Stone Mountain, GA

We arrived at Stone Mountain Campground on Thursday afternoon.  I have visited Stone Mountain many times when I was in the Atlanta area for Decagon business.  I had the thought that I would like to camp there someday and now was our chance.  I had built up the campground in my mind to something magical.  After that, our campsite was a huge disappointment!  It was very small and not level (I found out later that I would have had to book a Premium site to get level and spacious!)  However, David got us backed in and parked on his first try and even though our site was a disappointment, the park was not!  Stone Mountain Park is beautiful.

Friday I drove Myra and Will up to see Ivy Cowan who was spending her spring break just an hour away from us.  They really enjoyed seeing a friendly face.  In the meantime, David and Zina made waffles.  When we got back we loaded up and headed out to try the Zip Line.  Zina was tremendously disappointed to find that the minimum age for the zip line was 10.  She and I played connect 4 while we waited for the older kids to do the zip line.  They had a good time but I didn’t get a picture.  Then we went to the Stone Mountain “attractions”, including a sky hike (ropes course) and an indoor play area.  It was a cool day and I was cold as I waited for the kids to finish!  I hurried and made dinner and then we ran off to see the drone & light show on the Mountain (Stone Mountain is a giant exposed granite rock with a carving of the Confederate heros in the face).  The show included fireworks and we enjoyed it.  

All three kids decided they wanted to go for a run and I got a picture of them before they left. David had not been feeling well for about two weeks and so we finally got him medical attention at an instant care facility on Saturday.  He seems to be doing better already and we are very grateful that we had access to that care.  While we waited for David, the kids and I shopped.  Myra and Zina found Easter dresses.  Will found shoes he liked but we didn’t end up buying any.  We got grocery shopping and a Costco run done that day also.  I really wanted to take the train ride around the mountain so we rushed out to do that knowing the last train was at 7:40pm.  We arrived about 7:25 and were trying to get to the train and we were stopped by a dinosaur parade through the “attractions”!  It was SO ridiculous.  But we cut through lots of places and managed to catch the train.  They had a silly lost dinosaur babies enactment to entertain the train riders about half way through the ride.

Sunday we went to church and then headed out to Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield where we were able to catch a live infantry demonstration.  The kids are not nearly as interested in the history as David and I are making things a bit difficult but we enjoyed our time there nonetheless.  Myra and Will played checkers and Zina stood by the ice cream freezer waiting for me to buy her one!

This morning the kids and I hiked to the top of Stone Mountain.  I love that hike though it feels like a lot of it is straight up.  The view from the top is amazing and it is good exercise!

Will’s Comments:

The activities in Atlanta were very good, however the campground was very lackluster and bumpy. We learned that we have to lock in a site beforehand to get a sizable and smooth site. On the first full day, Myra and I had the opportunity to see our friend, Ivy, from Pullman. In the process, we also got to meet some of her family, who were very fun people as well. After saying goodbye and eating lunch, we rounded up the rest of the family and went to a ropes course/zipline type of operation. I got the hang of how it all worked very quickly, but the people behind me needed assistance, so Myra was a whole 30-40 minutes behind me! The course was a ton of fun, and I would love to try to do those types of things whenever possible. After the zipline, we went back to the trailer and ate dinner before going back to Stone Mountain to view the drone laser light show. It was a very high-quality viewing experience, and it showcased the great power of AI. That was all for Friday. On Saturday, I awoke to the words, “We are going shopping today” and that was what we did, although I couldn’t find the type of shoes that I was assigned to find for my dad or sister at any of the locations that we went to. After shopping, we hung out at the trailer for a while, then ate dinner and ran through a parade to get to a train ride that Mom had been looking forward to. It was a good train ride, although the actors’ jokes were corny beyond recognition. After that, we went home and ate yummy shrimp for dinner and then went to bed. Our church the following morning started at 10 AM, so we had some extra time to get ready, but we were still late. The deacons and teachers were very welcoming and kind people, and we had a very good lesson together about general conference and D&C 30-32. After church, we changed and headed out to Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield, a bucket list item for Dad. Some volunteers at the park demonstrated how to shoot a Civil War rifle. We then read a lot about the battles that made up the war and watched a film of the latter half of the war and General Sherman’s gambit to capture Atlanta. It was interesting to see that it was once thought that Abraham Lincoln was a bad president and that he wouldn’t be reelected. After this, we went home, ate dinner, and went to bed in order to hike Stone Mountain the following morning. We actually made it to the mountain on time and had a very nice hike to the top. Well, that brings me to where I am now. See you in Birmingham! Overall Rating: 8.4/10