimes we landed in a cave pool!

Ryan drove us in an amphibious car, along dirt roads, through water pits and caves,

Xplor park is an all-inclusive park, so food and beverages are included in the price. We ate a nice lunch, and headed out to paddle rafts through caves,

After that we swam in a cave river,

Xplor park was the best fun I think we've ever had, ever.  We definitely want to do it again!

The last day of our cruise was another sea day, which was great to be able to sleep in and rest up from our adventures and relax before having to go back to reality.

Mini golf,

Bingo,

Great entertainment,

And, the awesome dining room servers sang "Happy Anniversary" and "Happy Birthday" to us/me,

 

I'm already ready to go again!!

Bell Mountain, Fields of the Wood

My parents were at their place in Hiawassee this Summer and we went up a few times, but this time we decided to go on some adventures while we were there.

One of the places we visited was the Top of Bell Mountain.
My (Dad's) family lived on Bell Creek road since the early 1900's, so I grew up spending many of my Summers running the roads and mountains, including the Bell.

Bell Mountain as seen from my Dad's back yard/fruit orchard

 We'd gone up the Bell back in 2014, before there was any idea of a park (that we knew of anyway). The road was rough, steep, rocky. There were huge ditches and gullys from the 4x4 mudding vehicles.
We ended up parking the car some ways back and walking the rest of the way to the top.

At the top was something of a level area, then two large hills.
The below pic is me standing on one of the hills, looking at the other hill and lower level area.

In 2016, the road all the way up is paved, the lower level area is a parking lot, and there's steps up the hill I was standing on in the previous picture leading to an overlook.

The other hill is still the same as it was before. My Mom and Ryan climbed right on to the top of it like billy goats.

After there, we drove over to Murphy, NC to visit Fields of the Wood Bible Park. 
Grannie used to take us there, and John and the kids went once, many years ago. Mom said she had never been.

Mountainside Ten Commandments

Thirty-foot tall Bible

This park is so beautiful and serene.