My Almost 49er Gold Rush Adventure

By Laurie Bower Epps

Although I've spent 28 years of my life in California, I'm really from Georgia. Therefore, I know the histories of both states pretty well. Most people have heard of the giant gold rush of 1849, and no offense to the NFL team, the 49ers, the first major gold rush in the United States was actually in No. Georgia 21 years earlier (1828).

Although I didn't deliberately make this parallelism, I went to Dahlonega, GA for my 49th birthday. Housed in the oldest courthouse in the state of Georgia, you'll find GA State Gold Museum (aka the Dahlonega Gold Museum).

My Glitzy, Girlie, and Green St. Patty's Day

Ready for My Night Out

By Laurie Bower Epps

Since my daughter did ballet for 12 years, I'm on the mailing list for the Peace Center. One day this past fall, I received the brochure for the shows of the upcoming season. When I saw that Celtic Woman was playing, and on St. Patrick's Day, being a good Irish lass, I had to go. To accelerate my excitement, it was also just 2 days before my 49th Birthday. By January 5th, I had the tickets for the show and the excitement was building.

As a former stage mom, I'd always heard about the great restaurants around the Peace Center, but I'd never been to any of them. I was always bustling around with Subway sandwiches or pizza from a nearby shop for the girls between showtimes. So I wanted to try one of the restaurants that I'd always heard so much about. My top 2 choices were Larkins on the River and Rick Erwin's West End Grille. I planned out the entire day. I started with getting my hair and nails done before heading out.