Car problems suck.

Addison seems to be the subject of many of my candid shots. Here’s our little guy having a sandwich for lunch.

The man who brought me to Charlotte was Schley Lyons. He was my boss for five years, and his influence on my professional life was more substantial than any other single individual. He passed away recently. This is a snapshot of Lake Norman, where he lived. He loved to take people out on his boat or on the jet skis. It is a good place to remember him.

Every night we follow the same ritual–stories, personal time, then a song before bed. Here’s Mason getting Jen’s attention.

We’re back, but we’re taking a day to recover. Here is Addy getting ready to watch Sherlock Holmes (a movie we tried to watch on the trip, but that will be much better with home theater speakers as opposed to laptop ones).

Well, we had an awesome week in the Georgia mountains, but it is time to say goodbye. It was a very nice place, but we’re also looking forward to sleeping in our own comfy beds.

On our way to the fish hatchery, the van was low on gas, so we stopped at one of the most unique convenience stores I’ve ever seen. Here are a few of the many signs that were posted prominently all around the property.

The boys and I went on a tubing trip down the Toccoa river. The water was FREEZING, but the sun was hot. Mason didn’t want to be tied together, but when he drifted off on his own, he didn’t want to get his hands cold by paddling, so we moved over to the rescue. Everyone had a great time.

From http://www.smithhouse.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=44

The history of The Smith House goes back to 1895 when a gentleman by the name of Captain Hall purchased an acre of land east of the town square. During excavation and the beginning stages of building his home he was delighted to discover that a very rich vein of gold ore. His delight was soon turned to frustration when all attempts to setup a mining operation were halted by the city fathers. The city officials would not allow a mine just one block from the public square, no matter how rich the vein. After losing a law suit against the city he continued the construction ont his new home. Today the home known as The Smith House, still stands on that vein of Dahlonega gold. When the house was completed Captain Hall used the seven rooms upstairs for his living quarters. He used the basement, what is now the dining room, for storage of his mining equipment. The first floor was used as an assay office. The columned building beside the main house was Captain Hall’s carriage house.

The upper part served as a barn and the basement housed the livestock. Captain Hall moved to Atlanta. Henry and Bessie Smith purchased the property in 1922. The Smith’s turned their home into an Inn with seven rooms for travelers. The price of a room and meals was $1.50 a day. And so the tradition of The Smith House had its beginning. Now owned by the Welch family, who has operated the dining room since 1946 and continues into its third generation, The Smith House holds true to its heritage with many of the original recipes and ambience still intact. In February 2006 the original gold shaft was rediscovered during renovation and can be viewed along with many artifacts that were recovered.

Today’s picture almost didn’t happen. I went out for a walk with Mason and thought I protected all photos from the day before (the 20th). I didn’t. When I deleted all the images on the camera, I felt sort of sick. I tried to recover the deleted photos, but I only had a trial version of the recovery software, which was also outdated. Each look at a single image (which were not labeled or ordered logically) took about 3 minutes. I was at it for over an hour, but finally located the very few images I had taken that day. Sometimes being anal retentive is a real pain in the…well, you know.