nellie, part two.

you might remember back in march when austin and i joined the heards on a trip to nellie's big fish road and we just had another big adventure with nellie this weekend!

steve, gloria, taylor, ozzy and bailey made their way to the cabin on friday night and austin and i joined them early saturday morning after a few pit stops and adventures on the way.

for our first pit stop i needed a pair of shoes that i could wear hiking to the falls and tubing down the river. we stopped at academy sports+outdoors, even though it was about 7:45 in the morning, but we figured they would open at 8. and it's a good thing we got there when we did because acedemy was giving away $20 gift cards to the first 25 customers in line! austin and i each got our own gift cards and i used mine toward these bad boys.

sweetness, right? and $20 off? yes, please!

then on our way up the ocoee river, where all the rafters are, we saw some flashing lights that grabbed our attention. we then realized it was just about time for them to release the water from the dam into the upper ocoee, the area where the 1996 olympic rapids course is. so we pulled over and waited on one of the bridges to watch the water pour in.

i'm not sure how this picture turned out so terrible {i blame austin the overcast weather}, but here's me and juliet on the big bridge waiting for the water.

and here's a series of pictures showing the water coming down the river, it starts coming down the top left side of the picture.

and then the water on the down river side of the bridge before:

and after {and you can thank austin for the long exposure photo}:

we were really hoping some sort of wave would come rushing down the river, but it wasn't quite that dramatic. but it was still pretty cool to experience it.

when we finally got to the cabin, austin headed down to the river for a little bit of fishing.

then, after searching the entire county for some inner tubes, we all went tubing down the river, starting at the deep hole and getting out right in front of the cabin. of course, i don't have any pictures of tubing in order to protect my camera, but we all had fun floating down the river. the five minute road trip took about an hour in the floats!

i like to call this my bonnaroo outfit: a little bit of every thing. sundress coverup, bathing suit, and hiking sandals.

don't judge.

and then on sunday austin took me hiking to a waterfall! after about a thirty minute drive, we arrived at the base of the trail to fall branch falls.

i was worried that there might not be any water at the falls, but right at the bottom of the trail i found plenty of water running, so i knew it would be pretty when we got to the top!

after a short but straight up hike, we made it to the falls!

after getting some rest, splashing in the freezing cold water and taking a gazillion pictures, we headed back down the mountain and made our way back home. and that was our weekend at nellie's big fish road!

i hope you all had a great weekend, too!