Our Athens Weekend Getaway – Part 1

This past weekend, we had a wonderful weekend getaway planned. It had been on the books for months. Friday night we had tickets to see the AcroCats in Athens, GA, and Saturday night we had tickets to see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in Atlanta. We had an AirBnB rental reserved just outside of Athens, and we were planning on bringing Kylo Ren and Gryphon along with us. In between evening events, we were going to take the kitties hiking and adventuring around Athens.

Then the coronavirus struck, and everything got canceled. Well, everything but our AirBnB reservations. After much discussion, we decided to go ahead and enjoy our weekend getaway. The cabin we were renting was a couple hours away, so if we needed to get home, we wouldn’t be too far. The cabin was also kind of remote, so we wouldn’t have to be around people if we didn’t want to be.

So off we went to the small town of Good Hope, GA with Kylo Ren and Gryphon in tow. It was Gryphon’s first big road trip adventure. And it was AWESOME!

Though we were disappointed about the AcroCats and ASO shows getting canceled, it turned out to be the perfect weekend anyway. The cabin was on a beautiful piece of property with a pond, river access, hiking trails, and canoes — all free and available for us to use at anytime! It was better than we could have expected.

Gryphon was great on the car ride over. Not a peep the whole time. When we arrived at the cabin, he was nervous at first and hid under the bed. But having Kylo Ren helped a lot with this. Kylo has traveled with us so much, he always adjusts to new places pretty quickly. He immediately made himself at home, which helped Gryphon to realize that everything was okay.

Our first adventure for the weekend was taking Gryphon out to explore the property. Bobby grabbed a fishing pole, and we headed down to the pond. Gryphon and I sat and watched Bobby cast into the pond, which Gryphy LOVED. He is incredibly fascinated by water. He plays in the water dish at home and loves to get in the bath tub after we’ve showered to play in the water. He was in the zone watching Bobby cast the fishing rod into the pond. Several times I thought he was going to jump in after it!

After fishing, we decided to explore the property some more. There was a walking trail around the pond, so we started there. Gryphon decided to go off-trail a bit though. We let him lead the way through the woods, and we eventually came upon a creek. Gryph was so excited! We splashed around in it and had a blast.

Gryphy didn’t even hesitate when it came to walking through the water. It was a small creek, so the water only came halfway up his legs. He just stood in it and walked around. The water was even a bit cold, be he didn’t care a bit. He was in his element. We would toss pebbles and rocks in the water, and he would chase them. SO MUCH FUN!

He wore himself out, so we had to stop for a little catnap along the way…

Here is some video footage of Gryphon’s big outdoor explorations.

As you can tell we all had a great time. And this was only our first adventure of the weekend! Be on the lookout for Part 2 of our trip, which includes Kylo Ren and Gryphon’s canoe outing…