Georgia - Atlanta

We had a wonderful time in Atlanta.  My two sisters, Barbara and Carol both live here and we spent a lot of time with them, and with their daughters and their families.  We toured the Atlanta Braves stadium and museum, and we spent one very warm evening at the pool.

  We've been to Atlanta many times and have already seen many of the things there are to see in this great city.  This time we decided to seek out some of the more obscure landmarks, in particular, we wanted to get some of the National Park stamps that we were missing.


We went back to the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site to get two stamps we had missed on our first visit.   We were disappointed to hear that the historic firehouse was closed that day and stamp wasn't available.   But a very nice young ranger offered to walk down with us and open it up just so we could get the stamp.   The second stamp we were seeking couple not be found but the ranger at the desk took our address and promised to send it to us.  Such nice people!

Arabia Mountain National Monument had stamps in four different locations and we decided to go to Monastery of the Holy Spirit.  We didn't know what to expect but the monastery had a beautiful visitors' center with an excellent film describing the life of a monk and a very nice museum with the story of how this monastery was built. There were some excellent bonsai plants in the garden, one was over 100 years old.  The church was very simple but beautiful especially with the sunlight streaming through the blue glass windows.









We visited the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield which rises 700+ feet over the surrounding countryside.   The visitors center had an excellent film on the Civil War in Georgia and a
small museum.   Kennesaw Mountain is the most visited battlefield in the national parks system.

On Saturday we visited three sites on the Trail of Tears - the Major Ridge home in Rome, the Chief Vann house in Chatsworth and the New Echota Visitor Center in Calhoun.  It is a very sad story of how the Cherokee people were forced to leave their ancestral homeland. 

On Memorial Day weekend,  we took advantage of free admission to Stone Mountain for military families.  This giant granite mountain towers over 1,600 feet above sea level - solid, bare rock.  There is a large carved sculpture on the side of the mountain,  done by the same artist that designed Mount Rushmore.   We waited in line for over 45 minutes to take the cable car to the top where we could see Atlanta in the distance and the large crowd on the lawn at the base of the mountain.   A fierce rain squall moved over the mountain just as we went in to catch the cable car down.  It took well over an hour to get off the mountain and we were not the last ones down.

After dark, there was a spectacular laser lights and fireworks show.  It was a wonderful evening.