My un-Labored Weekend

I spent last weekend in the loveliest spot of the state: Lake Burton, in the North Georgia mountains. I meant to write about the weekend earlier, but I took way too many photos and just finished sorting them.

My brother-in-law’s father owns a house on the lake. He rarely goes up, so my sister, brother-in-law, and I took over the house for the holiday weekend. After months of stress and heavy workloads and worries and traveling, it was wonderful to just be for a few days — no makeup, R.E.M. and Zevon T-shirts and cutoffs, hair curling wildly. We took boat rides, read, hung out, enjoyed the view.

And the house has a porch. A big porch. With railing. Overlooking the lake and mountains. My kind of hangout spot.

So, let’s start with the most important part of the weekend: the cocktailing.

My sister and I decided to cocktail for twelve hours straight on Sunday, and we pulled it off. We also imbibed much of Saturday and Monday, too. The nice thing about marathon cocktailing is, if you're a pro, you can maintain a level of buzz that's not too far over the edge. With no hangovers or embarrassing drunk dialing.

You know the pose; now meet my weekend pals.

Sister's award-winning frozen margarita

A margarita on the rocks (we tired of blending)

Chik-Fil-A lemonade with Absolut Citron

A glass of red from Garretson Winery*

A chilled glass of Naia

*Paso Robles' Garretson Winery is owned by a Georgia boy, Mat Garretson. (His older brother was one of my college radio station buddies.) The winery is known for its viognier, and I recommend it. The red we're drinking is a Georgia Bulldogs label that my brother-in-law picked up; not bad at all. Mat must know what he's doing with those grapes.

More Lake Burton stories to come this weekend.

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