I got Jen up very early this morning in order to go on a day hike somewhere in North Georgia. After consulting many resources, I finally decided that we would head to Raven Cliff Falls. We’ve been there multiple times before but it is such a great trail.
We left the house a little before 7am and drove up GA-400 to Dahlonega to the Winfield Scott Lake area. This was a side trip I wanted to make because I was inspired by a photograph someone took of the lake during the peak fall foliage colors.
Once at the lake we explored a little as we walked around the lake and I took some pictures. I imagine that it would look nicer had the trees been more colorful.
(Winfield Scott Lake)
Shortly after this we drove up to Raven Cliff Falls and hiked that trail. The weather was great and the trail wasn’t too crowded.
(Portrait of Jen as we hiked along the trail)
As we hiked in, there was a cleared-out area with a grove of trees. I was experimenting with the external flash and took various photos of Jen sitting on a fallen tree in the distance.
(Jennifer sitting on the tree in the distance)
I also made great use of my tripod to photograph the various falls at a slow shutter speed. When we finally made it to the falls, I climbed up to the top while Jen sat below. We had a bite to eat for lunch. While we were eating, Jen took the obligatory photograph of our feet.
(Slow-shutter speed photograph of some falls)
(Jennifer photographed our feet)
We hiked out much faster than it took to hike in. We left the trail area and headed back towards home. As we were driving back, still in North Georgia, I saw a hillside with some brilliant fall colors so we stopped along the side of the road so I could photograph this. As I was sitting up the shot, a group of people on horses rode by which made the picture even more enjoyable.
(Photograph of horse-riders with fall-colored hill in the background)
It was still early enough in the day that Jen and I wanted to stop at the Frogtown winery. It was really crowded but we managed to get a table outside and ordered the Sunday brunch. It was pretty filling. They brought out a plate of various breads, followed by a puff egg thing, and then shrimp pasta. It was a wine-pairing brunch so they also brought out three different types of wine (two whites and one red). Following all of this they also brought us desert. Jen and I really enjoyed their sangiovese wine so we bought a bottle of that to go.
On our way back to the Atlanta area we stopped at the outlet mall place. Jen bought some stuff from Banana Republic while I waited in the car and listened to my audiobook. Once Jen was done shopping we headed towards Katie’s house.
We wanted to photograph the house to use for the website in our attempt to sell it. The sun was setting too fast and we didn’t arrive until well past sunset. I wasn’t discourage, however, and used my tripod to take some 30-second exposures of the house at night.
(Long-exposure of Jennifer’s house photographed at night)
Chris let me use his laptop to check my eBay auctions for the Canon 20D and 28-135mm lens. We went out to a restaurant in Kennesaw called ‘Caper’s‘ for dinner. I got ribs but they weren’t as good as other places. Jen got lemon thyme chicken. She liked hers quite a bit. The restaurant and atmosphere was a nice change of pace.
Finally we headed home and Jen went to bed early. I stayed up to check my eBay auction. Both completed but I was pretty disappointed with the results. They both ended for lower than I thought they should have. I won’t offer free shipping in the future - it didn’t seem to make any difference. I packed up the packages to ship tomorrow and went to bed.
