8-30-17  Atlanta Botanical Garden:

Most people don't look forward to driving into Atlanta, but I don't mind having an excuse to go there.  So when Angie made flight arrangements for a Wed. afternoon, I volunteered to take her to the airport.  The Atlanta Botanical gardens happens to be pretty close to the airport.  Makes a nice diversion on the way back from dropping people off at the airport.   So we dropped her off at about 11am and headed to the gardens.  Always a nice place to take a walk---especially since my Missouri Botanical Gardens membership gets me in free here, too.
It was quite lush.  The late summer flowers were blooming.

8-29-17  buford high school volleyball:

How I miss this!!!!  After playing volleyball for over 40 years, now I can't find anywhere to play anymore.  I also really miss taking high school sports candids---which I did for 19 years back in St. Louis!  So, I decided to go check out our local high school's volleyball team.  Felt odd not having my candid sports camera equipment with me!  But it was nice being able to watch the games without having a camera between me and the action!  Plus, they happen to be the defending champs and are VERY good!  I also liked that they have 2 away teams show up, so there was 3 matches for the price of 1---which was only $4.  That's something else I'm not use to---as a candid photographer, I got into all the games for free.

 These were taken with my phone---just a reminder of what I did today.  In fact, I've recently been challenged on Facebook to post a black and white photo everyday for a week showing my life.  Since volleyball was such a large part of my life, I posted one of these (in black and white).

The 3 hours went rather fast.  All 3 teams were very good.  Buford did win both of their matches.  I believe they are undefeated still (in matches).  Would have been easy matches to get great photos from! 

8-25-17 scenic ride back to Atlanta:

Our short get-away was over.  Time to drive back to Atlanta.  I had hoped to find a waterfall or something interesting to break up the drive, but hadn't succeeded by the time we headed out.  Just by chance, we stopped at a visitors' center on I-26.  One of the workers there told me we were about a mile away from a scenic route that cut over fromI-26 to I-85.  It would add about 30 minutes to the trip (not including any stops we make), and was about 100 miles long.  And---it went by a waterfall right by the side of the road.  Waterfall---scenic route---we were taking that!!!!
Look at all those waterfalls!!!

 It took us through the foothills

 beautiful countryside

8-24-17 Hickory Nut Falls and kicking around Lake Lure:

I decided to take pity on Ken today and not make him drive for hours on end.  Instead, we went into the town of Lake Lure and had breakfast, then went up to Chimney Rock Park to hike to Hickory Nut Falls.
The main street of Lake Lure. 

 There was a $13/person fee to enter Chimney Rock Park.  We read that the hike to the falls was an easy walk about 1.5 miles round trip.  I believe the trail has an elevation of about 324'.  For most people, that is an easy walk.  For us, hard enough!  At least there was plenty for me to stop and take pictures of.  Like this wildflower.

 A view of Chimney Rock as we were heading to the trail to the falls.

8-23-17  off to some waterfalls, the Pisgah Mountains, and the Biltmore!

It was a busy day today!  Originally I thought we would go to Pearson's Falls, then to the Biltmore for me to get my season pass.  Then we planned to have dinner in the Biltmore Village.

Along the route from the Wyndham resort to the town of Lake Lure and beyond.  This field and the one across the road are full of tomato plants that are loaded with tomotoes.  Wonder what they do with them all?  I'm sure there aren't enough people in Lake Lure to eat all these tomatoes!

 heading to waterfall country.

8-22-17  To Lake Lure for 3 nights:


One of the many times I was looking on the Wyndham site trying to get my VIP discount for the girls and my trip or for Faith and her friends weekend to Lake Lure, I noticed some days available for this week.  So I went ahead and booked 3 nights and asked Ken if he wanted to go.  He didn't say yes, but he didn't say no, either.  So on the 22nd we took off for a mini vacation.
It was a nice day for a 3 hour ride.
Here is one of the lakes we passed along the way---I think it's Hartwell Lake on the Georgia/S. Carolina border.

 We shot up I-85 for quite awhile.

8-21-17  total eclipse of the sun!!!!!!

The hype for this event had been going on for quite awhile!  It's the first total solar eclipse to cover coast to coast through the United States in 99 years.   I do remember another eclipse several years ago, but I didn't get the special glasses and we weren't in the totality area, so I didn't pay too much attention to it.  I do remember taking a few pictures of the moon shapes on the ground as they came through the leaves on the tree in our front yard, but that's the extent of my eclipse experience----until now!  This time it was a whole lot more exciting.  At first I was excited because Angie and I got glasses and we were going to a winery for the viewing.  The fact that we would see a total eclipse was just an added bonus---so I thought!

Where we live (about 40 miles north east of Atlanta), it was only about 98% totality.  So Angie suggested we drive up to Cleveland, Ga. about 50 miles away where it would be 100%.  I was more the happy to do it.  Although I was a bit apprehensive about how traffic would be.  I'd seen news stories about traffic jams of people camping out on highways weeks in advance to see it, so I knew traffic would be a mess.  The highway department in Georgia was ready, too.

There was all kinds of traffic!  Even venomous snakes were making their way north!

8-19-17  walking around in the preserve:

It's been so hot and humid lately that I've spent more time walking on a treadmill then walking in the preserve, but I do still make it out there now and then.  Instead of  recording my walking finds on a day by day basis, I figure why not group a bunch together?  So this is some of my finds between the last week in July and August.

7-29-17

 Ivy Creek right by our apartment complex preserve entrance area.

7-30-17

8-18-17  in search of eclipse glasses:

So the big solar event of the century is happening in 3 days----and I still don't have solar glasses for it!  Angie and I talked about trying to go up to the mountains to where it's a total eclipse, but we didn't talk about getting glasses.  Now----they're getting really hard to find!  So when she called and said the Gwinnett County public library in Dacula was having a talk on the eclipse, then handing out free glasses, we decided to go to it.  I had called and knew they were going to start handing out surveys an hour before the talk, so we planned to meet there about 2pm.  I actually arrived about 1:50.  I was surprised to see a long line waiting to get in.  They were making everyone stay outside until 2, then they were handing out surveys.  The first 200 surveys had numbers on them.  If you got a survey with a number on it, you would get free glasses.  I was already something like 134.  I texted Angie and told her to get there pronto.  She said she was almost there---except that "there" to her car's navigation system was a field!  She made it about 2:10 and I told her to take my spot while I ran to the back of the line to tell the guy she was there and make sure she made it in the first 200 people.  She was 186.  By then the line was moving.  It was nice to get inside the air conditioned library.  It was another hot humid day.  Once in, we had almost an hour to wait until the hour long talk.  Angie went and registered for a library card.  I can't even remember last time I was in a library.  Brought back fond memories.  I remember spending a lot of time doing research at the library when I was in high school.  Wonder if any kids go to the library anymore?!  Anyway, the time went quickly and the talk was even a little informational.  I learned that you can't look at the sun through binoculars with the glasses next to your eyes because it'll melt the coating on the glasses.  Also learned it was OK to look at the eclipse and take pictures when it was at totality---for the 2 minutes or so.  Also that you can hold the lens of the glasses over your cell phone lens and take a picture, although I wouldn't imagine it'll be a very good one unless the phone has a great zoom. 

 So the time went quickly, then we waited for our glasses and were on our way. 

Now we're ready to go---wonder where we're going?!

8-16-17  Old Federal Park sunset:

Since we were half way to the park from where we had dinner (Wings Wednesday at Friends), we headed to Old Federal Park for sunset.  I keep think one of these days we're going to have a really colorful one again.  But the clouds got pretty heavy at the horizon right before sunset.

 Fortunately we still got some color in the clouds off to the NE. 

8-11-17 Gwinnett Braves baseball game:

Thanks to Josh, and him working for Cintas, we got to go to a Braves farm team game.  I don't know why we haven't gone there sooner!!!  It's about 2 miles from our apartment and it was a lot of fun!

 We  arrived early since our tickets included a free buffet.

 Tonight's menu included brats, dogs, burgers, salad, veggies, and desserts.   It was perfect ball game food---and very good.

8-10-17 Little Mulberry Park:

After another great dinner at Antoneta's in Dacula, we decided to head to Little Mulberry Park in Hamilton Mill for sunset.  We had only been to the park once before.  Somehow, we ended up in a totally different part of the park.  But it was almost sunset, so I just wandered around this area a bit.

 This area has a little pond.  The part of the park we were at before had a big pond.

8-9-17 Atlanta Botanical Gardens-Gainesville:

Time to get out and go somewhere again.  But it was a cloudy day with rain in the forecast.  So I suggested we just run up to the botanical gardens in Gainesville.  It's another reciprocal garden with our MO BOT membership and convenient for us to get to.  So with my waterproof camera in hand (Olympus TG-4), we were off.  Turned out to be a great day to go.  I guess the clouds kept people away.  We had it almost to ourselves.  It didn't rain, although with as hot and humid as it's been here lately I wouldn't have minded if it did!  And the garden was lush and colorful---I guess the plants like the heat and humidity more then I do.

 This guy wasn't here last time we were here.  The lady working the admission desk said it was part of an exhibit that had been there for something like 4 months ending in July.  I was shocked to realize it had been over 4 months since we've been here!

8-3-17  3rd of 3 waterfalls today---Toccoa Falls!

The couple I chatted with at the first falls we went to today, Minnehaha Falls , told me about  Panther Falls and Toccoa Falls.  I hadn't read about either of them, so I'm glad they told me about them.  We did have a bit of trouble trying to find Toccoa Falls!  We were told it was on the college grounds, so you would think our car's navigator system would be able to find Toccoa College!  Wrong---instead we ended up on another goose chase.  We were told to turn down a couple dirt roads that actually happened to be gated off.  And, of course, we were out of data range, so I couldn't look for it on my phone.  Somehow, though, we did find it.  And it was worth it!!!
It was also a really short walk to the falls---maybe .1 miles?  Even Ken went to see this one.  This is the river right by the parking lot.

 This is the path to the falls.

 As soon as you turn the corner---bam---there's the falls!

8-3-17  On to Panther Falls:

Earlier when we were at Minnehaha Falls, a couple told us about another nearby waterfall by the National Parks camp ground they're staying in.  So when we came to the park, we decided to check it out.   This was another .5 mile, or so, walk to the falls.  Don't know why, but it did seem a lot more humid on this walk!   This is actually a hike to 2 waterfalls---Panther Falls and about .5 miles further, Angel Falls.   The couple who told me about the falls said Angel Falls wasn't that great, but Panther was worth it.  So that's as far as I went.

 It started off going up

8-3-17 heading to Minnehaha waterfall!

Been awhile since we've been to the North Georgia mountains, so I suggested we go check out another waterfall.  Minnehaha seemed to be an easy walk from the parking area and the drive to it looked pretty direct, so we headed up I-985 to North Georgia.
 The clouds today were incredible!

 It was a nice ride.

8-1-17  to Old Federal Park for sunset:

It looked like we were going to have a spectacular sunset.  So I headed over to Old Federal park to watch it.  The clouds were certainly pretty, but in the end, they turned out to be too heavy at the horizon.  But I hauled a folding chair onto the beach and enjoyed the evening.
I wasn't the only one waiting for a pretty sunset---

 The really cool clouds