We took a relaxing two night vacation up into the north Georgia mountains (photos). Stopped at two state parks, spent the night at one. A lot of state parks are really nice, usually not as breath taking as NPs, but still very nice and worth visiting.
We spent the second night in Dahlonega, a small town my wife likes (me too). It's famous for an early gold rush, you can still pan for gold there if you want. "Thar's gold in them thar hills." Some of the small mountain towns have figured out how to attract tourists, and some remain pretty threadbare and uninteresting.
My wife wanted to get home before "traffic", which indeed gets ridiculous the way we came back. It was fine this time of day, heavy but moving. Those outter suburbs really have to be self contained, I doubt many residents come into the city for much of anything ever.
