Georgia travel

Callaway Gardens- A Fantasy in Lights and Food..and Birds and Plants

Travel
Christmas lights, Callaway Gardens, lights holiday
Callaway Gardens has one of the best Christmas lights displays on EARTH! Yes, it’s that good. It took just under an hour to get through the tour but the time flies by.

I love the weeks leading up to Christmas, I love driving around and seeing the neighborhood light displays.  This weekend we saw one of the 10 best  Christmas light shows on the planet (according to National Geographic). The Christmas light Show to beat ALL Christmas light shows the Festival of Lights at Callaway Gardens (Pine Mountain, GA).  Pictures don’t do it justice, parts of the tour have animated light themes … it’s just great….but wait, there’s more.  After you finish the Festival of Lights you have the Christmas Village.

Christmas, Callaway Gardens, funnel cake, fried apples,kettle corn, nuts
a TON of vendors outside of the Christmas village. Deep fried everything and some great kettle corn. Even maple/bacon funnel cake
Christmas,Christmas Village, Callaway Gardens, wine bottle stopper, cork screw
Inside the Christmas Village at Callaway Gardens there were handmade gifts and a giant gingerbread man

Thankfully we had a cabin waiting for us

cabin, Callaway Gardens,
We had a two bedroom cabin at Callaway Gardens, that’s the kids room pictured above. They made themselves right at home. Our room was similar and each bedroom had it’s own bathroom. It’s not fancy, it’s like staying with a relative…a relative who leaves you alone.  Full kitchen and cozy living room with everything you need to snuggle up by the fire. It was a little cool for the screened in porch

Still more stuff to show you…and remember this is in the late fall, almost Winter.  I’d love to go back when it warms up in the Spring and the azalea’s are blooming.

We woke up pretty late the next day and were in no hurry to get moving so we had breakfast in the cabin.  I brought cheese, crackers, grapes, cereal, milk and juice with us so we had plenty to eat.  We finally got it together and headed out to the Birds of Prey (Raptor) show.  All of the birds in the show were rescued in some way or another.  Several were human imprints (some well meaning folks tried to raise the birds but now they can’t survive on their own ) and one that was hit by a truck and is blind in one eye. Now in the care of the center we can get a good look at them up close

Raptors, Callaway Gardens, birds, birds of prey, hawks, owl
Rescued birds of prey at Callaway Gardens. The Show was moved indoors due to rain and they added another show to accommodate the guests. Broad-Winged Hawk, Red Shouldered Hawk, Barn Owl and Red Tailed Hawk

Then the horticultural center, I could have stayed in there all day.

Christmas, Callaway Gardens, horticultural, Poinsettias, chenille plant, topiary,
Inside the horticultural center Callaway gardens. I can only remember the name of the first one, it’s a chenille plant and the poinsettias below it.

Yes, there’s still more

Bikes, tandem bikes, Callaway Gardens
Bikes for rent at Callaway Gardens

I still haven’t covered it all. There are bikes to rent and trails to hike and golf and a tree top obstacle course and ziplines. The kids were tempted to try the Tree Top Adventure but there was a bit of rain.   They’ve been wanting to zipline for a while now, they thought long and hard about it. Some guests were up in the trees on the obstacle course in the rain but my kids decided against it.

Then there was dinner at The Gardens Restaurant inside Callaway Gardens.  Dinner deserves it’s own post so stay tuned!

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