first anniversary road trip, part 1

last year we wanted to spend a day mining at rose creek mine but we sorta got rained out.  we bought some bags of gem dirt and a very pretty selenite specimen for our collection, then headed on for a drive through north georgia on our way to spend our first anniversary in gatlinburg.

we drove past the beautiful nacoochee mound

and had a blast feeding the goats on the roof. and exploring the quaint alpine hamlet of helen, ga.  i'd been there once as a kid and decided to surprise ej with it - he certainly wasn't exepecting to see anything that looked like that in georgia.  i was excited to stumble across the really nifty carved candles i'd remembered for years but couldn't place where i'd seen them

in gatlinburg, we stayed at the park vista.  it was pretty swanky for gatlinburg.

...and it had an excellent hotel carpet

  even from the second floor, we had a pretty great view.

the leaves were just past their peak.  what was still on the trees had some nice color (i heard this year's leaves should be better, so plan your leaf-peeping road trips asap!)

 we could even see the ober gatlinburg aerial tramway. they have otters up there!

gatlinburg on halloween was a good time....notice the elves eating foot long corn dogs from fannie farkle's family fun emporium (snagging at least one foot long corn dog and delicious lemonade is a necessary stop on each gatlinburg visit.)

that's not the real santa, though.  the real santa is definitely the one at santa's claus-et.  

when we left gatlinburg, we found one of our favorite things - drive through animal safari!!!

 then we met the super friendly owner and his baby camel.

Lz fed the baby camel.

WE <3 donkeys="donkeys" p="p">

in this photo, you can see the shirt i got at goats on the roof :)

first anniversary road trip part 2 coming soon.  yes, there will be more animals!