I wrote this same post on Saturday night with the title Amicalola-vely, but it just didn’t flow right. Both titles are forced, but I’m a hopeless romantic about sing-song-y post titles, so deal with it.

My brother and his fiancee live in Jasper, GA and on Saturday we loaded up the truck to go visit. They live in a beautiful new subdivision on the top of a hill overlooking the spur-line railroad of an old quarry. Graham, my brother, is having the basement finished off and Marisa, his bride-to-be, has furnished the upstairs with some lovely touches.

The weather was beyond perfect for an early November weekend. Bright sunshine, crisp air and blue skys. We had decided earlier in the week that we should try to visit Amicalola Falls so after the Georgia game (Go Dawgs!) hit halftime, we drove for some BBQ to fill our bellies before our trek to see the falls.

Amicalola was fairly unassuming, with just a rolling creek as the mouth of the falls. The falls themselves were a bit underwhelming, but when combined with the view of the surrounding valley and mountains and the gorgeous autumn foliage, it was impressive. Off to one side of the falls were a winding series of stairs and platforms that wended their way down the slope and through the tress alongside the falls. We went down about half way and took some photos of our group (My parents, both brothers, Marisa and my two best girls) as well as the scenery.

After our brief foray into mountaineering, we played some football. And I’m using the term “play” loosely since Thad can’t really throw (shoulder injury) my dad can’t move and neither Graham nor myself can catch that well. OK, so I’m exaggerating a bit. We actually weren’t too terrible until about 30 minutes in when fatigue and poor aim landed the ball in the “river” that feeds the falls. It took 3 Miller boys and one soggy pair of sneakers to retrieve the ball. After that our stay was pretty much done.

We retreatd back to Jasper for beer, chili and some more college football on the tube. The whole clan did their best to keep a nervous Barkley, Graham’s Jack Russell, from nipping Raelyn. Eventually, we all got full, tired and warm enough that it was time to go home.

A good time was had by all.