Taking on New Adventures

In my 6 years of living in Atlanta, I never spent any time in the North Georgia mountains. My minimal pay meant I had to be strategic about where I spent my “vacation money” and if I’m being honest, that money would go towards a beach vacation every time.

Fast forward many years later than I care to admit, and some girlfriends and I decided a weekend together was long overdue. Since we were coming from all over the country, we tried to find a place near a decent airport that would be easy for us to fly into. We finally settled on finding a place in the Atlanta area, which is where one of us lives already.

After scouring locations, we found a great house that was just an hour or so north of the city and we immediately booked it for what I dubbed “Girls Retreat 2022”.

We made our plans, booked our flights and finally made our way to Blue Ridge, Georgia.

Because Chuck had work in Atlanta the week prior, I flew in early and met with my boss before taking the MARTA to Roswell to meet up with my friend, Heather. From there, we started making our way to Blue Ridge.

She had a conference call that afternoon and I had a few emails to work on so we hit up a cute wine bar in town and took care of work with a small taster of wine as a bonus.

Our other friend, Kathleen, made it to the wine bar about an hour after we did so after a quick bite, we made our way to the house on top of Green Mountain.

The house was really cool, with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and a really amazing “den” area on the patio that became our hangout location the first night. We had done some grocery shopping earlier in the day so decided to pop open some wine and cook a good meal while catching up on life.

We decided to find a somewhat easy hike to do on Saturday, so looked up a waterfall to hike to and started the longer than planned drive. One thing about these small mountain towns: they are mostly two-lane winding roads and what seems to be a relatively short drive can turn into over an hour.

But we made our way to the trailhead and did the mile hike into the woods to see a really cool waterfall.

We were starving after our hike so we decided to stop for a quick snack along the Toccoa River at the Toccoa Riverside Restaurant. Sitting near the water was really peaceful and we enjoyed sitting outside in the cooler than we are used to air.

Prior to heading back to the house, we stopped at one of the local wineries for a quick tasting. We enjoyed the spacious patio that offered beautiful views of the vineyard and mountains along with some interesting wine offerings.

After our quick stop at the vineyard, we hit the grocery for a few supplies and spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening at the house. We did more wine drinking, at a great dinner and enjoyed the crisp mountain air while planning out our next adventure.

Sunday morning found us packing up a lunch to head to the Toccoa River for some kayaking. The six mile trek was really cool, and the water was even colder. While we normally would get out of the kayaks for a swim, we decided the too-cold for us water was not ideal and just continued the slow trek to the end spot.

After we were taken back to where our car was, we ate a picnic lunch along the river then made our way back to town to walk around and see the sites.

We ended our Sunday at the house for more chatting, finishing up the wine we brought and taking in the amazing sunset from the patio. It was a warm night on the mountain as the heat wave that swept across a lot of the U.S. took effect. But we didn’t care as the views were so stunning.

Overall, this was a weekend that we all needed, since it had been nearly 3 years since we had all been together. The town was really cute and offered some great options for food and drinks, even though we spent our evenings at the house due to the windy and narrow road that led up to the house.

If you ever need a mountain getaway, I highly recommend heading to North Georgia. It’s easy to get there from the Atlanta airport and overall, the experience is very chill.