Atlanta,GA

Our last stop on our family trip was Atlanta, GA. The last time I was in Atlanta...I was 16 and going to see a Mariah Carey concert. Too bad it was the beginning of her mental health melt down or whatever she was having. Anyway, a lot has changed. Maybe it was because of the area we stayed in but I feel it has changed for the good. It seemed cleaner. The only downfall is still the traffic.

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta next to the Coke Cola Factory and the Georgia Aquarium. The hotel was really nice and clean. I would definitely stay there again. We decided to go to Imagination Nights at the aquarium at the discounted price of $19 per adult. There was not a lot of people so it was easy to take pictures without a big crowd. I was excited because I got to try out different settings on my new camera. Definitely shooting pictures with a blue background was tricky. I'll have to work on that.

In the mean time here are a few pictures. I tried to edit them but Google is not letting me. Any suggestions for photo editing programs?

Beautiful jellyfish 

From the Great Barrier Reef tank. Here are some friends from Nemo.

Dragon Seahorse

I love his teeth. I think he was a diva and liked getting his picture taken.

Dangerous fish taking over the east coast of our country. The Lion fish.

I have an obsession with whale sharks. I LOVE them! The aquarium had 4!

Large sting ray with a manta ray in the background. 

Black Tip shark

This grouper was HUGE!

Bottle nose dolphin

Sea Otter

After the aquarium we went to a local pizza place called Max's Coal Oven Pizzeria. It was pretty good.  After we were finished eating, I snapped this picture on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that was painted on the back wall of the restaurant.

The next morning we made the long drive back to Orlando. That was our trip across good ole North Georgia.

5 on Friday!

What a week! It has been a little tough juggling working and blogging this week. This week was a full week with late nights since I started coaching volleyball. We also had open house this week so I have been putting in 11 hour days. Anywho, I am linking up with my 5 on Friday this week to share some of my favorite things.

{one}

Last Friday we went over to my parents house for pizza night. My dad built a nice brick oven in the backyard so we are spoiled with brick oven pizzas. We also got him a chef apron and hat to make him all official. Here are pizzas for all tastes.

{two}

This is my second year coaching. Though it is a lot of work, I love being with the girls. Middle school is such a great age and it is like having little mini adults. I snapped this picture during day 2 of call backs of the girl's volleyball tryouts.

{three}

I am SUPER happy that it's FOOTBALL SEASON! Hands down, enough said! My Alumni won their first game of the season Thursday night. It's good enough for a UCF first WIN!

Then I found this on my friend's FB page....

I'm guilty...I do this. A LOT!

{four}

Since we are still on football, the DAWGS play Clemson this weekend. I got a feeling this is going to be a good game. I can see it now...I'll be at the beach house screaming at a 12 inch TV and the antenna will make the TV go out. Then I'll just have to follow this advice....

{five}

I'm happy that I have a 3 day weekend. I'll be spending it at the beach. I hope to relax, go paddle boarding on our new board, play beach volleyball, and work on my tan. Considering it is still around 95 degrees each day, it should be nice. This will be my view...

I can hear the waves now calling my name :)

Until next time....

5 on Friday!

The rain is back but I don't care because it's FRIDAY! I'm linking up with some lovelies to share my favorite things about this week. If you are wanting to share too then hop on over to the good life blog and grab the link from Darci.

Here are my favs this week.

{one}

My Vera Bradley lunch box has been my favorite thing this week. I can fit my breakfast and lunch in that thing. I got it for "free" after buying a purse so I couldn't turn it down. I got it in the color Lola and you can get it here.

{two}

I bought some cheap shampoo and conditioner this week and I really like it. It is the Suave Keratin Infusion for color treated hair. It makes my hair feel soft and does make my hair easier to style.

{three}

Sharpie pens! LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM! the end.

{four}

I was a little excited and decorated my fireplace mantel early. I know Fall is not for another month but I'm ready! This Florida weather sucks. It is humid hot beyond belief! yuck!

{five}

I took some pictures of our doggies last weekend. I may have to frame a few. Here are some of my few.

We're headed to Helen, GA.

We left Dillard, GA. to head for Helen, GA. Before we left we stopped to take some pictures at the Dillard House since the day had cleared. The view is just beautiful!

This was the restaurant and gift shop. Behind this building was the petting zoo.

This is the view across the street. This is the Dillard's home along with a school and church.

On the way to Helen we passed a little Amish store called Goats on the roof. It was a cute little thing to experience. This place had transformed the roof of their ice cream store and their gift shop into a living space for goats. It came complete with grass, a place for the goats to sleep and eat, and even bridges for them to cross. Here are some fun photos:

After hanging out with the goats, we headed towards Helen, GA. which was a hour and forty minute drive through some little towns. It is a cute little German town If you cannot afford to go over seas then I recommend going to Helen. Of course it is Amercianized German but the town is too cute to pass up. We did a lot of shopping the first day we were in Helen. I got a few things for a very good deal so I couldn't pass them up. But for now....

Welcome to Helen!

The Troll is where we had lunch. They had a few German items on the menu but mostly sandwiches.

Sorry for the heavy load of pictures but they capture the moments. 

Bye y'all!

Dillard, GA Day 2

To continue on from my previous post of our trip, we got up early the next morning because we had a 9:45 white water rafting time. The prediction that day was 50% chance of rain but luckily the skies were beautiful and the sun was on our side. We signed up through NOC and went whitewater rafting down the Chattooga River class IV rapids. There are two different tours, a full day and a half day tour, we signed up for the full day tour which also included a nice lunch. They make their own hummus which is really good.

Like I said previously...the rain Gods were really good to everyone in the south east this summer. So, the water levels of the river were higher than normal. Rapids that are normally class 3 were class 4 and so on. We were unable to go down the "true" class 5 rapids because they were too dangerous. Here are some pictures of our day....

The quality of pictures may not be that great because my SNL had a waterproof camera/video recorder.  However, it still captured our fun moments. We finished with our excursion around 5:30 and watched a video with our photos from a professional photographer. None of us wanted to pay $100 for the CD that only had about 6 pictures of us.

Before we headed back to our cabin, we stopped at a waterfall and took some pictures.

Then we headed back to the cabin to eat dinner and to rest up before we hit the road to head towards Helen, GA.