Exploring Atlanta

We are finishing up our stay in the Atlanta area so I thought I would get you caught up with our activities here.  First let me start with the park where we are staying.  In the last post I mentioned we are staying at Stone Mountain Park and there was an arts and crafts festival here for the weekend, the Yellow Daisy Festival.  From what I read it is supposed to be the third largest arts and craft festival held in the US and has over 400 vendors.  It started on Thursday and ended on Sunday.  We went to it on Thursday and was surprised to see a large turnout for a weekday afternoon.  It is a very large festival but nice to walk around as the booths are in the woods.  Thank goodness we went to the festival on Thursday as on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the crowds were enormous!!! On both Friday and Sunday we left the park in the morning and the traffic coming into the park was backed up for miles.  Fortunately on Friday we came back in the evening so there was no traffic getting back in, but on Sunday we tried to get back in the park around 1:30pm and the traffic was still backed up for miles at the main entrance.  I remembered there was a back entrance and went to that gate and fortunately we were able to sneak into the line quickly, but the main road for that gate was also backed up for miles.  Not sure where they parked everyone. 

Friday we took a trip into downtown Atlanta via the Marta system.  We visited the Atlanta Aquarium, World of Coke and walked through Olympic Centennial Park.  Let get my complaining out first.  Both the aquarium and World of Coke were overpriced.  The aquarium is close to $40 per person and Coke is $16.  We had only wanted to do these two but if you plan on doing at least three attractions (CNN Tour and a couple of museums) there is a city pass that is only $69 per person for 5 attractions.  Now that would be worth it, but not what we wanted to do.

The aquarium is really nice.  It has the best presentation I have ever seen for this type of venue.  It had a great dolphin show and the their ocean section was outstanding.

Outside view of the aquarium

Great display of jellyfish!

From the aquarium we went next door to the Word of Coke.  I was not happy with the cost but as we did the experience I began to wonder why we paid at all, this all a big promotion for their company, one of the largest corporations in the world and we paid $16 to be told that!  Nice, but not worth the entrance fee.  Their was a section that was a big lead up to showing you the vault where the secret formula for coke is kept. It took about 15 minutes of hype before the big reveal and then you are let out.  Great for the kids, not so much for the adults.  I will save you $16, here is a picture of the vault.

As Coke is bottled by local bottling operations you only get to see a sample line which is bottling an 8 ounce bottle of Coke that you get at the end of the tour.  Probably the best part of the tour was at the end they have a room where you can sample all of Coke’s products from all over the world.  There must have been close to a couple hundred soft drinks.  The best is the new Coke fountain dispenser that is computerized.  You pick what type of Coke you want then another menu comes up and you get to pick different flavors and types.  It gives you something like 110 choices of Coke products.  Some fast food chains and mini-marts are starting to put these machines in.  I tried Diet Coke with orange and vanilla, OUTSTANDING!

We left Coke and walked back to the Marta station via Olympic Centennial Park.  This was the park built for the Olympics and where the bombing occurred.  What a very beautiful park.

On Saturday we went to see the laser show the park puts on at the carving on the mountain.  What a great evening.  You bring your chair or blanket and sit out on a lawn in front of the mountain and watch a 45 minute laser show that uses the mountain and carving as its screen.  There are even some fireworks as part of the show. 

On the lawn in front of the mountain.

Lastly, today we climbed to the top of the mountain.  It is about a mile hike up, not too bad until the end where it gets fairly steep.  The reward is a 360 degree view of the Atlanta area as this is the highest point in the Atlanta metro area.

Atlanta in the distance as seen from the top of Stone Mountain

WE DID IT!!!!