Saturday, March 1, 2008

Picnic time!

This morning, after my husband headed out to work, (yes, he regularly does that on Saturdays) I decided that it was high time that we have a romantic outing. And I settled upon the idea that a picnic for two was just the right way to go about it.

So after reaching this conclusion, I began to look for the best picnic location our vincinity. But since, time was running short, I kicked myself for not planning ahead. Although, I did remind myself that this wouldn't have had to of been a plan ahead adventure if we lived in other parts of Georgia. After all, I know some wonderful picnic spots in other parts of Georgia.

For instance, if we lived in Calhoun, we could have gone to the fountain down town, or have driven to Berry College to have a picnic out in the country side. Heck, we even could have driven up to the mill on Berry's campus for a nice picnic.

If we lived in Macon, we'd have gone to High Falls. If we lived in coastal Florida, obviously we'd have had our picnic on the beach. But,alas, since we live in none of these locations, I found myself at a loss. I simply didn't know where to go for our picnic and was having a hard time coming up with ideas... Well, that is until I stumbled upon the website for the MaClay Gardens and State Park: http://www.floridastateparks.org/maclaygardens/

It was perfect! So with barely over an hour's time left until my dear husband was due to return home I frantically began working on making the perfect picnic.

I pulled the basket and picnic supplies out of my decorations closet. :) Then I began to decide what foods we'd take with us for our picnic. I seriously considered pimento cheese sandwiches or egg salad, until I thought about the fact that we have no pimento cheese at home right now. So I decided we'd have deviled eggs, tabouli , pasta salad, broccoli salad (with crasins rather than raisins since we didn't have raisins in the pantry either) and PB&J sandwiches. We also had root beer floats in bottles, as well as sweet tea to take on our picnic.

I was about half of the way finished with my preparations when my dear husband decided to return home. SO...I just told him I was working on a surprise for him and that he should take the puppies to the park. Thankfully, he eagerly agreed.


When he returned from the park, we were all set to go, so we loaded up the picnic basket and took off. Granted we did have to pay to get into the park, but it was only eight dollars for the entrance fee AND for the charge to see the State Gardens. Not a bad deal...we could have paid only $4 if we'd not wanted to see the Gardens.

Our picnic took place by the lake and it was wonderful! There were quite a few other families there. Not only was it a picturesque picnic spot, but there was also a really nice swimming/boating area complete with dressing rooms that were totally separate from the bathrooms.

I've already decided this will be a really nice place for us to visit again. Who knows...we may even take Annie, Gabe, and Danny if they come to visit this summer.

In the meantime, I do hope that we’ll return to our picturesque picnic spot, by the lake.

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