On...Onward to Atlanta!

Our last stop on our vacation took us to Atlanta.  During a family reunion in July, we received news from our bro-in-law Matt that sometime in September our niece would be born and our nephew would be baptized.  I made the comment that we would be there.  I think Matt was skeptical, but the vacation was already in the works at that time, and hey, if we are already doing a multi-city trip, why not stop in Atlanta?  I wasn't particularly interested in any schools there (no offense to the most humid city ever), but I thought it would be great to see family.  And so on to Atlanta...

We stayed near a place called Stone Mountain Park.  So on Friday, being so close, we decided to take advantage of all this park had to offer.  The actual Stone Mountain is a granite outcropping rising above a lot of trees and lakes.  There is a tram to the top, as well as a hiking trail.  When we got out of our car to start the adventure, the heat and humidity hit me like a wall of tiredness and so we took the tram.

 

At the top, we explored around for a little while.  It was very bright and Jess was wise enough to wear sunglasses.

I tried to pose without sunglasses with little success.  The sun was was formidable.  Logan luckily had his fisherman hat pulled low over his eyes.

Stone Mountain is like the Mt. Rushmore of the south.  There is a carving in the granite of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis.  Quite impressive actually.  They have a laser show here in the evenings, but we were unable to attend.

We explored the park further and here are a few of the things we found.  Most of the stuff was closed, so I guess a Friday in September is not optimal for a visit.  First off, a steamboat.  I bet it moves pretty slow around the many lakes in the park.

We found a carillon (kind of like an organ with bells instead of pipes).  The carillon is the tower thing behind Jess.  They have live performance, but alas, not on the day we were there. I wonder what it takes to become the master carillonneur.

They used to quarry a ton of granite from this mountain, but stopped in 1973.  This is all that is left.

I found a display showing the type of job in mining I would apply for if I were to quarry granite.  Actually, come to think of it, I would probably be recruited since I fit the job title so well.

Jess crashed a wedding reception to get this shot of the waterfall.

The water turning this old grist mill actually came out of a modern looking PVC pipe.  I was a little disappointed.

It is good luck to kiss while under a covered bridge.  So of course we had to stop.

One other great thing going on in Stone Mountain while we were there was a Segway Convention.  Yes, an actual convention.  I don't know how we didn't get pictures of this.  They had a polo course set up and were playing polo while riding Segways.  Who needs horses anyways?  The Segway guys were riding all over the park.  I thought Brian would love to be a part of that.  Maybe next year, huh?

Back at our hotel, we had our first swimming adventure with Logan.  Turns out, he actually loves the water and swimming.  It helped that the hotel pool was heated up like a hot tub, (the hot tub was heated up like the sun and we stayed clear).

The next day was spent with family.  We actually started off the morning by hiking up to the top of Stone Mountain.  The insurmountable wall of heat and humidity was conquered, although we did get an earlier start.  The hike was actually quite nice.  In the photo below is Matt with his kids Calvin and Caleb, Jess' dad David, me, Logan, Jess, and Matt's daughter Sadie.

Matt got a head start down with the boys.  You can vaguely see Atlanta in the back ground.  Strangely enough, our trip to "Atlanta" didn't actually take us into Atlanta.

The sun was still formidable this morning.  Taking a lesson from my son, I came prepared with a hat.  Jess simply looked away.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out with Matt and his family.  They have a really cute new baby girl named Liberty.  I somehow did not get any pictures of her.  We celebrated Calvin's birthday that night.  I competed against a bunch of primary kids in building a rocket.  I do think my rocket went the highest, but thinking of the song, "It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to," I wisely did not say anything (except to Jess later on.  "I'm so proud of you," she said to me).

Showing off my high flying rocket.

I don't know how we didn't get any more pictures of family or of the baptism on this trip, but I guess the camera ran out of battery.  The baby blessing, baptism, and time spent with family were all really nice.  We got to see where Matt and Rachel live and spend some really good time with them and their family.  Atlanta was a nice end to our trip.  We left for the airport shortly after all the events on Sunday were finished.

Thus, the sun set on our vacation.