Labor Day Vacation

Our friends the Johnsons invited us to come with them to a cabin for the weekend. We could only go for one night since I had to work this weekend, but we decided to go anyway. We got up early Saturday morning and headed out. The cabin is in the North Georgia Mountains and was just a 2.5 hour drive.
You know it is going to be a great vacation when you get out of the car and see a big frog and a cool green cricket. Jannica is fearless when it comes to bugs (not spiders) and frogs and lizards. She will pick anything up! She was able to talk Ryan into holding the cricket, but that did not last long, Ryan is not as brave as Jannica.
We all decided to go to Andy's Trout farm. In the ad it boasted train rides, fishing, paddle boats, and mining for the kids. We pulled up to a rickety shack and a golf cart train. Ryan and Jake thought the train rocked. The cars of train were made of burrels (barrels to you and me). The guy said it was not working and to stay away from the front car because it was "full a yella jackets or sumthin". Obviously the train ride did not work out.
We did have more luck with the fishing. The guy set us up with some cane poles and off we went. Kelly and Jac went ahead of us. As we were walking down to the pond Jac screamed "these fish are CRAZY!" They really were, they were jumping like 2 feet out of the water and clear across the pond. They were pretty big too. Kelly had baited Jannica's hook by the time I got down there. Poor guy just doesn't know how to bait a hook. That's all right though. I do and was able to fix it. Jac went first and every time she got a nibble she yanked that hook right out of the water. We had to work on letting the fish get a chance to take the hook. Patience paid off! We had a fish after about 2 minutes! As we were pulling the fish out of the water Jac backed into a sink hole up to her knees. She was screaming and so excited, but refused to touch the fish. Later she said that the fish was really hyper, that is why she fell in the hole. She also said that Ryan's fish was better because it didn't bleed like hers. We reassured her that hers was the coolest and the biggest and it was normal that fish bleed. I don't know that she will ever go fishing again. I hope so. I loved it.
Ryan was next and I had to sit right next to her to keep the line in the water. We got the fish after about 5 minutes and Ryan was ecstatic! She pulled the fish out of the water and also refused to touch it. She wouldn't even get close to it. I told her it was a rainbow trout fish, so now she tells everyone that she caught a rainbow fish.
Jake was next and he would not leave the pole still. I was laughing so hard! Stan was trying to help him and hold the pole still. You could see how hard Jake was trying to move the pole back and forth. After a while of no luck Laura helped Jake at another creek area and he got one. He wouldn't touch it either.
We took the fish up to be cleaned. We made Jac watch she that she could see what had to happen when you catch a fish. She was pretty disgusted.
When we cooked the fish today Jac was a trooper and tried some, but agrees with me that they are disgusting. Ryan was so excited to eat the rainbow fish. She kept putting her finger on the fish and licking it and saying "yum, I like fishy." When we got it all de-boned and gave her a big bite, her face went from happy, to confusion, to disgust. I was quick to put my hand out to catch the fish she was spitting out. She said "that fish is lucky". (Ryan's word for yucky). So I guess if you come to visit you can count on never having to eat fish.
Back to the trout farm......
The mining did not look very promising and there was only one paddle boat to use on the brown lake. We opted to go to lunch and skip the rest of the Andy's experience. So off we went to Fat Buddies. The best BBQ I have ever had. This place had all the southern BBQ works and Kelly was in seventh heaven. Jac and I love ribs and these were great! I wanted to sit and suck on the bones. Laura pointed out that they had shirts for sale that said "I sucked bones at Fat Buddies" I didn't think my mother would approve, so I passed on getting one. The veggie of the day was creamed corn. No diet could survive in this place.
On the way home we stopped at a gem mining place. The girls sifted through a bunch of dirt and found "precious gems." Jac looked a little depressed afterwards. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she thought we were going into a real mine with hammers and stuff. What a letdown. She was a trooper though and Laura gave her Jake's bag. Now I have a bunch of "precious gems" laying around the house.
I'll have more pictures later, so stay tuned for: Tallulah Falls Opry and Squirrel burgers?