Dahlonega and The Foothills

After a first two hot and polluted days in Atlanta we decided to head north a little ways towards the mountains. Specifically, the little town of Dahlonega and The Foothills Scenic Byway.

 Dahlonega is only about an hour outside the city and oozing with what can only be described as "small-town charm" and "quaintness".  It was very quiet while we were there during the week and a peaceful, clean-aired remedy to the hustle and smog of the city.

Originally, Dahlonega was a gold town; apparently it was the site of the first gold rush in America.  Today, it's a favorite weekend destination and considered "the heart of the North Georgia wine country." Unfortunately, we did not get to experience the wine country personally this time, but it's definitely on my list of things to do.

Instead, we made a short trip of it and mostly just strolled along the quiet and historic streets peeping into shop windows to see what kind of unique finds were on display in the specialty shops that dominated the town, and we were not disappointed, particularly due to the presence of this....

 ....That's right people, it's a T-Rex in a wedding dress, wearing pearls, carrying not only a lovely white purse, but also an adorable stuffed teddy bear.  It was astounding.

We also walked past a few inviting looking places that we may have stopped at had we not just been dropping in for a quick look around.

 After leaving Dahlonega we headed down The Scenic Foothills Byway to get our flat-lander Florida selves a look at some mountain-like terrain and possibly search for a water fall.

The first stop we hit was Lake Zwerner, which is actually a reservoir.  We happened upon a little side of the road pull-off for it, so we did what any sensible tourist would do and we pulled off.

If you couldn't tell from the pictures it was an abnormally cool and overcast day, which was actually glorious after two days of near 100 temperatures in the city.

From there we hit the road again and headed off towards the waterfalls, which we eventually came to after a long bumpy drive down a gravel mountain road.

 We climbed down a stepped path in a drizzly rain through, what appeared to me to be, the forests of Middle Earth, until we reached the bottom of the falls. Which, by the way, would have been superb to splash around on those hot sunny days previous to this, but alas it was a bit too chilly and wet for that kind of activity on the day of our visit.

From here we took off down the scenic byway without anywhere specific in mind and just drove.

In case you couldn't tell from the pictures, we actually drove in and out of the clouds a few times.  The picture above is supposed to be a scenic mountain view.

 After we had our fill of beautiful, winding, scenic roads and clean air, we called it a day and headed back to civilization.

It was a lovely trip overall and a solace to know that when I need a break from the city, all I have to do is pop on the highway and head north an hour for some clean air and relief.