31/12/2024
During spring break we had tickets to a The Savannah Bananas game at Coolray Field in Lawrenceville, GA (home of the Atlanta Braves minor league team, the Gwinnett Stripers). I decided to make a trip of it with a couple of stops to check out a few old favorites, as well as new places!
I was born in and lived southeast of Atlanta up until the 3rd grade. I have quite a few fond memories of visiting Stone Mountain Park with my family in my childhood - the laser show, the lake, the water wheel, the covered bridge, climbing the mountain, the cable car, all the trails and picnic areas just to name a few! It was much less commercialized 30-35 years ago, but we were familiar with the new commercialized parts from our last visit in 2021. Plus I feel Stone Mountain Park has done a good job of maintaining the history and natural areas, while expanding their offerings to appeal to a wider audience. They have done a fantastic job of leaving the natural areas undisturbed and concentrating the more commercialized areas around the entrance to the field with the laser show. The attractions they have added are of overall good quality and I don’t feel detract from the park in any way. You can easily stick to the natural areas only if you prefer and never even encounter the more commercialized areas.
After a couple of days in the Atlanta area, we drove up to Amicalola Falls State Park & Lodge in Dawsonville for a brand new experience. I’ll make a separate post on that stay because there is a lot to mention!
We decided to stay inside Stone Mountain Park at the Atlanta Evergreen Resort. We had stayed there twice before when it was under the ownership of Marriott. The hotel was exactly the same. It has a great pool area with a bar, giant chess set, plenty of seating options, and a great view overlooking the lake. There is a fireplace in the lobby with a little coffee snack shop behind it (no free breakfast offered here). When booking our room, a suite was available for only a small amount more, so I decided to go with it since we were familiar with the hotel. If I stayed here again I would stick with a regular room overlooking the lake. The suite was huge, but very odd. The barebones “kitchenette” was inside the doors of the bathroom, which was a very odd layout. If someone was in the bathroom, the kitchenette was not usable. The sink area of the bathroom was large and spacious with those backlit mirrors that I love. The toilet and shower were together behind a door off the sink area and extremely tiny. For having such a grand double door entrance with a wide hallway to the sink area, I expected A LOT more from the shower area. The living/bedroom area was one very large room with the king bed straight ahead across the room when you entered, placed extremely close to the balcony. The pull out couch was in the opposite corner, right in front of the bathroom door. There was enough room to do gymnastics in the middle of this suite. SO MUCH wasted space and a very odd layout. I would not book a suite again unless the rooms have a major overhaul. I would also like to give the Stone Mountain campground a try on another visit and stay in one of the yurts.
We did some of our favorites in Stone Mountain park, including driving over the covered bridge and then exploring the island. In past visits we enjoyed the nearby water wheel and creek, but the water was very low and we had done those before. We also greatly enjoyed the bird trail in the past, which I would recommend. If you are a golfer, the golf course looks really nice.
This time we decided to climb up and down the mountain! It’s doable for most, but the time it takes depends on your ability/fitness. People passed us running up and down the mountain, which appeared to be a regular workout for them! Our boys made it to the top before us. The last bit up is very steep with a handrail that is a must use in my opinion. We also passed a family walking down who had ridden the cable car up, but they told us it was no longer able to operate due to high winds. So, you could ride up and walk down, but keep in mind your vehicle will be parked about a mile from the end of the trail at the bottom of the mountain. I highly suggest allowing some time to hang out on top of the mountain. The views are so pretty and it’s so unique to be hanging out on top of a massive piece of granite! There is a small snack shop and restrooms at the top.
This trip we decided to ride the train around the mountain, which we enjoyed in the past and all enjoyed this time as well (the boys were 11 and 14 at the time). They stop at one point in a little historical area where they’ve added a show. It’s a little hokey, but did make all of us laugh. Younger kids on the train loved it! We also played putt putt golf, which is right next to the train station between the train tracks and the mountain. It was a fun little course. We grabbed some lunch from the cafe by the train station because we were hungry and it was convenient. It was basic hot dogs, burgers, fries, and drinks that were pre-made grab and go. A little pricy and nothing fantastic, but did its job since we were hungry. I was a little disappointed that this eating and shopping area was looking a tad rundown from 3 years earlier, and was very disappointed to see the glass blowing shop was gone! It was fun to watch them work and the items they sold were beautiful. There were a few empty shops. Finally, the boys did the ropes course, which we had all four done 3 years earlier. They loved it and made it to the end. It’s fun to both participate and watch this!
We rounded out our few days in the Atlanta area with the game and a trip to the Georgia Aquarium. We love The Savannah Bananas so that experience is always top tier. I will make a separate post on them at some point because they have the customer service experience perfected and we all always enjoy ourselves! I do have to shout Coolray Stadium specifically though! The facilities were beautiful and the food was great. They have a terrific team shop with a wide range of quality items at all price points. One of the best sports team shops I have ever visited. Their staff was extremely friendly and helpful. We definitely want to go back some day to watch the Stripers play.
My comments on the Georgia Aquarium are not what I hoped or expected them to be. The experience was honestly disappointing. In the summer of 2021 we purchased a late afternoon/evening pass that was a discounted rate and required later entry in the day. We thoroughly enjoyed that visit. This time we were visiting on a Sunday afternoon, but they no longer offer the discounted late entry pass at all, so I just selected a later entry time hoping for a similar experience. They sell tickets based on entry time so this led me to believe they were doing that for crowd control. They definitely were not. The place was absolutely packed with people in every nook and cranny. We were packed in like sardines on the little moving walkway through the shark tunnel. I didn’t understand how it was even still moving with the hundreds of people packed onto it. The massive wall of the aquarium after exiting the shark tunnel was so magical and relaxing for us on our last visit. We had plenty of spots to choose from to sit and just relaxed while watching the fish swim for quite some time. This time we could barely squeeze our way in to see it, and it was super loud, crowded, and the opposite of relaxing. We found this throughout the aquarium and honestly were all disappointed. If they would actually control the crowd with the entry times and it could easily return to a superior aquarium experience. It seems to be more about the money and less about the education, sadly. You could not stop long enough to read the info on the various fish and animals because swarms of people were pushing and shoving to see the animals. If they control the capacity numbers better in the future, I would highly recommend it then.
On to the amazing Amicalola Falls State Park after that! Please watch for my post on that!
