Tuesday morning the weather grew cloudy though not really cold. We drove into Atlanta to visit the Woodruff Art Center and The High Museum of Art, a perfect place to be on a gray and rainy day.
In the center of the open plaza is Los Trompos, the Spinning Tops
The permanent collection displays such a variety; European, Modern, American as well as Folk Art.
In addition to the permanent collection there was a Coca Cola Exhibit in another wing.
Roy Lichtenstein's,
House, sits on the grounds outside.
A heavy downpour hit as we drove back home. It's rain like we've never seen in Ca! Another day and another drive back into Atlanta to see the Botanical Gardens with lunch first at the darling Atmosphere Restaurant, French Cafe nearby.
A Chihuly art glass display greeted us as we waked into the gardens.
An ongoing summer event in the gardens is Bruce Munro LIGHT in the Gardens created with hundreds of miles of optic fibers in unique structures. We decided not to wait till 9PM to see it lit, but it must have been beautiful.
I was more interested in the orchid collection in the Conservatory.
A unique sculpture nearby made of grasses
and this beautiful planted sculpture.
Another afternoon we visited the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.
Again, being inside when the thunderstorm hit was perfect, but we never did get to walk the grounds.
Staying so close to Atlanta was wonderful! Each day we found fun restaurants (Fritti for Pizza), georgous neighborhoods and coffee houses (Inman Park Coffee House) to explore. The rain didn't keep us from dong anything, especially since the clouds come in, drop a ton of water then move on.
Towards the end of the week we turned directions and drove east to visit Athens, GA, home to the State Botanical Gardens of Georgia and the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia. We enjoyed them both, drove past the UG campus and football stadium and then walked for a bit around the college town itself. It was a beautiful warm day, glad we took the day to see it all.
We did get another beautiful day to tour the Governor's Mansion and the Georgia State Capitol. We arrived at the mansion just as a school bus arrived, but the tour was so well organized all of us were ale to see the rooms and learn about the furnishings within. The teen students were fun and so well behaved.
Not such a good photo of the Capitol building, and since it was summer there were no tours available, a bit disappointing, so we walked several of the floors then headed back home.
Our weeks as over at the RV Park but since we were only a couple minutes from Stone Mountain State park we decided to move there for the next four nights f camping. It's a large and gorgeous park but the campground is run by a private company and sure could use some upgrading. We did have a great campsite loop, quiet with a view of the lake. The park is a PA park but only for one night, and a little pretty pricey especially since you also have to pay an additional $15 entrance fee to even get to the campground.
The views were beautiful for sunset each night and we did see the laser show the first night we were there...interesting, but once was definitely enough for us. We rode our bikes, visited the historic buildings, took walks but didn't take the tram to the top of the mountain...something just bothered me that the mountain had been commercially exploited with the facilities set up top. Im sure its a fantastic view from there, but most of our days were cloudy so not sure there would have been a view anyways.
After ten days it was time to move north to the mountains of Georgia we'd been hearing about!
