A Camping Adventure

This summer, Ben the Eagle Scout mentioned that he wanted to go camping when it got a little cooler. So we scouted out our location and made the reservations. We chose Unicoi State Park in Helen, GA and it was beautiful. The park is about a three hour drive for us and by the time we got there, it was pitch black dark. No problem, right? Wrong. The sweet little check in girl told us that the campsites were first come, first serve and cheerily stated for us to park at the parking area and then walk around the area that housed all of the tent sites and find which one we liked the looks of the best! I, little miss positive, doesn't think anything about this until we arrive at the camp sites and we. can't. find. a. site.

The nearly full campground was bulging with people and apparently this was a popular night for tent camping. We finally found a site near the back of the campground and started setting up the campsite for the night. This included about 50 trips back to the car because camping, my friends, ought to be called moving. You have to bring everything with you. Who knew?!? (Can you tell I am really not the camping type?!?) I honestly had a wonderful time though. It was a beautiful and crisp weekend and hot dogs roasted on the campfire are wonderful. Who needs a five star meal when you have a perfectly grilled hot dog? Seriously, there is nothing better than a grilled hot dog :)

Our home for the weekend.

That pot on the right makes the best coffee you will ever have. Especially when its 32 degrees outside!

Due to planning/scheming on my part, this weekend also happened to be one of the many weekends that Helen holds its Oktoberfest celebration. If you ever have the opportunity to go, do it! It is such a cute little town and they go all out for Oktoberfest. We ate some great sausage and sauerkraut and Ben was super excited about the German dunkel!

Ben is super excited about this picture! However, I think it's hilarious!


We also visited the Nacoochee Village located just beyond Helen. They have a winery, antique shop, and the neatest stone mill. I was fascinated by the way they were making grits and cornmeal.


The corn is dropped into this rotating stone to be crushed.

It then goes through a hole in the floor...

and somehow makes it to this bin full of grits. I honestly don't know all of the details, but I thought it was pretty cool!

They then package them in these great fabric bags and sell them to you fresh from the mill! You can check them out online here and purchase grits, cornmeal, or flour for your own kitchen. Great stocking stuffers for rapidly approaching Christmas!

I would give Helen two thumbs up - camping and Oktoberfest. Give it a try if you are close to the area!