Mom's Visit to the South

Early in September, my mom was able to come to the South. My mom, my sister and her family in Atlanta, and Lisa and I spent time traveling back and forth in an effort to maximize my mom's time in the South. On one of our first days we were in Atlanta and went to the World of Coca-Cola. The highlight of any trip to Coke World is the sampling area at the end of the tour where you can sample different soda flavors from around the world. The South American flavors are pretty fruity and taste nice. Europe sucks.

After some time downtown, my mom, Lisa and I went to Turner Field to see the Nationals play the Braves. The Braves won this game and were seemingly on their way to the play-offs. Too bad for them it was one of the few September victories for the Braves. Turner Field is always a nice place to see a game.

We stayed the night in Atlanta. The next morning we went to Amicalola Falls. As you can see, a very pretty waterfall.

The day turned sour quickly though as we drove to Cleveland, GA and went to Babyland. Babyland is a freaky and inappropriate place. Marketed as a "Cabbage Patch Museum," it's actually just a big store and odd birthing area for new dolls. Be clear, it was not my choice to visit this place. My sister had actually been before and willingly returned. I never did understand her. The store itself wasn't too bad, but we were lucky enough to see "Mother Cabbage dilate" all the way from "three cabbage leaves" to "ten cabbage leaves." We then witnessed the "easy-otomy birthing" of a new doll. Unreal.

The rest of the day improved (it really had nowhere to go but up) as we went to Helen, GA. Helen is an alpine town in the mountains of Georgia. There are a lot of shops and eateries.

There was also a store called Goats on the Roof that actually had goats on the roof. You could use a crank lever to raise food up to them. It was fun.

From Helen we went our separate ways. Lisa and I were able to drive through some very scenic parts of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee on our way back to Knoxville.

A few days later, they all joined us in Knoxville. In the afternoon we went to a ranch that has a drive-through-zoo. This place was a blast. We new it would be fun when a chicken jumped in the van as soon as we parked. As we drove through the zoo area, many animals approached/entered the van to get the food. We were up close and personal with deer, pigs, cows (Dan's favorite), llamas, emus, zebras, donkeys, and I'm sure some others. These animals were not shy.

There was a petting zoo too.

For the evening, we went to downtown Knoxville and the Tennessee River to see Boomsday, the largest Labor Day celebration in the county. It was crowded, which was expected, and very rainy. We sat it out though and were treated to a pretty good firework show.

On Labor Day we drove through the Smokies. It was still rainy, in fact there were flash flood warnings. It is always pretty in the Smokies.