All settled in at our lakeside cabin in the North Georgia hills.
Flight out of Miami went smoothly. Got to sit next to a Santero on my right side, who I could smell the alcohol on before he even sat down for our 10am flight. I’m thinking it was nerves, because he really didn’t seem to like air travel. When we were coming in for the landing, he just kept saying how he hated when they come in so fast, they should really slow down more, and that we’re coming in sideways. Once on the ground, he started clapping and unbuckled right away so he could get out as soon as possible.
We found our way down to the car rental area of Atlanta International Airport, and got to the Hertz desk to pick up our rental car. Since there was a long line for the in-person tellers, they offered us to use one of the kiosks that they had set up.
Now, this wasn’t your ordinary kiosk like printing your boarding passes. This thing was like a hybrid of a phone booth connected to Skype with a camera, printer, and credit card swipe all in one, where you end up speaking face to face virtually with someone presumably in a call center, but they could have actually been working remotely at home, even. Kinda neat and future’y. Had to swipe and present my license and credit card to the camera for them to review and capture, and fill out some automated questions that popped up on the screen below, but overall it was pretty seamless and I think still faster than the people that were seeing the in-person tellers.
Got down to the compact car lineup of available rentals, and there were only 3 left to choose from. Choice was between a Hyundai and a Toyota Yaris, and all other things equal, I’ll go for Toyota, and this one made the choice even easier because it’s a beautiful blue color, and the in-dash radio comes with Bluetooth so I can stream everything from my phone nice and easy so no worrying about finding a good station and then losing it while wandering through the mountains.
The trunk was a bit tiny, but we were able to squeeze our 2 carry-on’s, and my laptop bag in the back, but had to release the back seat lock just a little for the latch to completely close. Since we’re only going to be stopping once on the drive out to our place, we accepted it and moved on.
Our first stop was to Zoo Atlanta, to make one of Christine’s dreams come true, to see a real life Panda!
It was a beautiful day, and there was a special adoption event going on at the zoo, so there was no parking in the lot, but we found a spot along the street we were able to squeeze into thanks to the Yaris’s small size. We walked along the park and made our way down to the zoo entrance. Lots of families hanging out and walking around, it kind of reminded me of Central Park a little bit.
Once in the park, we made our way right to the Panda Exhibit. They have the whole area themed up with bamboo stalks and Chinese architecture which added to the excitement and build-up of seeing the Pandas in person.
The first one we saw was the mother, and it looked like she was taking her afternoon nap-and-poop with her back to the crowd.
But then we saw the main attraction, the twin young Giant Pandas, Xi Lun and Ya Lun, born in September 2016. They were playful and active, and reminded us a little of our baby kitties at home, with one biting the others ankles, and the other climbing up and rolling around, saying Parkour in our minds.
We headed out from that enclosed part and found the daddy Panda out in the open walking around under the trees. He stopped off and took a big poop right in front of the crowd too, as apparently is a constant activity for them. It was really neat to see the Pandas in person, and Christine was full of joy getting to be so close to them.
We spent a little while longer browsing the rest of the animals in the zoo, and even got to see some big Otters hanging out. One was napping, and the other was swimming around being the playful animal that I first fell for back when I saw the otters at Miami’s Metro Zoo.
On our way out, we saw this one elephant that was just swaying back in forth like he was listening to a good ballad. Its big ears flopping back and forth made it look so happy to be there dancing for the crowd, I had to snap a picture to remember the joy on its face.
For lunch, we headed out to a place Christine had gotten a recommendation from a food blogger for called Das BBQ. Not a whole lot of vegetarian options, but they did have a pretty awesome Mac and Cheese side that I enjoyed with about 4 Lactaid’s.
After lunch, we headed up the road through the famed Atlanta traffic and wandered our way into the northern Georgia Hills towards our cabin we found on Homeaway.
We knew the place was going to be in a trailer park based on the reviews, but the amenities and convenience and location on the water outweighed any negatives that being packed in next to others, and the placement of this particular lot makes you forget where you are, and really captures the lakeside feel that we were looking for on this getaway.
We got to the guard gate, but didn’t pre-register for entry to the park, so we had to head up to the clubhouse to check in and pay the ‘resort fee’ for our stay. While this little gated community is essentially a trailer park, it’s also got quite a bit of other things to offer, including a putt-putt golf course, 2 outdoor pools, and indoor pool, a water park, and kayaks and canoes to rent to go out on the lake.
We drove down and found the lot that we’ve got to ourselves for the week. The drive down to it is pretty funky, passing by lots of mobile homes and lots where it looks like started as just a trailer on wheels and then they built a regular mobile home around it. Never seen that kind of ingenuity before, so hats off to whoever came up with that idea to extend their living area. It looks pretty awkward the way nothing matches, but practicality trumps aesthetics I suppose.
Our actual place is much more permanent and less trailer’y than the rest of the park, though. I guess it’s more like a double-wide with customizations all around to extend its functionality. It’s quite cozy and well-equipped. The owners did a good job of hooking it up to be a nice little vacation home, which I’m sure is what it was originally designed to be for them.
The kitchen is nice and well stocked, the bedroom’s got a king size that’s super soft and comfortable, it’s got an awesome sunroom that feels like you’re floating out in the air almost on top of the lake below, and it’s got a little outside deck area with a grill and bar-top with high chairs for outdoor dining. They’ve really packed a lot into their tiny plot of land here, and it definitely makes you forget where you are in relation to the rest of the neighborhood.
We took stock of what we planned to eat for the week and headed to the local grocery store, Ingles. I don’t know if the owners know that the name translates to ‘English’ in Spanish, but they included an American Owned sign just in case. The store itself was pretty awesome. Aside from being huge with tons of regular selections, they also have Ben and Jerry’s vegan ice cream and vegan shredded cheese so I can make my salmon burgers and a grilled cheese or two. They also had fresh donuts for 3-for-$1 after 6pm, so I loaded up on 6 of those for some extra sweet treats. Got the rest of what we’d need to keep us fed for the week and headed back to our cabin.
We settled in for the night and took advantage of the On Demand to binge the first few episodes of Roseanne’s new season. I never really watched the original series, but I could see why people like it. It’s got good characters and maintains relevancy to current events. Worth a watch.
Headed to bed around 11 and got a good night’s sleep in the quiet coziness of our little lakefront cabin for the night.