Georgia

 After the stress of uprooting and moving in with Bump's parents I got a surprise from my awesome husband.  He found a really great deal on a flight to Atlanta and booked it for me to go and have a visit with my sister, Tera.  I protested because I knew that Tera and her family were coming to Utah in December, but Bump insisted that I needed a break and to spend some one-on-one time with her.  Great!  So, I took off on November 18th and stayed until the 25th.

I promised Gabby that I would take pictures on my flight.  This was just after take-off when we were flying over Bountiful.

After a 3 hour layover in Denver I finally made it to Atlanta!  I was met at the airport by this beautiful woman and her sleeping 3 year old.  She had booked us a room close by the airport since they live a few hours from Atlanta.  We went back to the hotel and talked for a few hours until we finally crashed and slept very well.

We spent the next day exploring Atlanta.  You can't visit Atlanta without touring the Coca Cola museum.  We had a really fun time checking everything out!  Their old advertising collections and history was fun to look at.  I think our favorite thing was tasting sodas from all over the world in their tasting room.  Some of them were absolutely fabulous!  Others were just vile.  I would do well living in South America I think, as far as the soda is concerned anyway.

 Here is outside the museum.  That is it on the left of the picture and downtown Atlanta straight ahead.  I loved how everything was decorated for Christmas, but the trees were colorful and fall was in the air.

 Tera is a wonderful photographer and I got a few pictures of her doing what she does best.

We ate at Baja Fresh, I think.  I have never been there before, so I asked the girl at the register what she liked to eat.  She said something about nachos but with chicken and blah blah blah.  I can't remember.  I said that sounded good and I would take it exactly like she makes it.  It actually was really good, Tera took a picture and shared it with me.  Mine was better than what she ordered!  :)  We left there and headed for Ft. Benning to see Erick and the other kids.

Erick is in his captain's course at Ft. Benning, which is just like he is in school full time.  While I was there Erick's class was having some testing and he finished his test and was able to be home quite a bit of the time.  It was fun to have him go with us on our little day trips.

We went to Ft. Sumpter in Andersonville, GA.  Ft. Sumpter was a Civil War prison camp where thousands of soldiers died.  It was a pretty terrible place to be taken and you did not want to be captured by the south.  On the site is a prisoner of war museum dedicated to prisoners of war throughout all wars.  Behind the POW museum was this beautiful monument.  It was made of brick, but carved as well - amazing!

Some examples of shelters that soldiers would make while imprisoned.  They could only use what they had with them.

 Different states have built monuments to those who lost their lives while imprisoned at Ft. Sumpter.
Erick, Tera and David checking everything out.

There is also a national cemetery on the site.  I love these old cemeteries!  There was a peaceful feeling there and so many graves!  Tera got some great photos!

There is a mystery at the Andersonville cemetery.  This dove showed up on one of the grave markers one day.  Nobody knows who put it there or why it is on that particular marker.  But we had to find it and take a picture of it!

We bought some civil war hats for TJ and Corban at the museum  TJ is sporting his hat from the south.

David is modeling Corban's northern blue hat.  This picture makes me laugh!  He's such a funny kid.

We had some fun meals together and I introduced a new tortellini soup to Tera's family.  I had to take a picture while we were shopping.  There was a whole section of greens in the vegetable isle!  Mustard greens, collard greens, etc.  I was definitely in the south!

Tera and I spent an afternoon at the new Infantry Museum on post in Ft. Benning.  I could have spent hours there looking at all of the artifacts from all the wars in US history.  They had some amazing displays.

 I thought the kids would get a kick out of this gas mask for a horse made by the Japanese.

Time went by too fast, as usual when you are having fun.  The day I had to fly out Tera's kids were all out of school and Erick was in class.  So, we took off in the morning determined to go and see Alabama on the way to the airport.  I told Tera that since I was visiting the south I needed to see a plantation.

So we headed out to see Alabama.  The plantation that we went to was just outside of Auburn where Auburn University is.  What a beautiful city!

We found Noble Hall and snapped a picture of a real plantation house!

We stopped at a rest area afterward and I had to get a picture of this awesome spray cologne dispenser!  Tempting, right?  Too bad I don't wear any of these smells!  :)

When I got to the airport my flight ended up being delayed due to weather.  They told me that my flight going out of Denver would probably be delayed, but that they couldn't guarantee it.  I decided to chance it and see what would happen when I got to Denver.  I figured I would end up just sleeping at the airport and catching the first flight out to Salt Lake in the morning.

When we landed in Denver the flight attendant told everyone on the plane that the only people that had a chance to make their connecting flight were those going to Salt Lake City.  He had everyone going to Salt Lake City raise their hands and let us off the plane very first.  I walked off the flight and down two gates and got right on the next plane to get to Salt Lake.  I felt very blessed to make it home that night.  I had a wonderful vacation and was glad to be back home just in time for Thanksgiving.  I am very spoiled!