Trip to GA & Smoky Mountains July 2009

We took a trip with our close friends Kevin & Lisa Chason & their family. We actually stayed in Clayton, Georgia. The lady that cleans the Chason’s house, has a retirement home up there and Kevin has been doing a lot of work on her house for her. She told us all that as long as she didn’t have a tenant in the house, that we could use it. So, we took her up on her offer. It was sooooo nice. Gabe had an absolute ball. He got to see and catch fireflies for the first time, he got bit by a bee for the first time, (luckily not allergic) we all went white water rafting for the first time (it was a “beginners” route. Since we had Gabe with us, we couldn’t do the real heavy rapids) but we had a blast. Gabriel got to go gem mining and found TONS of different gems. I was very surprised to see what the different gems look like when they are found. Some of them (i.e. rubies and garnet) look just like rocks and I would have never thought that it would be something so beautiful inside. Gabriel got to keep everything that he found so someday Mike is going to research to see what needs to be done to them to be able to use them for something. We went to Tallulah Gorge State Park and that was just breath taking. Gabe really didn’t know what to think of the suspension bridge.
The pictures from our white water rafting trip all have a pink tint to them. That's because we use water proof cameras and we left them in the heat too long and it damaged the film a little. Here's our pictures.....

GA & Smoky Mountains