We arrived at our cabin around 4:30 in the afternoon, and we decided to unpack and get down to the business of unwinding. You might recognize these Georgia Peach T-shirts from our Girls' Weekend in St. Simon's Island, GA in 2017.
Let the unwinding begin! This deserves cocktails . . .
And time in the hot tub (which, coincidentally, was the only place in our little cabin we could get any cell phone service . . . more on that later.)
We had big plans on our itinerary for Friday. First up was visiting Babyland General in nearby Cleveland, GA.
Looks like a beautiful mansion or an old Southern plantation, doesn't it? Well, it's actually the birthplace of the popular 1980s dolls, The Cabbage Patch Kids.
You can go there for a free tour and see the museum-like exhibits in the front part of the building, witness a Cabbage Patch doll being "born" out of the cabbage patch, and of course explore their extensive gift shop for any and all Cabbage Patch Doll merchandise you may want.
We brought some of our own Cabbage Patch Dolls (one each) to take the tour with us. Yes, these are the very same dolls that crowds went into mass hysteria over in the 1980s just to get their hands on them. And our parents had to some how come up with three dolls each year . . . for every year that the craze had its hold on the United States. Now that we're parents we totally appreciate this, and we figured the very least we could do was to take a few of these dolls to see their roots!
You just check your own Cabbage Patch Kid in at the front desk to get a visitor badge and you are free to tour around while holding it.
The front part of the building is set up like a museum with display cases of vintage handmade Little People dolls, vinyl headed Cabbage Patch Kids (the dolls we know today), and facts about them.
The most interesting part of the visit was when one of the "nurses" (employees) saw us with our vintage dolls (now around 36 years old) and made a beeline for us. She asked if she could see our dolls because she thought they were some of the originals (meaning some of the very first ones released to the public).
After checking the information printed on the backs of their heads, she confirmed that they were, indeed, produced in 1982 by Coleco, which was the original company to produce them and would have been first sold to the public in 1983, which is the year they were first introduced to the public.
Here are Misty and me (Donna) talking to the nurse about my doll.
And here's a photo of an original new-in-box vinyl headed doll that was from their first release in 1983, which looks almost identical to my 1983 doll that I brought (in the pink dress). That is what caught her eye and made her want to talk to us in the first place.
We learned a lot about our beloved dolls and that was the highlight of the visit!
Who knew that Andy Warhol himself had painted Cabbage Patch artwork or that they had been the official mascot of the US Olympic team not once, but twice? You can see cool memorabilia like that in the museum there too!
Andy Warhol artwork:
Signed US Olympic jerseys:
There are also plenty of photo opportunities. We took photos in the giant cabbage chair in the museum and also took individual photos in the life-size Cabbage Patch Kid box with our own Cabbage Patch Kids!
After the museum tour and the photo ops, we made our way to the back gift shop area. THAT'S where all the magic happens . . . quite literally. It's a very large section of the building and in the center of it all is a cabbage patch where they gather everyone around to witness Cabbage Patch Kids being "born" from the cabbage patch. I have to say, this part was a little on the weird side, but it is part and parcel of the whole Legend of the Cabbage Patch Kids, so we just rolled with it.
The Cabbage Patch Kid that was "born" while we were there was named Castle Michael - and wouldn't you know it? Just like that the nostalgia of their somewhat odd names washed right over us and it was just like we were 7 years old again! We never did meet a Cabbage Patch Kid that had a completely normal name, and we can confirm that the tradition lives on!
Here's little Castle Michael being "born" the day we were there:
And after he was born, the nurses took him to a big nursery to check his vitals.
And swaddle him like a real newborn:
And then they brought him out for pictures. They really do a great job staying in character here!
Every Cabbage Patch Kid in Babyland General (except for the vintage ones on display in the museum section) are available for adoption (purchase).
If you're not interested in purchasing a Cabbage Patch Kid (since you should already have your own from your childhood like we did, right?), they did have these paper nurses hats available for sale at the registers for a whopping $0.50 each. They were probably the cheapest souvenir you could buy but a really cute way to commemorate the day!
All in all, we would definitely recommend Babyland General as a must-see stop if you are anywhere in the vicinity of Cleveland, GA. For kids who grew up in the 1980s like us, all this nostalgia was certainly worth the price of admission (FREE!!!) - you just can't beat a walk down memory lane like that.
Next up for the day was a trip to Three Sisters Vineyards for a wine tasting and picnic lunch. To be honest, we chose this winery strictly because of its name. Apparently this area is known for growing grapes and therefore has a lot of wineries. We chose well!
This was our view from the car as we made our way down to the winery!
We started off with a wine tasting of six wines paired with three chocolates. They did a great job pairing the chocolates with the wines and explaining the wines as we went along.
While we were there, we asked how the winery got its name (since that was really how we chose it!) and they directed us to a piece of stained glass artwork over the bar area. You see the mountain range in the stained glass? Those mountains are known as The Three Sisters!
One of the wines we tasted was called Sweet Li'l Sis, so we figured that was perfect for Misty! We bought a bottle to enjoy with our picnic lunch on their covered patio.
We would recommend this winery if you are ever in the area of Dahlonega, GA. (Yes, the town we're in has changed again, but this was only a 17-minute drive from Babyland General in Cleveland, GA.) They did an excellent job with the wine tasting, and it is on beautiful property. Certainly, if you're going with your own sisters, this would be a great choice for you too!
On Saturday, our plan was to visit the quaint little town of Helen, GA. The special thing about this town is that all of the buildings look like an alpine town rather than small town Georgia!
And they were gorgeous!
Since we were visiting during the summer, the main attraction seemed to be tubing down the Chattahoochee River.
While we did not to do this ourselves, we saw many (many, MANY) people taking advantage of this activity. But we did get a quick photo over top of the Chattahoochee before lunch!
After lunch, we made some time to take a horse and buggy ride. It was a quick one-mile ride around Helen, but the shade that the buggy offered was quite welcome in the afternoon sun!
We visited when it was very hot, so we might have stayed to explore longer had the weather been more temperate. Whether you would enjoy visiting this unique town will depend on whether you enjoy exploring with large crowds of people! It was certainly fun to see the beautiful architecture and the German theme carried throughout every building . . . right down to the bird houses!
Later that afternoon, we set aside some time to do a Facebook Live Video for you guys to do a taste test of some nostalgic foods that we remember from our childhood. Remember those wi-fi issues we mentioned before? We mentioned those in the video too! If you haven't already seen the video, make sure to check it out - we had a lot of fun doing it!
One of the foods we showed in the video is our (now infamous) Donald Duck orange juice that we bring on every Girls' Weekend. Of course, we always like to get a location-specific photo of our beloved juice, so here's the one from this year. They're in the little stream that ran behind our cabin!
If you've never heard of Donald Duck orange juice before, make sure to take a peek at the Facebook Live Video. We explain all about it and why they're nostalgic to us in the video!
Sunday was our day to pack up and drive back home, but we had a few hours in the morning to squeeze in a few more adventures. First up was to find the Stovall Mill Covered Bridge in Sautee Nacoochee, GA. (Did you notice the town named changed again? But it was only a 10-minute drive from our cabin.)
Originally constructed in 1895 and then rebuilt in 1926, this is the last covered bridge in White County, GA and is also one of the oldest in the state.
This was a nice little stop off the beaten path. The bridge spans the Chickamauga Creek, and it has a large parking area for you to pull your car off the road, park, and get out/explore. You don't really need to spend a lot of time here to learn about the bridge and explore. But if you wanted to, you could pack a picnic lunch and enjoy your lunch creek side at one of the four permanent stone picnic tables the have set up.
We then moved on to Anna Ruby Falls, which are actually two separate waterfalls, Curtis Creek Waterfall and York Creek Waterfall, on Tray Mountain in Helen, GA. This is only maybe 15 minutes from the covered bridge.
These waterfalls are accessed by a paved trail which is under one mile round trip. The trail is a pretty steep uphill hike, but there are quite a few benches along the path to sit and rest if needed. The trail is also marked with signs describing the foliage in the area, which is a nice addition. Of course, the bonus of an all uphill hike, is that the hike down is all downhill!
Here's a little video we took at the top viewing area of the falls:
The start/end of the trail has a little gift shop with lots of Smokey Bear merchandise (which we enjoyed for the nostalgia), a visitors' sign in book (if you'd like to sign in to say you hiked the trail), and a large display and book with photos of the real-life Anna Ruby, her family members, and the story of how the falls came to get their name.
The rest of the time this Girls' Weekend we spent hanging out, visiting antique stores, cooking our own breakfasts and dinners (which helped us to stay out of the heat), oohing and aahing over local pups, and planning exciting things for the blog (which you guys will find out about in the coming months). Stay tuned!
So if you have a chance to visit Helen, GA, (and the surrounding small towns) go for it! The group of small towns that we visited had plenty of fun stuff to do.
Make sure to check out our other Girls' Weekend posts for our photos, recommendations, and reviews on the other places we've visited.