Rock City at Lookout Mountain, Georgia

After we left Mt. Airy, the next stop was Rock City, at Lookout Mountain in Georgia.  It's literally right on the TN line in the farthest northwest corner of GA, with Chattanooga down below.  I'd seen this the first time we went to Mississippi in 2021 and was bummed that I didn't think to stop.  This place is really, really cool.  Quite the hike through these amazing stone paths and bridges.  It was also decorated for the holidays. 

 

Suspension Bridge to get to the other side.  There's a regular path on the side for people that don't like swinging bridges.  

I was so grateful for the beautiful, clear afternoon!  What a view!!! 

Follow the path from the summit view point to see the ret of the Rock Gardens.  

This extremely narrow passage is called The Fat Man's Squeeze.  Everyone, including myself, had to slide through sideways, and I had to hold my purse above my head!  It was crazy!! 

A lot of this gorgeous glass embedded in doors, railings and other things. 

Looking up at the suspension bridge, and the regular path on the stone bridge. 

View of Lover's Leap.  This must look amazing at night with the Christmas star lit up. It was so cold that the waterfall areas were very icy.

This was a swirling light.  I could've watched it all day.

Intrepid Travelers

We were both kind of dreading the trip home cause that is one long drive from Orlando to Cape Cod.  We're talking about 1,200 miles!!  We left about 7:00 AM to head north.

White palmetto tree as seen on the flags and state symbols.

I thought this was unusual for a major highway, to have the trees so close.

This rest stop is about 3 miles north of South of the Border.  I was so creeped out that I wouldn't use their bathroom so Russell stopped here for me!!!

Very blurry cause it was about 6:00 but we made it to Virginia the first day, and stayed in Emporia.  After a delicious meal at Cracker Barrel we checked into a hotel and crashed for the night.

 Up real early in the morning to continue on.

Got to the Capital Beltway around DC right at rush hour so it was definitely slow going.

 Loved this truck.  I lived for Scholastic Book Fairs in elementary school!

Maryland by mid morning....more traffic around Baltimore.

 I didn't realize we were going to pass through Delaware too...I was lucky to grab my camera in time!

We could have branched off to avoid the DC/Baltimore metro area but we had one more stop to make on the way home, in South Plainfield, NJ.

Russell got antipasto salads from this place called Pizza Stop that would deliver to the Halls Warehouse a few blocks away.  He hasn't had one in well over a year since his forced retirement.  He was so excited to stop here on the way home.  We got here about 2:30. 

I got a really good pie.  I miss NY/NJ style pizza!

He was so very happy to see that they hadn't changed anything with the salad.  He got two.

Aw look how happy!!!!!

The rest of the trip home was uneventful and we were in the house and relaxing by about 8:00 pm.  This was easily one of the best vacations ever....from seeing the boys and doing Halloween with them to living out my dream of seeing Harry Potter World, it was a perfect trip.  Made a lot of memories and had a lot of laughs.