On Sunday evening we were invited to the Residents Pool Party, organised by some generous community-building neighbours. It was fun to meet and mingle; the pool area looked wonderful and the summer warmth (global warming) just keeps on glowing with temperatures still rising unseasonally to 30 degrees and upwards every day.
Kerstin decided to have a tropical themed movie evening for her birthday party on Saturday so she searched online and came up with some fruity creations to serve up which the girls had fun making! The party guests were all impressed and I was impressed with how much fruit they all ate!
None of us can quite believe that Kerstin is 10 years old today! Her birth coincided with Jonathan being offered a job in Sweden and we moved to Gothenburg with a six week old baby in November 2006. Of course, we never dreamed that ten years later we'd be living in America! Kerstin had a great day today, including choosing where we should eat dinner this evening. We tried out a local Italian restaurant for the first time which was relaxed and fun with delicious food.
Us girls have been desperate to go and experience a baseball game at the famous Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves team, ever since we moved here. Last week, while listening to the radio, I realised that Turner Field is closing forever in 3 weeks time, before the Braves move to their new stadium next spring (which happens to be only 10 minutes drive away from us and we're already dreading the traffic on match days!) On Saturday morning I got hold of some tickets to the afternoon match, which was also a special promotional match day with the Greater Atlanta Girl Scouts and we UBERED down to Turner Field for a new experience. The girls were fascinated, for a short while. Claudia summed it up nicely when we got home... "It was just men hitting balls around for hours." (4 hours to be exact, but at least the Atlanta Braves won!)
From Chickamauga it was just a short 15-minute drive north across the state border into Tennessee, which was an exciting first for us girls, and our 4th state visited since moving here! We stopped for dinner in Chattanooga which is a university city on the Tennessee River. It was a gorgeous evening and we enjoyed walking on the famous 'Walnut Street Bridge' and experiencing the traditional carousel in Coolidge Park. Then it was time for a late drive home after our epic day out!
From Cloudland Canyon, we drove a short distance north-east to Chickamauga National Military Park where the civil war battles of Chickamauga took place in September 1863. The site was vast with tens of memorials to the thousands of men who died during this campaign. Although the Confederates won, they were eventually defeated just a few months later, opening up the way for the Unionists into Georgia and eventually Atlanta, leading to union victory. The site now houses a visitor center and 7-mile self-drive tour. Photos are unable to show the vastness of scale and the poignant atmosphere at the battlefield.
On Saturday we enjoyed another big day out, this time in the far north west of Georgia where our first stop was Cloudland Canyon State Park. It was an impressive and tranquil place, too far from the big cities to attract the crowds. We enjoyed looking around the interpretive center followed by a short walk along the top of the Canyon rim before climbing hundreds of steps down to the bottom of the canyon to the creek and waterfalls (currently dry due to the summer drought). The girls completed various 'State Park Junior Ranger activities' and were able to collect new junior ranger patches.
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AuthorsSusan, Jonathan, Kerstin & Claudia Archives
September 2017
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