By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Georgia > Northwest Georgia Mountains > Gilmer County > Ellijay

Roadside stands filled with apples are a good reason to head to Ellijay in Gilmer County, but you will also find numerous outdoor activities to enjoy on a family vacation. 

The North Georgia Mountain town of Ellijay in Gilmer County is a perfect place to visit in the fall when the trees are in full color, area orchards are open for apple picking, and roadside stands overflow with fresh, local Granny Smiths and Rome Beauties to name a few.

But Ellijay is a great location for a Georgia family vacation anytime of year. Within a few miles of the lovely town, you’ll find several state recreation areas with fishing, hiking, breathtaking waterfalls, and trails for biking and horseback riding. (more…)

 By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

The Fountain of Rings with its 12-foot water sprays is the centerpiece of downtown Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park. 

If you are visiting any major attraction in downtown Atlanta — CNN, the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, Imagine It! The Children’s Museum of Atlanta, the Georgia Dome, or Philips Arena just to name a few — or if you just want a downtown destination that is cool, fun, and a chance to reminisce about Atlanta’s hosting of the 1996 Olympics, stop to experience Centennial Olympic Park. About three million visitors do just that each year.

The Fountain of Rings, the centerpiece of the 21-acre park, is the world’s largest interactive fountain, utilizing the Olympic symbol of five interconnecting Rings. Time your visit with one of the four daily Fountain of Rings shows (12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.) where the Olympic fountain’s synchronized water dances to familiar tunes complete with sound and lighting effects. Water height during normal fountain operation can reach 12 feet, but during the Fountain Show, sprays can be anywhere from 15 to 30 feet tall—all in tune with everything from Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” and The Little Mermaid’s “Under the Sea” to Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon” and The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout.” When it’s not show time at the Fountain, children – and adults – love to play in its spray. (more…)

 By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Artists and artisans from around the country travel to the North Georgia Mountains on Memorial Day weekend to participate in the annual Arts in the Park Festival in Blue Ridge.

For the 33rd year, the Arts in the Park Festival is taking place this weekend, May 23 –May 24, in historic Blue Ridge City Park in Blue Ridge at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

Sponsored by the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association—which also sponsors the Wildlife Art Festival of North Georgia, the Blue Ridge Writers’ Conference, and the Southern Appalachian Artists’ Guild National Juried Show—the event draws about 15,000 people each Memorial Day weekend.

The festival boasts some of the finest arts and crafts in the southeast. You’ll find more than 150 booths with fine art, handmade crafts, and good food. There will be artists’ demonstrations and children’s art activities as well—and as you might expect, there will be plenty of fine mountain music. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Mingling with the Royal Court, plus jousting, feasting, and shopping, are all part of the fun at the annual Georgia Renaissance Festival. 

I really enjoy the Georgia Renaissance Festival. In fact, the only bad thing about taking six-year-old Brianna is that I have to do what she wants to do, rather than all the things I want to do!

Once you enter the Festival grounds in Fairburn, you are immediately in a world where it’s natural to address others as “my Lord and my lady” or join in a Maypole dance with the forest fairies. You are part of a 16th-century European country faire where costumed visitors blend right in with the cast of nearly 1,000 costumed revelers and shop owners.

What can you do? Watch acrobats, swashbuckling sword fights, a children’s knighting ceremony, the Nickel Shakespeare Girls, or the Lipizzan Stallions perform dressage. There’s jousting, gypsy storytelling, birds of prey show, and plenty of Renaissance music and revelry. There is something constantly happening on the village greens and on each of the 10 stages scattered throughout the fairgrounds. (more…)

 By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Paddling a canoe on Beaver Pond at the Chattahoochee Nature Center is just one activity for kids at Earth Day Kids Fest.

Earth Day is Tuesday, April 22, and to celebrate, a lot of Earth Day events will be taking place this next Saturday, April 18. If you live in the Atlanta area, you might want to check out the 7th Annual Earth Day Kids Fest sponsored by the Captain Planet Foundation and held at the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell. A unique hands-on environment education event, Earth Day Kids Fest encourages kids to take the first steps in becoming environmental stewards. (more…)

 By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Lucille Miller shows Brianna a berry scented bath fizzie that dissolves instantly in the bathtub. Lucille makes the fizzies, or bombs, with oils and natural materials. Fizzies come in two different sizes in a number of scents, including peppermint, lime, rose, berry, and lemonade, which was very popular on this particular day. You can email Lucille about her homemade products at lvus@aol.com.

Most every time I visit my son in California, we head to the Hollywood or Studio City Sunday farmer’s markets, but I had never made it just 20 minutes down the road to the City of Newnan’s Market Day on the Square until this past weekend. The first Saturday of every month, this market features handmade, homemade and homegrown items from vendors all over the state, but many are local. Brianna and I took an initial turn around the town square, checking everything out first. Once we decided where we were going to spend our money, we went around again. This was the first market day of the season and a little early for produce from local farmers, but we found a lot of local area vendors selling their homemade products. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

Over 300 artisans and vendors set up shop at the Cotton Pickin’ Fair, which takes place next weekend, October 3-4. This nationally-known fair in the Meriwether County town of Gay is one of the most popular festivals in the state.

I hadn’t been to a Cotton Pickin’ Fair in Gay, Georgia, for years when I decided to take fair director Ellen Gay McEwen up on her offer of a couple of tickets last spring. It seemed like a good time to expose Brianna to all the sights, sounds and smells of a big country fair. So, we made the drive to Meriwether County on the first Sunday in May.

The Cotton Pickin’ Fair has been in existence for 26 years. Originally held in October—“cotton pickin’ time” in the South—the fair has grown to a biannual happening the first weekend in May and October in this sleepy town of 100 people. The fair draws some 300 artisans and vendors from around the country—selling arts, crafts, antiques and Southern food—and about 30,000 visitors—making it one of the most popular reoccurring events in the state.

I can’t say Brianna was that enthusiastic about the pottery, sculpture, weaving, woodcarving, jewelry, painting and wearable art that caught my eye; but she thoroughly enjoyed the kiddie rides (particularly, the inflatable bounces, slides and moonwalk in the children’s area), the face painting, and the corn dogs and powdered sugar-sprinkled funnel cakes. (more…)

By SHERRI SMITH BROWN

“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.”

Remember that? It’s the opening line to one of my favorite childhood books, Ludwig Bemelmans’ “Madeline.” The series of Madeline books are ones I’ve read to my oldest daughter and now my five-year-old many times. There hasn’t been a new Madeline book for 50 years, but recently we traveled to the Decatur Book Festival in Decatur to hear Bemelmans’ grandson, author John Bemelmans Marciano, read from his new book “Madeline and the Cats of Rome.”

The Decatur Book Festival is in its third year and although you might not think of a book festival as a fun jaunt with your young one, think again! The festival holds a children’s parade at 9am on Saturday morning where children come dressed as a favorite storybook character. This year the parade theme was Madeline, of course, and we arrived early with our Madeline-bedecked Brianna, expecting about 30 to 50 kids to show up. Imagine my surprise when there were more like 500! (more…)