We'll be comin' round the mountain when we come!

I love family outings. When I was a child, we use to go someplace almost every weekend as a family. The zoo, the shore or just to the park to play outside. My brother and I are 7 years apart, so wherever it was, it had to entertain a pre-teen and a wild toddler, or an angst-ridden adolescent and an overly extroverted kindergartener. Yeah – my parents had to work extra hard to keep us busy.

Even before Roman was born, I knew I would want our family to do the same things. Now Atlanta is no New Jersey (and by that, I mean near the city, shore and mountains in no more than an hour for each) but it’s not too bad. We’ve already done Savannah as a family, so this fall; I wanted us to experience the mountains. Plenty of choices for those in Georgia, especially during the autumnal season. So we loaded up the kid, the parents and the grandparents and headed to Helen GA.

Helen is a quaint, Bavarian-esque town in the mountains of GA about 90 minutes from downtown. And if you have a vague understanding of “Bavarian” but no real visual to accompany – think Swiss Miss Cocoa and pudding! That’s right, hundreds of little Swiss Alps style-cabins and chalets, but they don’t stop at the residences. Even the Wendy’s was decked out in true Swiss style.

We arrived around 11 and headed for the town’s most noted outdoor attraction, Ruby Falls. The guide said that, to reach the Falls, we would have a “short, 10-min walk”. This does not sound daunting to do with 3 grandparents and an 8-mth old, but in actuality, the walk was more of a hike and 10 minutes was more like 25. In any event, at the top, we paused to take pictures of each other and the beautiful waterfalls. Roman talked to all of the tourists and charmed people, as usual, with his ability to smile non-stop at ANY woman he sees. (side-eye to my husband, who probably taught him that while I was out one day!)

I don't know if I can declare that Roman is much of an “outdoorsy-baby”, but overall, I think he liked it. Daddy put him in the Baby Bjorn (note to all fathers – this thing looks lame until you think of having to carry 17 lbs of squirming baby in your arms) and he enjoyed finally being able to travel around and see things other than the sides of his car seat and a backwards view of the world around him as he rides in the car or stroller. His head was darting all over and he turned to almost every sound there was…which was a lot! Great for an experience, not so great for pictures.

We trekked down from there to a small restaurant called Bigg Daddy’s (in honor of my father – who is known only by that moniker by all of his grandkids). Roman was less than enthusiastic about the stop, except that they had a big screen with football and Mommy had Banana Apple Blueberry baby food (his most recent fave). After he saw them both, all was right with the world.

The trip ended with a drive home and a stop for fresh apple pie from a local farmers market. If you haven’t ever stopped for pie at a farmers market, GO. NOW. Like seriously, stop reading and get up. My girlfriend Rhonda reminded me recently of how great fresh pies from local farmers markets can be and when we passed this one, I couldn’t resist. Roman couldn’t enjoy it of course – but Daddy and I made sure we split an extra slice for him.

All in all, the trip was a great reminder of how important it is to get out with your kids and see the world. Sometimes I find myself frustrated at how narrow minded our culture can be and then I remember that is because many of us only know our own narrow world. I was so impressed to see the rainbow of people out in Helen – blacks, Hispanics, even a number of Asian-Americans were out enjoying nature and seeing life beyond their backyard. I hope there is more of that in our future with Roman – I know it helped make me the person I am today.