Travel – Blessings Multiplied

Beach Fun at Huntington Beach State Park (Murrells Inlet, SC)

Enjoying the rain on the beach!

We had a wonderful time on the beach at Huntington Beach State Park. It was a mix of sun and rain! The rain didn’t stop us from heading to the beach for some fun in the sand and water. We stayed at the Huntington Beach Campgrounds, it was a nice walk to the beach. Access to the beach wasn’t too far from our campground and it was pretty quiet. Only a few families were on the beach near us. If you walk further down the beach it got a little bit more crowded especially on the nicer days. Thankful for an opportunity to get away together and enjoy some time at the beach.

Digging in the sand and watching the little critters

On the run

Fun on the beach

Birds, Sand and the Atlantic Ocean

Sand art

My crew

All smiles

On the move

Atlantic Ocean

Dusk walk on the beach

Sun is going down and the rain clouds are moving in now.

Enjoyed our time at Huntington Beach

On the Road Again: Where Were We?

If you guessed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri you are correct! We have actually been in St. Louis 4 times already this month. I have seen the Arch many times driving through St. Louis, but a couple years ago we actually went up in it. It is a great place to visit with some neat history. There is actually a museum in the bottom of the arch.

Did you know?

Arch is 630 feet tall
It is made of Steel and Concrete
Eero Saarinen was the Finnish-American architect who designed the Arch
From the top of the Arch on a clear day you can see up 30 miles in either direction
Tram ride takes 4 minutes to go up and 3 minutes to go down
There are 1,076 steps inside the arch, however, they are only used for maintenance and emergencies
It was originally called the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial now it is the Gateway Arch National Park
The Memorials to Thomas Jefferson, for his role in opening the West & Dred Scott who sued for his freedom in the Old Courthouse
Directly across the Mississippi River from the Arch on the Illinois side is the Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park where the Gateway Geyser (the tallest water fountain in the U.S.) and the Mississippi River Overlook can be found

If you are going through St. Louis, Missouri and have extra time I encourage you to check it out.

TrackRock Campground (Blairsville, GA)

Our family recently had a weekend trip to the TrackRock Campgrounds in Blairsville, Georgia. We left on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday. The campground was very nice and well maintained. We arrived after the office closed but they had our name posted with our campsite on the bulletin board.

There was a mix of retired couples and families as well as RVs and tents at the campgrounds. The campsites had enough space and trees around them to give everyone some privacy. We stayed in campsite #10 which had full hookups (water, electricity and sewer) and as a bonus wild blueberries! They were not quite ripe yet, but there were other berries around the property and a blueberry bucket in the office so they are pretty common.

They have a lake you can fish or swim in, a couple playgrounds, hiking trails, and more. TrackRock has their own stables were you can either board your own horse or go for a ride on one of theirs. They have a variety of horse trails.

Lake with the mountains in the background.

Barn with old farm equipment around it.

My favorite peeps!

Trackrock Campgrounds, Cabins & Stables

North Georgia Zoo & Farm (Cleveland, GA)

North Georgia Zoo & Farm is a great place to visit with your family, especially if your kids enjoy animals.

That turtle and zebra have familiar faces…. Thankful that the girls still occasionally “humor” me with the cheesy pictures!

Baby goats!

This porcupine has a fantastic breakfast, look at all those fruits & veggies!

The beaver is munching on his veggies too!

Beautiful animal!

Are you sure you don’t have another treat for me!?

Albino Kangaroo napping in the shade!

Singing dog, so wanted to hear it actually sing!!!

Brina loving all the animals!

Jake and Karlie waiting for the Animal Show to start

Soft….of course the girls wanted at least one when they found out that they sale them at this location

Fascinating to watch it run awhile!

A lot softer than we expected.

Oasis Cedar Creek Cabin (Cleveland, GA)

Beautiful with the wood, large windows, and open floor plan!

My husband and I recently had a weekend away in Cleveland, Georgia while the girls were on a school field trip to Charleston, SC. The Oasis Cabin we stayed in was beautiful! It was in a great location with the peacefulness of the woods and mountains while conveniently located near Helen, Georgia if you wanted to go out to dinner or exploring. We ate at the Cowboys & Angels restaurant while in Helen which was very good. It was a much needed weekend away together.

The cabin was perfect and furnished with a lot of fun extras. It had simple yet beautiful decorations, not the typical “bears, fish, and other cabin decor”. The bath robes were very comfortable and we enjoyed playing several rounds of pool together. We played board games, ate out on the deck, and relaxed together. We could occasionally hear the construction workers who were building a couple of the surrounding cabins, but nothing too distracting.

There were some cleaning issues that we had with the cabin, but after emailing Cedar Creek Cabins with the information we originally felt like it was worth visiting Cedar Creek Cabins again to see if the experience is better. Now we are not sure if we will visit any of their cabins in the future.

We are still very thankful for a special weekend together. We went home refreshed and relaxed! Just wish the people taking care of the cabins followed through with their promises and that the cabins were cleaned better.

View from the pool table – looking towards the kitchen and bedroom areas

PROS:

Gorgeous cabin with a spacious floor plan, huge windows and a lot of nice features
Pool Table & Board Games
Fairly Private Back Deck
Charcoal Grill
Keurig Coffee Machine was really nice + they left a few coffee K-Cups to use as well as a re-usable one if you brought your own ground coffee
Washer & Dryer
Blender – wasn’t aware of this one prior to arriving, but we love smoothies
Plenty of Storage for Food & Snacks in the cupboards
Comfortable King Size Bed
Super Soft Bath Robes
Automatic Recliners in the Couch
Fireplace
Jacuzzi Bathtub the huge tub that was really comfortable, does take awhile to fill up though!
Large Walk-in Dual Shower
Hot Tub on Deck nice, but needed more chlorine had a mildew growing in it by the second night so we did not get into it again after that night
2 TV’s – one over the fireplace and the other by the bed & jacuzzi tub
Nest Thermometer was easy to use
Landscaping looked freshly done and really nice (new mulch)
Nice Loveseat Wicker Furniture on the Deck could sit or lay down on it. We played games on the deck, ate snacks, and relaxed
Small Community Playground – it was small and a little faded, but was a nice touch for any families coming to visit with small kids.
Nice neighborhood – We felt safe enough to walk through the neighborhood and found several other families doing the same as well.

Super soft bathrobes!

CONS:

Check the Dishes prior to using! We found a lot of dirty dishes that had been put away, possibly from the previous renters, but most of them should have been noticed by the cleaning staff. For example – Several of the knives in the knife rack on the counter were very dirty with chunks of food on them. Multiple items (plates and cups) in the cupboards had food chunks on them and the bowls had liquid in them. If you opened the silverware drawer it was obvious by just looking that the silverware was not cleaned prior to being put back into the drawer. After pulling out several dirty items we ended up washing everything before using it. Thankfully we brought extra dishwasher soap and a bunch of disposable items because we ended up running all the silverware and a bunch of dishes through the dishwasher prior to leaving. If you are going to require guests to wash the dishes prior to checking out then the housekeeping staff really should do a quality inspection of the dishes when cleaning the cabin to make sure that they are actually clean prior to the next guests arrival. Honestly, it was gross and would have been an easy thing to correct while housekeeping was already in the cabin cleaning. We realize that it was most likely the previous guests that put dirty utensils, pots & pans, and serving items back in the cupboard, however, it was pretty obvious just by glancing that the dishes were put away dirty especially when opening the silverware drawer or pulling a plate out of the cupboard or a bowl with standing water in it. No one wants to wash dirty dishes from the previous guests in a cabin while on their vacation.
Top rack of the dishwasher was missing the right end cap causing the rack to come off the roller or get stuck in place. Wasn’t a big deal other than it made using the top rack of the dishwasher more difficult to use.
Bring extra toilet paper! We had 2 partial rolls of toilet paper that was supposed to last for 4 days for 2 people (the one on the roller was almost gone and the one on the back of the toilet was already half used). We ended up getting more toilet paper to get us through the weekend.
Fireplace thongs would be very helpful when maintaining the fire. Not a huge problem just would make it more convenient for the guests staying in the cabin.
Basic Cooking Supplies especially if you plan to cook. Maybe we cook more than the average guests or have stayed in cabins with a lot of “extras”. There was no cooking spray, aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or pyrex dish or pie plate to cook in. One jelly roll pan and a set of pots & pans was it for baking.
Ability to be a Gated Community, however, the gate was never locked (even though we were given a gate code) and we were in and out multiple times every day
Rough Road with a lot of large pot holes the last half mile or so to the entry of the entrance. This is probably more of a county maintenance issue, but visitors need to be aware of the road condition as it is one you’ll want to the cabins so take it slow to avoid potholes.
Some construction noise. This cabin community was obviously still being built. Several cabins next to us were still being built, overall the noise from construction was minimal (mostly hammers, saws, and normal construction noises). We could hear one of the workers radios playing if we were outside, there were several port-a-potties near our cabin, and they did work on both Saturday and Sunday so there was construction activity even on the weekend.
No Cabin Signage. Had to call them to figure out which cabin it was because there were no signs and we drove around the entire complex twice. They told us where it was located and said that the construction workers had knocked over the sign and one was on order.
Need updated directions. Followed the directions exactly, but it appears that they have added more cabins and roads since writing the instructions because they did not lead to the correct cabin.
High Speed Internet – while they did have internet it did drop a few times or was really slow. It may have been from all the construction around us because we noticed it most on Friday of our stay.
Landline Phone – while it was nice having the phone in the cabin we got multiple phones call from people trying to solicit money and/or services. After a day we ended up unplugging the phone because the only time it rang was when someone was trying to advertise their services and we had our cell phones that worked decently while at the cabin.

Overall we had a refreshing and relaxing time together. The cabin itself was gorgeous and other than the kitchen the rest of the cabin was fairly clean. The housekeeping not checking the dishes and the property managers failure to follow through with their promises were our biggest disappointments, really all else was minor and expected with a new community.

We contacted the property managers and they were apologetic regarding the dirty items in the cabin. They also offered to give us a discount on our next stay in any of their cabins. We let them know that we were staying at another one of their cabins again in April with our kids. Gave them the dates, the cabin we were staying in and everything, but never heard back from them again regarding the discount.

We held off posting the review because we wanted to give them a second chance prior to posting it. We feel like they dropped the ball in a few ways and not convinced that it would be a company we would use again which is sad because they are within a reasonable driving distance from home making it a convenient weekend place to visit. Plus the cabins could really be a wonderful relaxing and enjoyable place to stay especially if you don’t have to clean up the previous guests messes!

PLEASE for the sake of your future guests make sure that the cabins are cleaned better no one wants to pull out dishes with the last guests food on them AND don’t offer to fix issues or offer a discount on future stays if you do not intend to honor that promise.

View from the kitchen & dining area bedroom, jacuzzi tub, and shower