Helen is a town that is like a little Germany. The buildings and food are all German. It's touristy, but its the surrounding areas that are really nice.
Our first stop was Nacoochee Village. It is a small area outside Helen that has a winery, an antique shop, and a grain mill.
The winery was nice. It was more of a tasting room than a winery, but we stocked up a few bottles for the weekend. The antique shop was in an old house that was 3 stories. We spent some time there, but decided to come back without the guys later in the weekend. Then we went to the mill where they had all kinds of wheat, oatmeal, grits, and jams made on site. It was really nice. We checked into our cabin and it had everything from a pool table to a hot tub on the deck overlooking the mountains. It was great.
The next day we did some hiking at Unicoi State Park. I can imagine how much nicer it would be later on in May or in early November when their leaves change. We climbed to Anna Ruby Falls which was really nice and had platform decks to get up close.
We later went to downtown Helen to take in some German food and atmosphere. We ate at Edelweiss German Restaurant which had very good food. We picked up some fresh bread and pastries at Hofers Bakery for the next day.
The next day my mom and I went back to the antique shop in Nacoochee Village. If you love antiques this is the place to go. 3 stories of antiques all very organized. I think I spent 2 hours in there. I bought some teacups for my collection and held back from buying the whole store. lol.
The rest of the day we just relaxed at the cabin, drank wine, and went in the hot tub. It was a perfect weekend to spend as a family, since it was the last one we all did together before my dad passed away. Hope to go back to the Blue Ridge mountains in the fall one day, but explore a different town.
