Georgia On Our Minds

Hello Friends & Family!

We are now at one of the best state parks we have ever stayed in. Red Top Mountain State Park, GA.

It’s located about 45 minutes away from Atlanta and it has some of the most beautiful campsites we ever stayed in. They were a little “wilder” than many of the private parks we have stayed in and at night we would hear lots of critters in the woods! It’s actually located on a peninsula in lake Allatoona, so the entire park is surrounded by water. They have a really nice beach where we spent a few days swimming. Clear, warm water and a beautiful view. If it wasn’t for the little tiny piranhas (at least that’s what we were calling them) nipping at you, it would be perfect. They didn’t really hurt, but it sure is a shock when they swim up and gum you!

Of course, while here, Atlanta has been having record breaking heat. It’s been over 100 for the past 6 days. So, we had to break down and get our a/c fixed. I guess we’re not as tough as we thought!

While here in Atlanta I was able to visit family that I haven’t seen in almost 20 years. And, with good timing, we were there to celebrate my cousin’s 4th birthday party. It was so nice to see everyone. Also, good friends of ours from California moved to Atlanta a few years ago and we were able to have dinner (a great Mexican meal! YEAH!) with her, her husband and two beautiful children. Larry was thrilled to be able to sit around and talk sports with someone! We had a wonderful time visiting with our dear friends and family. Great conversation, great meals, and a really nice break from being all by ourselves for a few weeks.

While waiting for the truck to be worked on, we stopped at a cowboy art museum. We didn’t have high hopes for this stop, I mean really, would you? A “Cowboy Art” museum?!? However, we all really had a great time! It was called the Booth Museum and had some surprisingly beautiful artwork there. There were a couple of western galleries, an Indian gallery, and a great civil war gallery. There was also a presidents hall where there was a signed letter from every president along with a picture and brief background of each one. Joshua was thrilled to see what all the presidents looked like.

We also visited the Georgia Aquarium. We all loved the beluga whales and the main tank is the largest in the world (at least that’s what the workers told the boys). Inside were 10,000 fish including 4 whale sharks. That thrilled the boys! Oh, and Caleb got to touch a shark, what more could a little boy want than to play with sharks? They also had a 4-D movie featuring “Deepo” who looked exactly like “Nemo” without the stripes. The movie also had a huge shark, some reggae turtles and angler fish. We have no idea how they haven’t been sued by Disney, but it really was a fun movie.

After the aquarium we walked across the street to Olympic Park which was built for the 1996 Summer Olympics. What a beautiful big green space in the middle of the city. They have some memorials, some sculptures, and a very nice tiered garden running along the length of the park. But best of all, they have an Olympic fountain. The kids, baby included, had a ton of fun cooling off in the water randomly shooting out of the Olympic rings.

Atlanta seems like an amazing city with tons of museums, art, history, and family fun. We weren’t even able to scratch the service of all there is to do here. We could easily have spent half our trip in Atlanta and not felt like we experienced everything.

From here we are going to Savannah. Everyone says that we are going to love it there, but that it’s very hot and even more humid there. Oh, great! It’s currently 101 here, so what are we in store for?