Gold Rush 2008

Way up in the hills of north Georgia sits the tiny town of Dahlonega. Back in 1829 gold was discovered there…making this tiny town the sight of the first north American gold rush. There also happens to be a college in this tiny mountain town…where all of my dearest friends and I matriculated.

We love Dahlonega. It holds a special place in our hearts. It is our center, our Mecca if you will.

And every October the town holds an event called ‘Gold Rush.’

And like the over-educated sheep we are, we have to attend.
See that Julie? A sheep joke just for you!

Saturday morning found myself, the H.O.P.S.F, the sister of the H.O.P.S.F., and Just Julie headed north to partake in the sights and sounds of this year’s festival. We forked out $10 to park in the fancy new parking garage on campus and hiked toward the square.

This little guy was helping raise money for the local animal shelter.

A Native American flute player.

Tons of people.

The H.O.P.S.F. and her sister were comparing photos while we waited for our table at The Crimson Moon. Robert joined us for lunch and wandered around with us for the rest of the day. He’ll turn up in a picture or two later…

A daisy!

More wandering and shopping after lunch.

Robert. See! I told you he’d turn up…

The courthouse in the center of the square.

It’s Jesus! And who knew that he was a well quaffed metro-sexual…complete with ‘beard glitter.’
Blessing the crowd…

We think this was supposed to be a gold prospector…but we were a little too distracted by the beard to be sure…

The H.O.P.S.F. has been in the market for a cute new purse for a while now. She finally found on she was happy with and decided to get her first initial monogrammed onto the bag. So here is her new purse getting loaded into the embroidery machine.

And here she is, looking a little over excited.

Waiting on her bag.

VICTORY!

Fair Hair. We tried our best to convince the H.O.P.S.F.’s sister that she just HAD to have Fair Hair. But she said no.

Hi Carl! Robert’s on the phone with you in this picture. You totally should have been there.

We decided to wander the campus for a few minutes while we were there. This was Stewart Library. I spent hours and hours here doing research out of those musty outdate things that no one uses any more…you know…BOOKS.

Yeah, turned out that mold problem they had in the basement was worse then they realized. The entire history collection had to be destroyed and replaced. I didn’t get a picture of the new library because I just didn’t feel like walking that far.

This is the new Health and Wellness Center…a.k.a. the gym. It’s a lovely building. It’s an expensive building. It sits atop the new parking garage. You know…the one they replaced the old parking lot with. $8 million dollars later and they got a total of 7 extra parking spaces.