MEA break

 We headed to Alpharetta, Georgia for the Minnesota Education Association fall break.  (Really just a long weekend - Thursday and Friday there was no school.)

Wednesday evening, we piled into the truck and headed south, dogs and all.

20 hours later, we were at our long-awaited destination.

Paul's brother Harlan and his fabulous wife Coleen, have been living in Georgia for more than a year, and we've intended to get there for a visit for a quite some time.

 

We feasted!

(Repeatedly.  YUM!)

 

Dogs ran amuck!

Their two and our two.

 

We spent one day at Stone Mountain Park, climbing the big rock.

 

People have been climbing the Stone Mountain for years and years.

(We managed to restrain ourselves from marking our passage up the mountain with our own carvings.)

We geocached on the way up.  There's a ton of geocaches on that big ol' rock.

Part way up the mountain, a gal coming down said "Be sure to check out that ancient gum tree just ahead".  We were prepared to be impressed.  

Impressive, eh?!

 

The view at the top was amazing.

 

Harlan pointed out one of the few trees at the top.

 

We found a few more geocaches at the top.

(Some times you really need to get down and look closely...)

 

There is a tram that will take you to the top of the mountain.

Or in our case, to the bottom of the mountain.

While waiting for the tram, we discovered the penny machine.  When was the last time you've seen one of these?

Of course, at the top of the tram, there was a gift shop.  At the bottom of the tram there was a gift shop.  As you ride the tram down, the tram operator makes a pitch for coming back to Stone Mountain. 

Perhaps for Snow Mountain in December?

Yes, they were making snow, getting ready for a sliding hill. A sliding hill  you can buy tickets for now, to slide for a two hour period in December.

Be sure to get your tickets now!

At the base of Stone Mountain is a carving,  a full three acres in size, featuring three confederate Civil War generals.  This was an early work of Gutzon Borglum, who later carved Mt. Rushmore.

They do laser light shows at the base of the carving.

Saturday evening, we piled back in the truck for the overnight drive home.  By Sunday evening we were home, tired and lonesome for Harlan and Coleen.

Many thanks to the Georgia branch of the family for a fabulous time!!