Little River Canyon

As you may have read in the previous post, Jason and I just celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We had decided after our first anniversary that we wanted to get away every anniversary, even if it was just a night in Birmingham. We both feel it is important to make time just for each other. We were hoping for kids and knew we would have to commit to leaving once a year in order to actually do it. Sure enough we almost talked ourselves out of it this year. We had originally planned on going to Atlanta and then thought about Gatlinburg. However, we worried about finances this month. So, we decided to go to Little River Canyon. We also really wanted to just relax after working really hard on getting our house ready to sell. (Know of anyone in the Tuscaloosa area wanting a house????)

We really enjoyed our trip. It was so relaxing. On the way to our cabin we stopped in Scottsboro at the Unclaimed Baggage Store. It was fun! The store buys unclaimed luggage from the Airport. We asked the cashier about it and he said that about 1/3 of the stuff they get is just trash, 1/3 they donate, and 1/3 they keep and sale. It was well organized and full of all kinds of stuff. There was a huge diamond ring that they were asking $17,000 for. Who knows how much it is actually worth. And poor women that lost that! They had Kindles, cameras, dvds, cds, jewelry, books, purses, a ton of clothes, plus a lot more stuff. It was so fun to look around. We left with a portable dvd player and convertible Britax car seat for Libby, a couple of t-shirts for Jason, and a pair of pants for me. I wanted a lot of the jewelry, but didn’t want to pay for it. Some prices were great some still a little expensive. It left me wondering how they priced things. But, it was fun! And worth the trip!

We ended up finding a cute cabin in Dogtown. Dogtown consists of a four way stop. It did have a good pizza/sub place to eat. We really enjoyed their Chicken, Bacon, Ranch pizza. We also met a local who came in with her twin 4 months olds, Sarah Elizabeth and Hugh. They made us miss our Libby! The closest city to Dogtown was Fort Payne. Sorry if you are from Fort Payne, but……it is nothing to write home about. It was a little……dumpy. It had some chain restraints and stores, but it had so much potential. It had an old, downtown area that was sitting there with empty buildings. It could be so cute! We had a brochure in our cabin for an antique mall that had a deli in it. So we set out to Fort Payne to go explore. Well, there was an antique mall but it was not nearly as big as it said it would be. Also…. No deli around. But it was fine. We enjoyed walking through.

We really had a great time riding around the canyon and getting out and looking at the waterfall and canyon below. It was so pretty. I was thankful we were expected to drive around it because I am out of shape and it was so hot.

The night before we came home we drove to Mentone. Mentone is another small town on Look Out Mountain. It is where we had considered staying before finding the cabin we stayed in. We ate at the Wildflower Café. (I was really excited because I have read a series of books by Robin Gunn and the final book is about a café called the Wildflower Café. This café made me feel like I was in that book.) The owner/chef came out and spoke to each customer. They were really friendly and the food was good too!

It was such a great trip and so relaxing. It was just what we needed. We would love to return and probably will! We were anxious to get home to see Libby. By the way, she is now eating her feet (when her shoes are off) and trying to eat her shoes when they are on. I have to keep stopping her when her shoes are on! She is also starting to get up on her hands and knees like she wants to crawl. Once she does this, however, she gets really mad because she can’t figure out what she is suppose to do next. She just sits there and screams. I think she will get it soon!