St. Augustine to Lawrenceville, GA

Friday, September 14, 2012

Hello from Lawrenceville!

We’ve been so busy (except for naps) that I need to catch up a bit on our travels!

The Lowder Family

 Up very early yesterday, and out of St. Augustine by 6:30 a.m.  We had a long but not too tiring journey back to the Atlanta area and Chris and Brenda and Arden and Dara’s lovely home.  We arrived about 3:00 and it was WONDERFUL to see everybody again, and to meet Dara Margaret for the first time  (For some reason, I do tend to really like that name…)  as well as see how much Arden has grown since their visit to us a year ago February!  (Note:  Poor Arden had just gotten mosquito bites, one in each cheek!)

  Arden is a really cute, wonderful and very, very smart little girl – oops, that’s wrong!  She is a BIG girl she keeps telling me!   She is really amazing, and so much fun to talk to and play with!  We visited for a bit, brought our cases in from the car, and then headed to the Gwinnett County Fair!!  I haven’t been to a fair in AGES!!

The fairgrounds are actually only a few miles from the house, and I think we were one of the first groups to arrive – it actually started at 5:00 last night!  It was not particularly hot out, and there was a lovely breeze, and we had great fun walking the grounds and seeing all sorts of wonderful things!  The 4-H Club had some great animals to see and pet – goat, sheep, a really cute donkey, one-day-old chicks and four-day-old little ducks; really nice kids taking care of them, too.  There were rides galore, and Robert and I (along with Chris and Arden) even got to ride on the merry-go-round!  What fun!!

Back home for bedtime for Arden and Robert, and Brenda, Chris and I (with Dara) retired to the wonderful movie theatre Chris built in the basement, for “Salmon Fishing on the Yemen.”  Unfortunately, the day caught up with everyone before the end – so hopefully we’ll get their tonight!

Robert up very early to get the Toyota over to the dealership for an oil change…but he was back by 9:00, when the rest of the house was stirring.  

 At 10:00 we departed for the

Blue Willow Inn

Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle, GA – about an hour’s drive away through lovely rolling hills, green fields and past some beautiful old houses. 

The Inn is quite spectacular – an old plantation-type home, now turned in to a restaurant.  They have a great Southern buffet lunch – salads of various kinds, then great main courses – Southern Fried Chicken, fried green tomatoes, and a truly outstanding meat loaf!!!  Brenda has their cook book, and that is one recipe that I definitely want to get!!  Their desserts were also fabulous – especially their chocolate cake with chocolate frosting…mmmmm…fortunately, the cut it into thin slices; I could have eaten the entire thing!!

After lunch we sat out on the front porch and rocked in rocking chairs.  Arden is a great rocker, and great fun to be around!  The “girls” (minus Dara) wandered through the gift shop – always fun things to discover there…and of course this one is no exception! 

After a thorough tour of the front and side gardens, we returned home for naps…very definitely needed, although I’m sorry to say I don’t think anyone but Robert and I got some well needed sleep!!

Up around 4:00 and spent time reading and playing with Arden; great exercise, to be sure!  Then we both “helped” Brenda made a great salad of greens, apples, pecans and blue cheese in a balsamic vinaigrette to go with Chris’ great grilled hot dogs!  They have a fabulous screened in patio right off the dining room, and it was just lovely to sit outside and eat!

Chris is now in the process of getting Arden to bed, and Brenda is tending to Dara, so I thought I would get a quick blog posted!!

Much love and more tomorrow!

m

xxx