polka dot suitcase

After one last bathroom stop at World of Coca-Cola, we headed out of downtown Atlanta. Destination: Stone Mountain. Here’s the thing about Stone Mountain. It wasn’t initially on our plan of stops. But about two days before we left, a friend said, “You’ve got to go to Stone Mountain.” I thought, eh. Not interested. But then I went to the SM website, and got intrigued. They had a campground, so I figured that was a sign that we should go. We went. Thanks, Rebecca, for suggesting it. Way worth it.

Now, SM is supposedly just minutes from downtown. We were downtown. Our GPS, Maggie, was sulking because I hadn’t used her to guide us on the 60-second walk from the Georgia Aquarium across the plaza to World of Coke, apparently, because she took us on an hour-long trek around some of the seedier parts of Atlanta. Later, looking at a map, I realized just how bizarre our route had been. Kind of like those old Family Circus cartoons when dotted lines trace Billy’s path on what should have been a simple walk?

Anyhoo. Made it to Stone Mountain via the back entrance. Wound our way up and around to the campsite. Checked in. Super-nice people. Our site was lousy, though — all rocky, and the folks in neighboring site 76 had set up their big old honkin’ tent on the only part of our site that could have hosted our tent. Called the super-nice people at check-in. Wonderful lady gave us a list of available sites. Chose one. Onward ho. We set up the tent in record time — just in time, really, because the skies opened and we had a quickie deluge.

Stone Mountain has more to do than we could cram into our full day there (although we tried):

• Unbelieveable laser show up against the bas-relief carving on the exposed granite titular mountain. This is a MUST DO. Mind-boggling, toe-tapping, spectacular, clean fun.
• Sky Hike family ropes course that completely blew us away. Mister Steel is afraid of heights, but he was spectacular and I’m still in awe of his courage.
• Old-fashioned “southern town” with shops, food, and shady mini golf course. Super-friendly people.
• Locomotive ride around the mountain itself. This was the least fun for me. The brakes squealed like a 500-head herd of dying elephants and the “story” they told on the PA system was dull. But you did get a good view of the carving.
• “The Barn.” Ugh. What to say about The Barn. Supposedly, there are kids’ games and an indoor playground. When we walked in the door, the entire barn was engaged in a free-for-all, whipping foam balls at everyone and anyone. Sir and Mister’s eyes lit up and they wanted to stay the rest of the day, beaming everyone they possibly could. I turned tail and headed right for the exit.
• Hiking trails. You can hike to the top of the mountain itself, or ride the…
• Summit Skyride. A cable car that gets you to the top of the mountain in minutes flat, providing a spectacular view of Atlanta and the surrounding area.
• Stone Mountain Museum to learn about the history.
• Paddleboat, but this only operates on weekends so we missed out.
• Re-created antebellum homestead. We walked around — this is the kind of stuff I could have spent much longer looking at, but certain boys were getting restless — and then we headed to the farmyard. There we watched a little demonstration about how the staff trains the sheep and goats (to help guide them and care for them). Although Rosie the sheep had a tad bit of performance anxiety, it was an endearing, off-the-beaten-path program. Nice break in the day.

Okay. Then there was “Ride the Ducks.” These amphibious vehicles take you on a little driving tour of the park, followed by a splashdown into the lake. You’re then treated to a boat tour of the park. If you’re a lucky duck (and we were with Captain Larry), you’ll get an entertaining narration of everything.  Here’s the thing: As you board, you’re given duck snout whistle blower things. You’re instructed to quack them at certain times — and/or whenever the heck you feel like it. Naturally, everyone at first was quacking them like a bunch of over-sugared kids at a Chuckie Cheese birthday party. It sounds something like this:

duck-calls

Annoying? Or hilarious? Probably depends on your personality. For some reason, I couldn’t blow mine because I was laughing too hard at the sheer insanity. Oddly, I’m calling this a MUST DO.

Then, back to the campground. One thunderstorm later, and we were asleep. Next morning, packed up and on the road home. Quick tour of Atlanta, complete. I’ll be honest — for some reason I didn’t expect to have as much fun as I did (and I’m normally an optimist, honestly). But it was a blast. I urge you in strong terms to get thee there. And send me a postcard!