Unless you are from Georgia yourself you probably don’t realize that the state is divided north and south.  No, we’re not official like the Dakotas or Carolinas–but just the same the state is split almost right through the middle into two very different regions.  The north part of the state–where I live–is full of traffic jams, subdivisions, and Targets.  The south part of the state–where C.’s mother is from–is full of farms.  Lots and lots of farms.  But you see, it wasn’t always this way.  I came from a long line of north Georgia farmers, but most of the farms up here stopped operating by the mid-1970s.  I’m not sure exactly why.  Perhaps it was the baby boomers not wanting to farm, the city of Atlanta expanding, the development of suburbs–who knows.  All I know is that the “farm” my family lives on now is nothing in comparison to the farms in south Georgia.

When you look out C.’s grandparents’ front door you see soybeans across the street as far as you can see.  You look to your left, soybeans.  To the right, soybeans.  The backyard?  Yep, soybeans.  It looks almost like an ocean.  Here the land is flat and the crops move with the wind creating a wave-like effect.  It’s beautiful.

Yesterday my mother-in-law, C., and I took MM to visit her great-grandparents. Even though we were in the car for a total of 8.5 hours yesterday she had a great time and was so well behaved {well, there was a 45 minute segment in the car, but we won’t talk about that}. She enjoyed spending time with her Grandmama and Granddaddy, as well as her great aunt and cousins.

There was also some lawn mower riding around the yard that she was especially fond of as well.

After we left their home we stopped by Dickey Farms on the way back.

In the small town of Musella, Dickey Farms, is a big deal. They have a, for lack of a better term, giant fruit stand where they sell their peaches. You can even taste the different varieties.

What I love about this stand is that during the week you can go watch them sort and box up their peaches. Or you can sit on the rocking chairs and enjoy the best peach ice cream I’ve ever tasted (seriously) or a fresh peach pie, or a fresh peach slushie…or a fresh peach. You can buy local vegetables or homemade peach jams/syrups/salsa, etc.  Everything is displayed on beautiful antiques–be still my heart.

You can buy anything from a peach to a half peck box of peaches. That huge box is only $18, by the way. We can make two dozen jars of peach jam out of one box.  Or 12 cobblers.  Whatever your preference.

So, if you’re ever in south Georgia about an hour outside of Americus, definitely stop by Dickey Farms. Their peach season lasts from May to August. {You can also cheat and order them here for a little more.}

Sometimes I imagine myself as a tourist in my hometown or in Atlanta–especially to places I’ve been to before–and I want to share with you those places.  A couple of weeks ago I posted about a lunch trip to our local airport and last week I posted about going to the Wild Animal Safari.  In keeping with the tradition this week I am posting about going to Mary Mac’s in Atlanta.

Being a southerner myself it’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly what makes a southerner, well, a southerner.  I know it’s the way we I talk (“eight”, for instance, has at least three syllables).  I know it’s the way (most of us) we act.  But I think a big part of what is southern is the food.And those foods are so much a part of who I am that I forget other people have never heard of them.Butter Peas.  Polk Salad.  Cracklin Cornbread. Chicken Fried Steak.  Collard Greens with Pot Likker.Then there are those southern foods of yesteryear that my grandmother talks about so fondly that even turn my southern stomach.  Head cheese, for one.  Just google it if you don’t believe me.  Eggs and brains, is another.The reason I bring up southern food is because we went to Mary Mac’s last night with my family.

Mary Mac’s in located in Midtown (Atlanta, for all you non-locals) and is the quintessential southern restaurant.  We dined on fried green tomatoes, cornbread, homemade rolls, and cinnamon buns for appetizers.  Each person was given a taste of greens and cracklin cornbread.

Dinner included such treats as fried chicken livers, country fried steak, veggie plates (with fried okra, pickled beets, hopping john, cheese grits, squash casserole, and field peas), meatloaf, and fried chicken. And I’ll go ahead and tell you–I was *going* to take a picture of my plate when it came out, but it looked so good that MM and I just dove right in. By the time I remembered to get out my camera, well, there wasn’t much left to take a picture of.For dessert it was bread pudding.

If you are a local–or you visit Atlanta–Mary Mac’s is a must. This was actually the first time I’ve ever been for dinner; I usually go for lunch when visiting C. or my best friend, Dana at work. I have to say I enjoyed it more at dinner because at lunch I have a tendency to get too full…and is there anything worse than that horribly full feeling in the middle of the day?Here are some more pictures of our dinner, with plenty of MM thrown in for good measure, because as you know by now, it’s all about her.

Pitchers of sweet tea, bowls of butter, and hot pepper sauce–can it get any better?

In other news, my website is look horrible these days.  I have spent hours the past two days trying to trouble shoot what’s going on–including playing around with html code–fun times for someone like me, let me tell you.  Rest assured, I’m still working on it and hopefully will have my site looking all spiffy in the next week or so.  Or at least I’ll die trying.

Today my family ventured down to Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain.  Once there we rented a seven-passenger “Zebra Van” and drove on a 3.5-mile road inside the park where all sorts of animals came up to the van looking for treats.  They have every animal you could think of–buffalo, giraffes, pigs, etc.–that would walk right up to our van, stinky breath and all.And what did MM think of it all?  Well, she was my serious baby through and through just watching the animals and saying her usual ‘HEY!’ every once in a while to one that she liked.

And here’s some pictures of the various very friendly–and very hungry–animals who attacked approached our van.

And I honestly liked all the animals except two. And perhaps its because the park’s pamphlet warned us these two might peck or bite at us, I’m not sure. But whenever an ostrich came to my side of the car I would shriek.  {I’ve always had a fear of birds} And the zebras were freaky too. Especially once I saw this picture. Oh my lord, that thing wanted to eat my child, I swear!  I had no idea zebras had that many teeth before today.

But honestly, the scariest animal of them all was this bear we happened to see as we were leaving the park. Oh my, she was one tired, grumpy bear. I knew not to cross her!

I highly recommend the safari to anyone nearby–I know we will be making many more trips there in the upcoming years.

If you would like to see the rest of the photographs, click here.