Sweet Georgia

I had the luxury of visiting my sister all by MYSELF!!  I was gone for 7 days and luckily, everyone survived.  Lara was concerned on day 1 though, every time I mentioned my kids names I started to cry... seriously, I was excited for the break... why was I a weeping willow?  So now for a few pics to remember the fun.

Lara's driveway... I arrived 2 days after the worst ice storm Atlanta has seen in FOREVER.  In fact, when Lara picked me up from the airport, 1 lane on the highway was still iced over.  Can you just ignore lanes when there are ice storms?  I understand that resources were limited and it's the south... but that was weird.

We headed south - just an hour or so - to visit the "Little White House" of F.D.R.  I knew nothing of this former president (except for his singing of "Tomorrow" on Annie) and it was a very enlightening excursion.

(that's the house in the background.... gosh, I almost missed it!)

There was a natural spring there (hence the town name, Warm Springs) and F.D.R. created a foundation and facility for victims of Polio.  The pools aren't filled anymore, but there were lots of exhibits to look at.  This one really caught my attention - the "IRON LUNG".

The "Iron Lung" helped those who couldn't breathe on their own - it was used for a matter of days, or a year, or some people had to sleep in it every night for the rest of their lives.  I'm grateful for modern day medicine - that looks horrific.  And I'm also grateful for the Polio vaccine.

 The pools - they still fill them on Memorial Day and Labor Day.  The water is a warm 83 degrees constantly and also filled with minerals that gave great relief to all who swam in it.

We visited a spot that F.D.R. liked to picnic at and look over the valley.  Wait, Valley????  There really are mountains in South Georgia.  Who knew?  (I didn't.)  It was very pretty... I wish I could visit in the Spring and see everything in bloom!

That weekend we went to Roswell to visit 3 old homes - plantation homes.  Well, they weren't "technically" plantation homes, considering they were townsfolk and only had slaves to manage the household.  One home had over 48 slaves just for the household - no wonder I'm always tired!  It's a lot of work to keep a house in order.  I had seen 2 of these homes before, but thoroughly enjoyed revisiting them.  The stories of slavery in the south really gets your blood boiling - there was a lot of hardship in those homes.
Can you imagine a nice bubble bath here tonight?

We had the honor of seeing the attic in one of the homes (no, it wasn't part of the tour).  Lara and Greg were convinced it was haunted based on 'factual' stories.  Sad to say, the tour guide informed them that the stories were not true.  Bummer - there were a couple of good ghost stories for this place!

This is the Smith Plantation home - actually the most plain and simple home of the three.  I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the front of the other two.  I loved this house though... there's too much to write.  If you really want to hear about it, just ask, I'm sure to tell all I know.

The Smith home started tours in 1998 and ??? (I forgot her name!! ARGH!) was still living in the home caring for it.  Check out the stove - Shayne's grandma uses this same stove - today!!  Evidently, it's considered an antique.... when will my appliances become valuable again?

We took a golf-cart tour on Sunday evening.  It was almost warm.... almost.  In case you didn't know, EVERYONE in Peach Tree City owns a golf cart... it's the way to get around town.  Lara and Greg have named their newest addition "Obama" - Shayne still regrets we didn't take advantage of that government program that paid for high electric vehicles.  Can you imagine me driving my boys to school in a golf cart....  it just wouldn't work here.

Greg's fancy camera work - I was doing the driving.

On MLK day, we went to see a local parade.  We both got a little teary eyed when we heard the band coming down the street.... sweet memories.  One of the floats had people giving out candy... they didn't throw it to me, that gave it to me.  How nice.

I did a photo shoot for Miss La-La.  Isn't she beeeeautiful?

And I had to do something useful while I was there, I managed to break down the ice from Lara's side of the driveway.  It was NOT melting.  Maybe it would have the next week.  Lara did feel bad watching me - so she joined in on the fun.  It was my workout for the day.

Lara, I love you and I'm so glad I got to hang out with you!  Next time, I expect Atlanta to be WARM.  No more of this, "wow, this is the coldest it's every been" business.