Our Little Trip

First thing Saturday, Roger and I found a great antique store in Atlanta, Airport Antiques.  I found an interesting painting that featured an oriental Madonna and child.  The owners were very friendly, the store was  well organized and stocked, and the prices were very reasonable.

Oh, and before I forget, here's the cool hotel toilet I was telling you about.  You just pull the little knob on the top straight up to flush.

Then, Roger and I went to Little Five Points.  It reminded us of Long Beach or Echo Park, in California.  We started out at an estate sale in one of the most beautiful (and largest) houses I've ever been in.  The house was left as if someone had just inhabited it yesterday.  Clothes in the closet, paper napkins and dishes in the kitchen cabinets, linens in the closets, newspapers in stacks on the floor.  One occupant had been an architect and a photographer. The house even had a dark room.  The mistress of the house had ballroom gowns and furs.  The children had ornate dollhouses and flowered quilts. The experience was awful and overwhelming.  Their possessions were strewn everywhere. I kept thinking that I  don't want to die and have people rummage through my things and discard them in a pile.  I felt a deep sense of despair.  We left with a brass piano music box that plays Dixie and a coat rack.  The items will be well loved in our home and we will remember the house with each use and imagine what the original owners must have been like.

The Library and a room in the Basement.










We also found a fun store called the Junkman's Daughter. They had oddities and funky clothes and shoes- new and used.

After that, we hit the road and headed to Cherokee, N.C.  We went to Harrah's Casino to look around, but it was smokey, expensive, and we were tired.  We had a hard time finding lodging because there was a huge mudslide that closed the roads to Gaitlinburg, so a lot of travelers were stuck.  So, we ended up in a dump called Drama Inn.  The bed had hair on the pillow cases (and the toilet wasn't so trendy), so I dragged in our blankets and pillows and we slept on top of the comforters.  However, it worked out o.k. because it was cheap and convenient.  Oh well.  It was also situated smack on a river, so we had a nice view in the morning.  After we checked out, we headed further into the Great Smokey Mountains to look for snow.  We didn't have to go very far!

Roger had never seen snow, so he was like a kid.  We also found a waterfall.  We'll always have good memories of this.

Roger's big (snow) ball.

Waterfall

 Icicles

 Roger and I

A random snowman we found it the woods!  It was about 8 inches tall!

Another pic of us

 A grizzly bear named Lizzy in a shameful bear zoo.  They were in such small concrete cells.  Pathetic.  But, she is beautiful and she likes apples.

 How!  An Indian statue in Cherokee.  My grandparents took me here as a child.  Good memories.

Check out the elevation!













Then, we headed home.  We arrived around 11:30 last night.  This morning, I was greeted by the blooming Lipstick Plant my grandfather started for me.  I keep it in a light bulb planter he and I made together.  So pretty.  Happy Monday.  Have a great week!