Captain Bob's Adventures

Last night we went to Chesterfield to a wedding for one of Nan's High School friends. It was held at the Butterfly House, which I had never been to but it turned out to be pretty cool. I'm not sure I'd go there as a fantastic destination but all the tropical butterflies were neat. After the wedding, we went to PF Changs and had dinner. Nan had stir fried rice. I had Sichuan Scallops. We had wonton soup and a delicious appetizer called Tuna Tataki Crisp. Pics following

We slept in.  Didn't get around till almost noon.  We decided to eat left overs around the cabin for lunch then headed into town for mini golf and gem mining.  I've determined that perhaps someday, I should start one of these gem mining places as this is the greatest scam of all time.  They give you a bag of sand with a few "gem" stones mixed in and charge you $7.  You run the sandy mass thru a screen and some water and SURPRISE! you mined some gems!  Kids begged to have another $7 run at it and I said no way!  That was a high priced 5 minutes!  Instead we opted to hit the general store and stock up on candy, haha.  We headed back to the cabin, changed clothes, and for the 3rd time, hit the tubing place.  We had to wait a bit to get our bus ride down to the launch location.  It was probably 4:30pm by the time we got there, but it was still 90 degrees outside.  We jumped off the bus, hit the launch location AND!!!     ...

Today, we decided to give it another shot of heading up to the Amicalola Falls and check out "the highest falls in Georgia" at 729 feet of beautiful cascading falls.  We started at the top of the falls and I have to say looking down from the top down that long drop gave me a bit of a funny feeling inside.  I'm usually pretty good with heights but it was oddly an uneasy feeling haha.  We went a ways down the steps of which there are over 400, then came back up and drove down to the other trail which takes you to a nice viewing area.  Landon started out strong on the steps and on the way back was getting tuckered out on us :)  After hanging out at the falls for a bit, we motored back to Blue Ridge and went to Joe's BBQ.  Now Joe's had been recommended as the best BBQ in town, but you know....it was ok......having had some better BBQ from southeast Missouri.  I had a sampler platter (pic below), Leam a pulled chicken sandwich, Landon a half rack of ribs (...

Brothers and sisters, we have gathered here today to talk about heaven....or a little slice of it anyhow.  Mercier Orchards has a very nice store which makes fried pies among many other things in their bakery.  I've had fried pies.  You've had fried pies.  Whether it be the crap pies from McDonald's, the Hostess brand pie, the fried pies from other restaurants, and even the fried pies your Mom makes.  Sorry Mom, but these fried pies were the best fried pies I've ever eaten.  They were.....inspiring.  Apple, peach, cherry, blackberry, blueberry, peaches and cream, strawberry and cream, coconut cream, you name it they had all variety's.  All nothing short of spectacular.  In addition, we got some home made orange cream fudge, some peach blossom local honey, local made peach jam, a coke in a bottle for Leam and a sucker for Landon :)  These pies though, they made me want to...........well I digress. We started out the day intending t...

We woke the crew a little earlier today to go tubing.  By earlier, I mean 10:00.  I love vacation.  Anyway, once all the peeps were fed, we were off.  We motored to Toccoa River Adventures and got all the gear we needed to tube.  The water was pretty chilly at first, but we warmed up quickly.  The water actually felt great when we made it out to the sun.  We floated for about an hour and a half.  It was a slow paced float with a few small rapids.  We turned in our equipment and went to town to get some lunch.  Had some yummy clucks at Zaxby's.  Kids discovered Cherry Fanta. (They say best soda ever!)  We came back to the cabin and the boys ran off to the creek.  They found some fast moving water and had duck races.  It didn't take them long to begin building a dam to create a faster course.  Even Aunt Sarah got into the action.  With the dam complete, the races commenced.  George Washington and Jim the ...

We got up this morning with the idea to do some trout fishing.  Roy and I had both brought a couple of poles and were searching out where to get license, trout tag, and a few local bait options.  With folks still sleeping back at the cabin we set out.  We discovered much to our surprise, the place to check out was Ace Hardware.  They had a pretty decent fishing selection/sporting goods area, sold licenses/tags, and even had fishing lures, hooks, bait, etc.  We stocked up, dropped $33 for 3 days fishing license and trout tag, then headed back to cabin to pick up all the boys to head to the trout hatchery to try some fishing.  We loaded up in Roy's van and headed out toward the hatchery.  It was about 10 miles or so with the last 3 miles or so gravel back to the hatchery.  It was not as I had anticipated as the trout hatchery visits I've encountered in Missouri are usually pretty nice layout, with large streams/rivers.  This was literally ...