3-2-18  Lake Lanier

 Decided to take another ride over to the lake.  Probably won't get back up here once we move.
West Bank Park from the dam again.

 First we went down to the spillway just south of the dam.  Lots of ground cover flowering right now.

2-26-2018  sunset at Lake Lanier

We've been hearing that the lake is higher then it's been since we've moved here.  So we decided to take a ride over to the dam and check it out.  Especially since it's Feb. and the weather here is pretty much like it was in Maui!  At least right now!
The lake as we were driving over the dam.

 West Bank park as seen from the dam.

10-13-17  Supranos Grill and Sunset Cove sunset:

I forget how Ken found this restuarant, but it's a nice little place that we've gone to a few times now--- just had to get away from the Mall of Georgia area.  I believe this is still part of Buford, but it's up I-85 a few more miles.
Today I happened to notice their juke box.  Gone are the days of the record players!  Now you put an app on your phone and play the juke box from your table!  It's neat and sad at the same time!

 Looking towards the kitchen.

6-8-17  our Golden Finch birdies and a picnic and sunset at West Bank on Lake Lanier.

The golden finches don't come to our feeder often, so when they do, I will run to get my camera.  This guy was up there with a House finch.

 another view of the gold finch.

5-31-17 Old Federal Park sunset:

Time to get back to the lake and check out the water levels.  It is up quite a bit, but according to the news it's still down about 7'.  Pretty obvious with how the swimming area is still all beach.

 A bunch of these cute little guys were flitting around in the trees.

4-19-17  My 1st, but not last, bike ride on the Suwanee Greenway!

This is what's suppose to be connected to the short greenway by our apartments, but apparently they're still trying to buy land for the extension.   But I was curious about riding my bike on the Suwanee Greenway, especially after walking a mile of it to take pictures a couple times.  So today I loaded up my bike and drove to the greenway.  I only got about 7 miles in, but didn't feel like riding along McGinnis Ferry when the trail came to it.  But it was a beautiful and easy ride!
A lot of the trail is shaded with lots of trees.

 There were also a fair amount of boardwalks---all in excellent condition.

3-20-17 sunset at sunset cove:
Finally made it to sunset cove when there was a really nice sunset.  It was a beautiful evening weatherwise, too.  I thoroughly enjoyed my hour or so visit here watching the sun go down, then catching the next half hour or so while the skies turned colors!
The marina to the north.

2-23-17  a day in Gainesville, Ga:

One of the times that we drove through Gainesville on our way to or from the northern Georgia mountains, we accidentally came upon a really neat street----Green street.  I LOVE Victorian style houses and this street was lined with them.  Each house was different from the next.  I can only imagine what it was like back when they were all residential houses!  Now they're almost all a business of some sort.  In fact, Angie told me one of them is a Mellow Mushroom Pizza parlor.  I've been wanting to go there for a long time.  So today we decided to fulfill that wish.
The Mellow Mushroom restaurant.

Ken decided to try their Italian sandwich.  Guess it was good, he ate it all.

2-17-17  back to Sunset Cove for sunset:

Looked like potential for a really great sunset today, so we headed back to Sunset Cove.   It turned out prettier looking east over the marina then actually watching the sun set.

 My great blue heron buddy was still there.

2-14-17  Valentine's Day:

Ken surprised me today and asked if I wanted to get a deli sandwich and go to the lake for a picnic.  I love a good picnic, so eagerly said yes.  Only problem was, the places we normally go to for sunset didn't have picnic tables!  Ended up eating our sandwiches in the car.  Oh well, we've since found a couple places with picnic tables.
As we were driving around looking for a park with picnic tables, we came across this guy near the entrance to Lanier Islands.

 Didn't find a picnic table, but did find a little area that looked like it would be a good place to catch sunset---Sunset Cove.  Even got to do a little bird watching there---a lone Great Blue Heron.

 a bunch of Canadian Geese, too.  And a couple benches where you can sit and watch the sunset.  Unfortunately it was pretty clouded so there wasn't much of a sunset.  But we will be back here!

 There were a million pine cones here, too! 

 and a little marina across the road from Sunset Cove.

the water was very calm---great for reflection photos.

Don't think we've ever had a picnic on Valentine's Day before.  Maybe it'll become a new tradition for us!

1-31-17  a covered bridge and a beautiful sunset---

The other night we had dinner at Applebees.  I had forgotten that they no longer have the happy hour specials or riblets, but it wasn't a total waste.  They have pictures of schools and places around the area.  The picture we happened to be by was of a covered bridge in Sugarhill.  Knowing there was a covered bridge nearby, I was determined to find it.  Actually Ken was the one who found it, my internet searches weren't going too well.  Anyway---today we decided to go check it out.

The internet said it was about 8 miles from our place in a park named Pirkle Park.  We found the park without any problems, but didn't see any signs of the bridge.  So we drove on to another entrance to the park.  Still no bridge.  Finally put the coordinates for it in the phone and were led back to the first parking lot.  That's when Ken noticed it hidden away.  We parked and walked over to it.
Along the way, we passed through a huge soccer park and playground area.  This is the playground.

OK, so it's probably not an old historic bridge, but it's still pretty.

 I like Sugar Hills emblem.

fancy rails on the bridge.

Another view of the bridge

 Not the best time of the day to be trying to take picture of the bridge with the sun so low in the sky, but it was another 70 degree January day so it was perfect for wandering around.

 This is part of the soccer park.  There were several soccer fields and they were all being used. 

 There was also this Eagle Scout project here---with flag pole.  I like the end results, just wonder if it's really a big enough task for an Eagle Scout project?  Speaking of Boy Scouts---we heard on the news today that they're allowing girls to be in Boy Scouts now!  Why?!!!  What's wrong with letting boys have their group and girls having theirs????

 Looking over some more of the soccer fields.

 Love this sign!!!  As an x-coach and x-ref (for volleyball), I totally agree with this.  I've even had to yellow and red card a few people from time to time!

a map of the park.  Lots of walking paths throughout, too.

some of the interesting flora along the way

 and foliage.

 Since it was nearing sunset and Lake Lanier was nearby, we headed there for sunset.  But since we were close to the dam, we headed that way instead of to our usual Old Federal Park.

Looking over to the area we ended up going to as we were driving over the dam.

 The warmth of the late sun shining forth.

Looked pretty clear, but we were there so were going to wait for sunset anyway.

 A Park Ranger was at the park (West Bank, I believe is where we ended up).  Asked to see our parking pass.  Ken whipped out his senior National Parks pass.  I guess he saw my camera and asked if I was into photographing birds.  Then proceeded to tell us about a place on the other side of the dam where there's a bunch of birds.  Now I have that on my list of places to check out.  But for now, I trampled a bunch of pine cones getting over to the water's edge.

 Looking back towards the parking lot. 

The sun almost down.

 wandering around for different angles.

 thought it interesting how a cross showed up in this photo.

 One of the birds that flew by while we were there---a Great Blue Heron.

 Some clouds did appear on the horizon and I wondered if we would get a brilliant sunset.

Zoomed in it looked like the whole sky was lighting up.

there was even a fisherman in a boat down there.

Looking East 

 Back to the West. 

Now that the sun was down, we waited for the magic of the clouds changing colors.

 It was the best sunset I've seen in awhile.  The colors were quite intense.

 And it lasted for 30-40 minutes.

 I had time to take all kinds of weird pictures!

 Looking towards the road that goes over the dam.

By the time I got back to the car, the show was almost over.  We even had a sliver of a moon visible.

With all the constant protesting and political news for the past year, it's nice to be able to escape into a beautiful sunset!  This morning I even cancelled our flights to Orlando for this Sat. with all the protests at the airports now.  Our new president, Trump, has put a ban on immigration from 7 terrorist countries for 90 days until the vetting process is stepped up, yet there are millions of people protesting this at the airports now.  I don't get it!  Girls in boyscouts; now we should let anyone into our country---even if they're criminals and terrorists!  Don't they teach history anymore and how tough it was for immigrants to enter the country 100s of years ago???  Anyway---come Saturday we'll be driving to Orlando to avoid all the protesters at ATL and MCO.