2nd Annual Sister Trip

Last year, the 4 sisters took an overnight trip to Nashville, TN on New Year's Day.  This year we planned a trip to Helen, GA for a low-key relaxing evening of pizza and movies.  Unfortunately, a great deal to Guatemala came up, so we lost Joanna on the trip, but Joy, Staci and I still made the trip.  Around 2pm or so, Staci met Joy and I at Leisure Dr, and we took off from there.  We had some drama b/c the lodge (we stayed at Unicoi Lodge) does not have a dvd player in the room.  I was going to take our portable and hook it up to the tv, but I didn't bring the cables for it.  Dad had extra cables, but nothing worked.  Luckily, staci brought a dvd player that she was giving to Art and I so we thought we'd take it with us and hook it up in the room.  Fingers crossed that it would work!

Staci drove the three of us up to Helen, slowly because of the heavy heavy rain.  We checked in with no problem, and entered our room...which was like a SAUNA.  We had to open the windows to cool it off, and we were all 3 sitting around in tank tops.  Staci called around to a few pizza places to check and see how much the pizzas were, including the recommended NaCoochie Grill.  I messed and messed with the dvd player, trying to attach it to the tv, but the tv was just too old.  So we finally decided that we'd try to attach the dvd player to the tv downstairs in the common area, by the fireplace.  After some serious tinkering (including calling the front desk to ask where the remote was!) finally SUCCESS!  Then we took off, in the rain, to the NaCoochie Grill and had some YUMMY pizza.  We also bought some cinnamon rolls to take back w/ us.  We stopped at Betty's on the way back, a Helen institution, and got some goodies...including my favorite Stewart's Cherries and Cream soda.  Mmmm!  Back to the lodge!  We turned the common area into our own personal living room, pulling 3 big comfy chairs up in front of the tv, and two ottoman.  We changed into jammies and brought blanket downstairs.  I doubt we would have been more comfortable if we were in our own room!  We snacked too much (who can resist dark chocolate M&Ms though?!) and watched 2 movies.  After that, it was after midnight, so we put the common room back together and headed upstairs to bed.  Sadly, we had to set the alarm so we could make it for breakfast in the Lodge in the morning.  Our Winter Special Rate included 2 breakfasts, so it would be crazy to skip it.

Morning came too early, and we got to breakfast just in time, at 10:30.  The power went out during breakfast, which was odd.  Food was plenty good.  I wanted waffles, but w/ the power out, the waffle iron would not work, so I settled for French toast instead.

We packed up and headed to downtown Helen to walk around the shops a bit.  It is so interesting that we all loved to go in every shop when we were little and see all the cheesy gift items, etc, and now, there are very few shops that honestly interest us.  We all got some goodies at the Dutch store.  We also spent some time in a glass store where I bought a ring.  We went in a few other stores, but were not intrigued by much.  I'm sure it's because Staci and Joy had the OUTLET MALL on their minds.  We bit Helen adieu and headed back toward Leisure Dr, making a stop at the outlets first.

St, Sh (with the HUGE belly), Joy browsing in Helen

Let me say that shopping while pregnant is not so much fun.  No trying on cute clothes, and even shoes can be risky.  I found one shirt at Ann Taylor that I liked and thought I'd risk it...I had Staci try it on so  could see how it might look on me after BBC3 is born.  Staci and Joy had luck at several stores, and we just browsed in several others, grabbing a quick snack lunch (it was around 3pm) - slice of Sbarro pizza for me, salad for Staci, Chinese for Joy in between shopping.  It was SO COLD outside.  Mainly because we did not want to lug our coats around with us, and left them in the car.  As the sun went down, it got more and more miserable to be outside w/ no coat.  Still, worth the hassle.

Then back to Leisure Dr!  A fun sister outing!  We missed Joanna...maybe next year!