Helen, GA 2012

Has anyone here ever been to Helen, GA? We went there over the summer after a clogging convention in Daytona. Bryan figured that since we were halfway there we should head north.

We left Daytona area on a Sunday at 9a... Pulled in to Helen at 630.

THAT was a long ride, my friends

Helen is a small town buried in the mountains Northeast of Atlanta. It is surrounded by cute, old country towns but Helen's claim to fame is that the town has a German feel to it. All of the buildings are Slavic-looking (if that's a word)

We found our rental cabin on the web. Good photos, close to town reasonable price...we lucked out. I'd stay there again.

The cabin's front room. I took photos of the whole place but too many to post here.

It easily slept 8-10.

It had a a patio deck that overlooked the valley and this bad-ass, 8-person hot tub was cranked up every night!

We were STARVING when we arrived... Had to find a place to eat, so we drove into town. Not too much open there on a Sunday evening, but we pulled in a restaurant that looked like it had hamburgers (not strudel)

See the German Look to the building. The whole town looked like this...

All 4 streets of it. LOL.

The hostess seated us outside on the terrace, along with another family with children because after 8pm the restaurant was 21 and over. (really?)

Well, then this hilarious couple came outside to have a drink. I think the photo is enough. When i heard they werent pulling a prank and had seriously dressed this way, I HAD to get a pic with them.

My kids were asking them why the smaller guy was dressed up in his sister's clothes (his answer was b/c he hadn't done laundry) Please notice the kid from the other table that couldn't take his eyes off them. They gave us a good laugh...

This was outside of the bathrooms. I'm guessing it was a nod to the sister-crowd that hung out there.

The next morning... Horseback riding

Meredith, wade and Olivia. (no age limit to ride... Interesting)

Bryan's tribute pose to the movie 'the three amigos' ( if you don't know the movie... It isn't funny)

Getting ready to go....

It was an hour+ rude through scenery like this... Pretty

Next stop... Tubing.

The town has a river that runs through it, and for a cheap $5 you can climB on a bus, short uphill ride, sit yourself in a raft, and FLOAT downstream back to your car.

My waterproof camera was VERY helpful. Paige was miserable; she hates getting wet. We were tethered together in pairs. I think our pairing is obvious in the photos.

Bryan and Wade. The water is very cool but we adjusted easily.

See.... Eventually Paige lightened up.

Sisters in the pool...

The river ended at the parking area where they had a small, really small, water park.

Can you imagine if a restaurant in Florida had this sign up?? Really.... I loved it and they got my business because if this policy.

Not to mention that their BBQ was the bomb!

There are black bears in this area of northern GA and there is a sanctuary there. I have pics of the bears in captivity but these wooden things are SO much more fun to look at.