Isabella was not happy (at first) about having to spend her summer at Embark almost every day. But I think (at this writing -- after going for about 10 weeks) she's getting used to it and likes it.
I asked her what she wanted to do / goals to accomplish this summer... try a new hobby, make more resin, etc. She said go fishing & go to Cat Cafes.
OK!
One long weekend, we went to North Carolina to visit my mom.
Isabella is as tall as my mom. She offered to stand down on the lower step for the photo. haha!
One our first full day in Liberty, we went to one of my mom's friend's properties (named Bertie) to go fishing. Bertie and her late husband brought in this train caboose seen behind Isabella in this picture. They made a little living quarters out of it on the back of the property behind their brick home! It was interesting inside.
We caught one on the "last try" when we threw the string back in to try to get rid of the worm! Mission accomplished!
Another day, we went to this same friend's other lake. (This is something that her late husband liked to do, so they bought a second property nearby for him to go to a cabin and fish out of a bigger pond!) This one had a dock.
She caught one on her own! She gasped when she realized that the hook went through it's mouth... and into it's eye! :(
I am grateful that my mom and her friend made it possible for Izzy to go fishing... twice!
Interesting cabin on site... it is quite historic!1890 is carved into one of the rocks that was set into the wall.We even found a Native American arrowhead on the property!
I went "to town" twice - once to go buy bait near my grandpa's old Farm and Garden store. ... and back again to the same store to get a new fishing pole after Izzy got Todd's fishing pole all tangled up.
You will NOT get this at a big box store -- or in the city... but the owner of the store set up the "kids reel" that I bought for Izzy and tied on the hook / showed me how to use it. THEN he offered to untangle Todd's fishing pole. Small town hospitality at it's best....
I popped into some of the antique stores in town one of the days and saw this. It reminds me of the big poster that was hung above the register in my grandpa's store. I was contemplating purchasing it, but -- don't really have a place to hang it, so snapped a photo to remember it instead. "Have you been farming long?"
Of course, while in Liberty, we had to go to Homeland Creamery for some of their refreshing ice cream!
boop. (ice cream on the nose!)
On our way home, Isabella got to meet up with a friend in South Carolina and go roller skating.
Then we were back to the grind of Embark until the next long weekend....
On the 3rd of July we went to our friends' house (Allyson & Dennis) for some fishing, a little bit of hiking, the 4 of us ladies played mah jong while the 3 guys caught up. This is the photo she sent me before we got there showing me where they would be fishing. It's big with nice views of the mountains! We made dirty sodas, ate and had lots of conversations with the group of 7 of us "architecture" friends that has not been all together for years. Isabella was the only kid there as Mercer was already on his Asia trip. All of the other families there -- their kids are grown.
Dennis took Isabella and Todd fishing on the lake in their community. Dennis said that he and Allyson have been fishing on that lake several times, but have never caught anything! Well, she and Todd caught a fish -- how lucky! ha!
There's a sliver of a view of the lake in the distance from their porch. The three of them were down there somewhere!
Later in the day, Dennis took some of us on a hike to a nearby waterfall.
This community is called "Bent Tree" because the native American's bent saplings to use as markers. The trees grow up with this crook in them as seen in this photo with the sign in front of it.
Our friends see lots of bears and bear cubs out their windows. We took bear spray on the hike "just-in-case!"
Luckily, we only saw deer. :)
They sent us pictures of the fireworks from their porch. We didn't stay 'til dark because we needed to get home to the dogs.
The final "fishing outing" was on a trip to North Georgia that Isabella and I took while Todd and Mercer were in Alabama for one of his baseball tournaments.
We stayed at the "tree-house" at Six Ponds Farm.
It's technically a tiny house with a big outdoor space attached to it.
The woman who runs it is a retired educator (she did a lot of the STEM certifications in Georgia and was familiar with the Cobb middle school that I used to work at and was familiar with Isabella's advanced academics elementary school in Marietta).
She had animals on the farm which Isabella loved!
She had a garden (that was not really flourishing while we were there).
There was a yurt for a "glamping" experience on the farm.
... and there was an Art Studio for the guests to go use freely.I went to check it out by myself on an afternoon hike. Interesting concept, but... the door was warped and wouldn't close. There was no AC or power of course because it was in the middle of the woods, so it was very musty and humid inside.
I used some "scratch art" paper I found to leave a quick little message behind about a snake I encountered - I was staring at it... it was staring at me... haha!
She also had a big barn on the property which housed her own art gallery and an attached wood shop / art studio where she made "wood barn quilts."
I liked the sunburst ones and may order one from her, as we have a space under a window on our dormer that it would look great on. I want to take some measurements and stop by one day on our way to / from North Ga visiting Mercer at college. It's on the way!
Izzy hung out in the treehouse one night til midnight.... but then got a little freaked out to be up there by herself when she heard the rustling of an armadillo. She called me to come outside and we shined a light on the animal below the treehouse. When she realized it was milling around and would cause her no harm, she thought it was cute! (ummm.... they're pretty ugly in my opinion!) ha.
I did yoga / meditation up in the tree house in the mornings while Izzy slept in. It was kind of perfect for us to share it at different times and not have to always be together in the one room tiny house at the base of the treehouse.
There was one day when it started pouring rain, so we went into the town of Blue Ridge. I wanted to go to a rock store. Isabella wanted to go to the candy store next door. (actually, she spent a lot of time sorting and categorizing the rocks by color in this one "treasure chest" full of colored quartz.
I've always loved colorful petrified wood slabs that have mineral deposits. They have large pieces of petrified wood with live edges on dining tables at this store that I thought were beautiful and unique. One day.... when we downsize and only need a table for four... I want to go back!!
It's so interesting to see how this kid who is using carrying a phone can just put it down and sit.
cast.
wait.
reel in.
and then do it again.and again.
and again.
Isabella caught a fish in both of the ponds that we went to on the property - one fish each day... which satisfied her efforts in being there that day!
A funny thing about the 1st day's catch... we kept seeing BIG fish swimming in the pond (over a foot long). But - they would not nibble or anything. When she caught the little fish, she thought - maybe we should leave it on the hook and use it as bait.
So she casts off and FLINGS the fish onto the gravel road behind us! (oops!)
I picked it up and dropped it back into the pond. It swam away... so it was OK!
The following images are from the 2nd pond the next day.
This one had a dock.
She tried several different "methods" for catching fish (including putting a lot of worms on hooks on a rope... and just trying to "net them" -- neither of which worked).
Eventually, she DID catch a small fish. Thank goodness... we were about to give up!
I get bored fishing, so I watched the ripples in the water.
She was wondering why I was recording videos of the bird calls and (light) rain falling on the water's surface.
The quiet IS serene. Maybe that's what she likes... the down-time for her brain.... ? I know I enjoy that / need that!
I love the "textured" look of the tree's reflection!
(I was wondering why she liked to hold and sort of "pet" the fish after she caught them.) haha!
I guess we each have our own thing we like to do ?!!
We said our goodbyes to the animals and headed back home.
Overall, it was a relaxing trip.
She and I bonded a bit more and made some nice memories together.
So, now we've stayed in a schoolie, a tiny house and a tree house through air b&b.
Can't wait to see what adventure we'll go on next summer and a (hopefully) unique place we will stay in!
~~
One week, Izzy attended a teen art camp at our local art museum on the Square. Her favorite part of that camp: pottery.
She got to throw on a wheel and made a pot for Todd! (His birthday is in June, so she wrote J E T S on it and painted it green.) :)
Of note, Isabella DID get to go to two different cat cafes this summer -- one here in Georgia & one in Alabama. Goal met. (so far, we've visited different ones in GA / AL / FL / TX / CA)
One of my childhood friends was in town visiting her parents, so we met at a cat cafe near where her parents live (close to where I grew up)... I did not take photos of Susan and myself together (boo), but I did get some photos of Izzy with her four-legged friends.
The other cat cafe we visited was during one of Mercer's Alabama baseball tournaments.
It was in the town where he was playing, so since Izzy was a good sport and suffered through yet another hot baseball game, I took her there while Mercer and Todd went to grab slices of pizza nearby.
BONUS. She got to see these friends a couple of times over the summer -- once at our annual putt-putt golf tournament (since I paid for a family of 4, but Todd and Mercer were at a baseball tournament, we invited these two friends / twins.)
The three of them also went rock-climbing... ... AND they met up again with some other middle schoolers at a party for some friends who moved away / who were back in town.
She's been putting in a lot of work at Embark, so I am glad that she got to "fill up her cup" a little bit over the summer.
