Nothing much was going on at the lodge, so we went into downtown Helen for a few hours. This little North Georgia town was dying in the 1960s, so the town fathers got together and recreated the area as a Bavarian village with gift and souvenir shops.

We had a nice two-hour stroll and I even found a real cross-stitch store (not cross stitch in a Michael's or JoAnn). I bought a cute pattern of leaves and acorns with a charm that says "Happy fall, y'all."

I also purchased my once-a-year dark chocolate almond bark and found a wonderful Christmas gift for my friend Sherrye, and James bought me a heart-shaped Christmas ornament with a collie's head on it.

Mostly we just window-shopped. We usually go into Helen on Saturday, so it was very pleasant to find no crowds to struggle through. One shop is full of cuckoo clocks, which always remind me of my father. He was in the Black Forest and in Austria during World War II and always loved the German cuckoo clocks. We also went into the glassblower's shop to watch him form those swan-shaped weather barometers that have liquid in them.

Came back to the lodge to find everyone setting up the tables with various treats, including lots of fruit. We're all going the healthy route these days, so along with the usual chocolate chip cookies we have low-fat granola bars and South Beach Diet rice bars. The usual coffee machines are being set up, but we haven't had the area "wired" for the microwave and bread machine yet. The fresh white or wheat bread with vegetable spread is a better treat than all the chocolate!

Since the WiFi connection is best in the courtyard, I'm out here with the two little Baskin girls, who are drawing chalk patterns on the concrete and decorating the worn wooden table with chalk "confetti."

But it looks like dinner time and we'll be heading for supper soon.

Labels: weekend

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 5:59:00 PM

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