Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Zoo Atlanta/Brasstown Bald

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Today, we visited Zoo Atlanta, one of the nicer zoos I've been to, probably second only to the San Diego Zoo. We were there when it opened and headed straight for the Panda Bear exhibit. Zoo Atlanta has three pandas: 11 month-old Mei Lan and her parents Yang Yang and Lun Lun. When we arrived, the bears were sort of lounging around, chomping away at some bamboo. It wasn't long however, before Lun Lun roused her daughter and started playing with her. It looked like they were biting and scratching each other, but I guess that's how bears play. We watched the pandas for almost an hour and they were very active and entertaining.

Next, we checked out the gorillas and orangutans. The gorillas are separated into four different habitats. One is a bachelor group of all male gorillas and another features a large silverback with his harem of females and four small, "toddler" gorillas. We stopped by for the afternoon feedings and saw one juvenile gorilla who was doing flips, sliding across the ground and slapping the others on the back.

The exhibits at Zoo Atlanta are very well designed and most of them offer close up views of the animals. Despite the fact that the temperature was about 100 degrees, the ample shade of the zoo kept us from being miserable.

After leaving the zoo, we headed out of Atlanta and toward Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia. I didn't have very high expectations for this stop on the trip, but I was looking at it as an opportunity to bag a state high point and maybe some great mountain scenery. Well, it was a pleasant surprise. We arrived at the summit at about 7:30 p.m. after a short 0.6 mile walk to the top. With the sun descending, the Appalachian mountains were beautifully lit. On top of the mountain is a large visitors center and lookout tower. Normally, I find it annoying when summits are covered with a bunch of man-made junk; but, in this case, the tower was necessary to have any kind of view and the whole structure was so well designed it didn't seem too offensive.

After leaving the bald, we drove on to Dillard, GA to spend the night. Tomorrow, we'll be heading to Sassafras Mountain, the highest point in South Carolina.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Georgia Aquarium/World of Coca-Cola

Tuesday, August 7

This morning, we headed straight to the Georgia Aquarium, the only aquarium in America to house whale sharks. As you might guess, we headed straight for these giant fish, the biggest fish on Earth. The whale sharks are housed in a giant tank with wrasse, grouper, sting rays, a hammerhead shark, and a variety of other fish. The whale sharks on display were probably about twenty feet long, dwarfing the 800 lb. groupers swimming nearby. It's entertaining to watch any animal that big, but I wish we could've seen them feeding, or had a view of them from above, as they spent most of their time swimming near the surface. One day, I'd love to dive with these gentle animals. They are sometimes sighted off the Georgia coast.

The Georgia Aquarium is the best aquarium I've visited. The layout makes sense and is attractive and easy to navigate. All of the exhibits are interesting and many offer large viewing windows, allowing continuous perspectives on the animals as they swim about. Some other highlights were the Beluga whales and the otters.

After leaving the aquarium, we headed next door to the World of Coca-Cola. If you like Coke, this is a place with a lot of information about Coke. And a lot of Coke advertisements. And a lot of Coke products. It's extremely, extremely clean and gives the same sort of feeling as Disney World: "Today, you have no problems." Some of the stuff is interesting, but I thought it could've done a better job of showing how Coke is made. I guess the secret formula really is secret. The highlight of the experience was the tasting, where we were able to sample 72 different Coke products from all around the world. My sister and I sampled every one, and by the time I was finished, I felt like throwing a trash can through one of the plate glass windows, I was so jacked up. One thing I noticed, the rest of the world seems to prefer fruity-flavored soft drinks. Also, I noticed that the drink called "Beverly" is probably the worst drink I have ever had. Steer clear of that the next time you are in Italy.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Stone Mountain, Georgia

August 6, 2007

I haven't been on a family vacation since probably the summer of 2000, but now that I'm back in South Carolina with nothing to do for a few more weeks -- and with my sister in the same situation -- we decided it would be a good time to load up the Gylls family and head to Atlanta.

Today, we visited Stone Mountain, which is about 20 miles outside of Atlanta. It's a giant granite dome rising seemingly out of nowhere above the green Georgia landscape. It's somewhat reminiscent of some of the domes in Yosemite, though not as spectacular. What is does have, however, that nothing in Yosemite has is three Confederate heroes carved into it. From left to right there is Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The carving is, in fact, larger than Mount Rushmore (which my loyal readers will already know is not as big as is widely believed). The figures themselves, by my estimates, are roughly the same size as the Rushmore carvings. The carving, which is the largest high relief sculpture in the world, was begun by Gutzon Borglum who is better known for carving (you guessed it) Mt. Rushmore. Borglum's work, however, no longer exists on Stone Mountain, as it was detonated when a second sculpture, Augustus Lukeman, took over with a somewhat different vision.

We took a cable ride to the summit, where we milled around for a while and took in the views, which were largely obscured by the hazy sky. When it was time to head back down, my mom and sister headed back for the cable car, but Dad and I decided to walk down the 1.4 mile trail to Confederate Memorial Hall. Well, the heat was absolutely brutal and the walk was a lot tougher than I expected. Still, we made it without much problem.

We're staying in Atlanta tonight and over the next couple days will be checking out the zoo and aquarium.