Waterfalls, Grilling, and the Big Screen

This Fourth of July weekend marked my one year anniversary living in Macon.  As my parents helped move me into our apartment this time last year, my mom will forever remember July 4, 2010 as one of her first Independence Days without fireworks.  That's right, the city of Macon, to my knowledge, does not provide fireworks, but instead leave it to some of their neighboring towns like Forsyth.  For the second year in row, there were no fireworks for me, but here are some snapshots of how we spent our weekend:

Saturday: Waterfalls

As TLC so prophetically and hauntingly taught us to not go chasing waterfalls, we decided to anyways.  About 30 minutes north of Macon is High Falls, a state park with a legitimate waterfall and hiking trails.  We enjoyed a nice hike and view of the falls.  And since our parking pass got us into every Georgia state park for the day, we hopped over to another park, Indian Springs, for some lake swimming.  We were only slightly deterred by the high capacity of folks within the small, roped off, contained swimming area and the "warmth" of the water, but we found ourselves happier along the edges and finding some cooler spots.

Sunday: Grilling

Thanks to some dear friends, we received the gift of grilling.  To celebrate the weekend, Carson diligently put together our grill and we invited Rusty Grace, a friend from McAfee who is a minister in a nearby town, over for a meal of steaks, baked potatoes, and grilled corn on the cob.  Even in the midst of a thunderstorm and hail that brought the grilling inside the apartment breezeway (don't tell the apartment management company), we enjoyed a wonderful meal together!

Monday: The Big Screen

So, we kinda love Disney movies, and we decided to check out the renovated movie theater in town to see Cars 2.  It's way cute, but the most interesting part was the advertisements before the movie.  As we watched various ads for local businesses, we watched an ad for "Refuge and Hope" - the same name as the non-profit organization run by Jade and Shelah Acker in Uganda, where Carson worked two summers ago.  And as we watched, there on the big screen were pictures of one of Carson's trips there, including a picture of Carson holding hands with one of the Ugandan children.  Better yet, the movie theater collects donations for Refuge and Hope.  Small, small world.

We hope your July Fourth weekend was as fun as ours!