Athens, Georgia

Sometimes in college I get really depressed. 

I miss my dogs,

I miss my house,

and I miss not stressing over my future. 

So when Cynthia called and invited me to drive to Athens, GA with her to visit our friend Patricia - I couldn't even describe how happy I was. 

We left Friday afternoon after my class and after Cynthia's teacher meeting. 

There are some things I didn't know about Cyndii until i drove with her for five and a half hours.

1. she is an AMAZING singer [for real - she was the voice double for Mariah Carey]

2. she is a great story teller - I asked her if she's ever had a bad roommate - she has, and if you have 5 and a half hours, she'll tell you all about it. 

3. I just can't get over how funny she is.

About two hours into the drive, we stopped at one of the greatest places in North Florida, "Magnolia Plantaion." If you need something - anything - candy, books, lighthouse statues, wooden boxes, jams, etc. - Magnolia Plantation is the place to go. 

At the greatest place on earth, otherwise know as Magnolia Plantation, Cynthia discovered Goo-Goos.
A treat with caramel, chocolate, and some cream filling.
Sadly, we couldn't stay for long because the people working forced us out claiming they were closing or something. So on we went.

The roads got really scary and dark and we started to lose faith in our GPS, but luckily we got to Jenny's [Patricia's friend] at around midnight, caught up on our lives and then went to bed.
First impressions of Jenny:
1. not shy
2. good sense of humor
3. generous [i mean she was letting me and cynthia stay at her house]
and they were all accurate

 
We slept in until eleven, or rather Cynthia and I slept in while Jenny and Patricia went for a run.
When they got back, we went out for breakfast at this really nice place right off the GU campus.

I got blueberry oatmeal pancakes - which were really good.

The GU campus was really nice, I felt like everything looked newer than UF.

our Christmas card.

There were bulldog statues everywhere downtown and each one reminded me of Chesney, especially the smallest one, hiding behind a door [Chesney hides from a lot of people - but not me]

I kind of took a lot of photos.
[but it was such a nice day, and the campus was so crisp]

After seeing a bit of the campus, Patricia wanted to go to the "Largest Flea Market in GA"
[no really, that's what it was called.]
so we did.

Then we went to the local peach farms.
They were selling hand made peach ice cream.
It tasted like normal vanilla ice cream with chunks of peach.

But i would recommend it to anyone visiting Athens. 

It's just one of those things you have to experience, like going to the beach in Florida or Walking the Great Wall in China. 

At the peach farms, they had these green houses.

We were allowed to go around in them, except I'm not exactly sure what you're supposed to do in a green house tour? 

and neither did they...

They had a radio playing music in one of the green houses [apparently it helps the plants to grow - who knew?]

Later that night, we went with Jenny to the Saturday night session of stake conference.
Jenny invited her friends over for guitar hero and pizza afterwards .
Because Cynthia and I were both not so good at playing guitar hero [ok we kind of sucked] and we didn't know anyone we decided to:
1. Make nicknames for everyone
2. After someone would finish playing we would cheer random stuff.

My favorite nick names:
1. Sleezy [the 8th dwarf in Snow White]
2. Justin Timberlake "JT"
3. Pinky

Favorite shout outs:
1. Lasagna
2. You get em', you get em'
3. Destiny! Destiny!

Sunday was our L day. [Leaving Day that is]
We went to stake conference and after invited 21 people over for Linner, lunch slash dinner.
Patricia and Jenny made the roast, vegetables, and brownies [it was delicious] while me and Cynthia went on the back porch and modeled and sang about Christmas [we started to sing and it was the first thing that came to my mind]

and then Patricia joined us.
and let me tell you - oh man - she is a natural.

Then we ate.

and noticed that Patricia's necklace died her neck green.
 random, but funny.

...and then came the goodbyes.

after Patricia's nap.

Thank you to:
Jenny for letting us stay at your house.
and
Patricia for flying down and coming to visit
and
Cynthia for inviting me

Peaches and glee made the five and an hour ride home 100% endurable.

Cynthia's top 10 favorite things about Athens:
1. our glee sing-a-longs
2. patricia wanting to say family prayer while brushing her teeth
3. Jenny trying to open that door at her school
[we had to pick something up from UG - where Jenny goes to school - and she tried and tried to get the key to open the door, and then asked a random girl if there was another way in, and she was like,
"it's not open?"
and then Jenny actually tired to open it - and it opened
it was open the whole time - she just assumed it was locked]
4. your drawing of patricia [during the sunday session of conference, i drew patricia. it was accurate. and it was good, but patricia was offended]
...5. our songs we made up about christmas
6. nugget [Jenny's roommate's cat - that no one liked - not even his owner]
7. yelling random things during guitar hero
8. photo shoots
9. scary roads
10. goo goos and magnolia plantation [best place ever]

Athens was so much fun and it was good to get away from the stress of college life for a weekend. 


p.s. if you can find these words in the photos - i'll give you 10 points
1. "Max and Cynthia"
2. "Patricia"
3. "Max P"
4. "Jenny"
5. "College sucks"


I photoshopped them in.