Day 2 of Vacation!

Ahhhh, it's Sunday night and I am relishing in the fact that I don't have to go to work tomorrow...or the next 4 after that. Granted, I am very thankful for my job, but it is really nice being home with hubby and all our critters on our staycation. I'm looking forward to our adventures this week!

Today started out as it typically does....early! I took a shower and got dressed. When I made my way to the kitchen, there was a lovely plate of warm banana pancakes and bacon waiting for me! What a fabulous husband I have!!! After our awesome breakfast, we went food shopping at our local Kroger whilst sipping our Starbucks coffee. How trendy we are - lol. I also passed a test today while in Kroger. David announced that he needed distilled water. He then asked, "Do you know WHY I need distilled water?" I reluctantly answered in a small voice....."Is it for the radiator?" DJ was impressed and proud that I answered correctly!!! Me too, actually. :-) Anyway....we also happened to run into our nice friend Dave Morrison and chatted (hi again, Dave)! We got home, unpacked our re-usable shopping bags, threw some chicken in the crockpot (for our dog Sandy - she's on a special diet) and headed back out...this time with the doggies. OH BOY were they happy to get out and go for a ride!

We went to the Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center (see pic above left) to walk on the Ivy Creek Greenway. This is a really neat place with water features that use reclaimed rainwater, a green living roof (you can see it in the pic above), and several nice trails. I loved the black-eyed susans and purple coneflowers that were blooming. The weather was GORGEOUS today...cool but not too cold, bright, sunny and just plain beautiful. Being outside on days like today make me so happy! ANYWAY, we set off on our walk. Here is David, Dexter and Sandy as we made our way down toward the creek.

The creek was running strong from the rains that we had yesterday. There was actually quite a bit of evidence that there was some major flooding along the creek from the major rains we had a few weeks ago. In fact, the non-paved portion of the trail was closed due to flood damage. What was cool about this was that, due to sand and silt build-up, I was able to get down to the elusive iron waterwheel that used to be part of an old mill....now long gone. Here's a movie and pic showing said waterwheel along with the spillway/waterfall that used to power it many years ago. Neat, huh? What's even neater is that all this exists within a short walk from the Mall of Georgia and is actually viewable from the exit ramp for Hwy 20 from I85 south. Tis true!

We continued our walk UNDER highway 20, along the creek to the point where the trail was closed, did a u-turn and made our way back. It was a lovely jaunt and I enjoyed every minute of it! Here is happy me, post walk. Note the cool living roof of the GEHC. Sandy got a obscured by flowers lol. However, if you look closely (better yet, open the pic), you can see her, smiling, in the backseat of my car in the pic to the right. Also note the nifty permeable pavers in the parking lot, thus reducing run-off and the excellent trail map shelter in the background. Did I mention that I love this place?

We came home, had some yummy sandwiches for lunch and then headed out to Aldi to pick up a few other sundries. Aldi makes for some excellent people watching and today's crowd was among some of the best (or worst?). Entertainment at its best!

The remainder of the day is not nearly as noteworthy...I ran some more errands and made a nice dinner of turkey sausage, saurkraut and carrots cooked in beer, along with warm crusty fresh bread. David made white chocolate macadamia cookies for dessert. We are chilling, watching Storm Chasers on Discovery and will soon call it a night. Ohhh, by the way, DJ really likes his hat that I knit for him yesterday. It's gotten all stretched out, but he continues to wear it. He said it's cool and that it reminded him of a Kangol. I had NO idea what a Kangol was until today!

Other cool notables of the day: I saw a Mustang convertible with an ALASKA license plate on it! If only I was playing license plate bingo!!!! I also found and kept a teeny tiny (empty) snail shell. I saw a nicely restored Model T as well. There are so many things to see and experience in this world, and so little time. I'm very much looking forward to experiencing more fun, cool, neat, nifty things this week. :-)