rest of the GA vacation
Ok, I'll try to finish what I started; beware it will be long...
Day 2, we headed over to Jekyll Island. We got a later start than I wanted, but we still managed to tour the historical museum, self-tour the entire historical district, tour the GA Sea Turtle Center, and spend some time at the beach, as well as exploring the entirety of the island. I could have spent a couple of days here. The history was very cool, but it was still hard to wrap my head around the lifestyle. The GA Sea Turtle Center was kind of disappointing, mainly because I have been to the Sea Turtle Center on Grand Caiman Island, and it just didn't compare. The island itself was very cool; I had never been on a barrier island before, I don't think. We ate lunch on the mainland side of the island - I could not get over the strangeness of the smells - salt water + freshwater smells together. We ate dinner on the ocean side of the island; that was much more normal. :) The trees surprised me as well - some were normal palm trees and other foliage that you would see at a beach, but then there were also live oak trees (not sure why they were specified as live) and pine trees and other normal mainland trees mixed right in with the others. And I saw some black-eyed susans growing out of a sand dune! The beach itself was wonderful - warm water, firmly packed sand; the only thing that worried me was the fact that you couldn't see through the water because it was so sandy. Not the clear Caribbean water I was used to...although it was so warm I just wanted to sit down in it and relax - couldn't do that because of the waves, but it was still fun! Anyway, after dinner, we went back to the hotel and got to relax in the pool (which stayed open all night!) - all in all a very good day.
Day 3, we drove up to Savannah. Again, we got a later start than I wanted, but we still managed to tour the Savannah History Museum, self-tour around the historical district, tour the Juliette Gordon Low House (yes, I'm a Girl Scout), and do a ghost tour. All very interesting, but given Savannah's reputation as the most haunted city in the US, I'm glad we didn't stay there that night. I would like to go back to Savannah, I felt like we didn't quite get it all in in one day.
Day 4, we drove a lot. We had spent the night in Aiken, SC, just 20 min. from Augusta, GA. So, with another late start, we headed into Augusta to check out the Artists Row on Main Street and get some lunch. Not a good start to the day at all; Main Street Augusta was very disappointing, and the restaurant where we got lunch was SO SLOW!!! I would not go back. It did have a funny name, though: Nacho Mama's. Then we drove up to Elberton (read: middle of nowhere) which is the granite capital of the south, or so they claim. There were a lot of granite signs, it was interesting. But we really went there to see something called the Georgia Guideposts which is some random unknown guy's granite version of Stonehenge, except it has "rules for civilization" in 8 different languages on it. It was very cool looking, and it's on someone's farm in the middle of nowhere. I'm glad we were able to find it! Then we headed up into the Appalachian mountains to drive some scenic routes. The scenery was so different from what we had been seeing (we had been on Jekyll Island and Savannah the previous days) that we were enthralled. Colin enjoyed driving on the curvy roads (a little too much for my liking), and we have a lot of pictures of trees. :)
Day 5, we started in Dahlonega. We went and toured the Consolidated Gold Mine. We had both been to DeSoto Caverns before where we had done "gem mining" where you sift the pile of dirt until you find the gems that then look like rocks later when they dry, so we were a little skeptical about this experience, but it turned out to be really fun and interesting. We came out with like four tiny flecks of gold each (actually Colin got more than I did), but the tour was what was really interesting. I had been on a coal mine tour in Scranton, PA (which is where she's from) and it was really interesting for me to note the similarities and the differences. Also interesting: gold miners just seemed to look for the most dangerous things to work with - their shafts had exposed electrical wires to run the trolleys, gold is found in quartz veins, which when broken down becomes silica dust (very dangerous for eyes!), they used liquid mercury in vats to separate the gold from any other stuff they might have pulled up, and then they used hydrochloric acid to separate the gold from the liquid mercury! From there, we went to Dawsonville to the Kangaroo Conservatory. We didn't really know what to expect, but we discovered a huge place full of many different varieties of kangaroos and wallabies. It was so open, we were even able to see one group of kangaroos migrate (for lack of a better word) together across a hillside. It was very bizarre, but very cool.
Day 6, we were in Rome, GA. We checked out the statue of the Capitoline Wolf (a present from Benito Mussolini!), and wanted to go to the Clocktower Museum, but apparently my information was wrong and it was only open on the 1st weekend of the month. So we headed over to the visitor center where we saw a cotton gin (I had never actually seen one before) and a humongous lathe, among other pretty cool things. We politely collected some brochures from the lady who worked in the visitor's center before heading back home to KY.
All in all a very good trip. I think probably the thing we liked most about it was that we got to see such a variety of things all in one state.
Day 2, we headed over to Jekyll Island. We got a later start than I wanted, but we still managed to tour the historical museum, self-tour the entire historical district, tour the GA Sea Turtle Center, and spend some time at the beach, as well as exploring the entirety of the island. I could have spent a couple of days here. The history was very cool, but it was still hard to wrap my head around the lifestyle. The GA Sea Turtle Center was kind of disappointing, mainly because I have been to the Sea Turtle Center on Grand Caiman Island, and it just didn't compare. The island itself was very cool; I had never been on a barrier island before, I don't think. We ate lunch on the mainland side of the island - I could not get over the strangeness of the smells - salt water + freshwater smells together. We ate dinner on the ocean side of the island; that was much more normal. :) The trees surprised me as well - some were normal palm trees and other foliage that you would see at a beach, but then there were also live oak trees (not sure why they were specified as live) and pine trees and other normal mainland trees mixed right in with the others. And I saw some black-eyed susans growing out of a sand dune! The beach itself was wonderful - warm water, firmly packed sand; the only thing that worried me was the fact that you couldn't see through the water because it was so sandy. Not the clear Caribbean water I was used to...although it was so warm I just wanted to sit down in it and relax - couldn't do that because of the waves, but it was still fun! Anyway, after dinner, we went back to the hotel and got to relax in the pool (which stayed open all night!) - all in all a very good day.
Day 3, we drove up to Savannah. Again, we got a later start than I wanted, but we still managed to tour the Savannah History Museum, self-tour around the historical district, tour the Juliette Gordon Low House (yes, I'm a Girl Scout), and do a ghost tour. All very interesting, but given Savannah's reputation as the most haunted city in the US, I'm glad we didn't stay there that night. I would like to go back to Savannah, I felt like we didn't quite get it all in in one day.
Day 4, we drove a lot. We had spent the night in Aiken, SC, just 20 min. from Augusta, GA. So, with another late start, we headed into Augusta to check out the Artists Row on Main Street and get some lunch. Not a good start to the day at all; Main Street Augusta was very disappointing, and the restaurant where we got lunch was SO SLOW!!! I would not go back. It did have a funny name, though: Nacho Mama's. Then we drove up to Elberton (read: middle of nowhere) which is the granite capital of the south, or so they claim. There were a lot of granite signs, it was interesting. But we really went there to see something called the Georgia Guideposts which is some random unknown guy's granite version of Stonehenge, except it has "rules for civilization" in 8 different languages on it. It was very cool looking, and it's on someone's farm in the middle of nowhere. I'm glad we were able to find it! Then we headed up into the Appalachian mountains to drive some scenic routes. The scenery was so different from what we had been seeing (we had been on Jekyll Island and Savannah the previous days) that we were enthralled. Colin enjoyed driving on the curvy roads (a little too much for my liking), and we have a lot of pictures of trees. :)
Day 5, we started in Dahlonega. We went and toured the Consolidated Gold Mine. We had both been to DeSoto Caverns before where we had done "gem mining" where you sift the pile of dirt until you find the gems that then look like rocks later when they dry, so we were a little skeptical about this experience, but it turned out to be really fun and interesting. We came out with like four tiny flecks of gold each (actually Colin got more than I did), but the tour was what was really interesting. I had been on a coal mine tour in Scranton, PA (which is where she's from) and it was really interesting for me to note the similarities and the differences. Also interesting: gold miners just seemed to look for the most dangerous things to work with - their shafts had exposed electrical wires to run the trolleys, gold is found in quartz veins, which when broken down becomes silica dust (very dangerous for eyes!), they used liquid mercury in vats to separate the gold from any other stuff they might have pulled up, and then they used hydrochloric acid to separate the gold from the liquid mercury! From there, we went to Dawsonville to the Kangaroo Conservatory. We didn't really know what to expect, but we discovered a huge place full of many different varieties of kangaroos and wallabies. It was so open, we were even able to see one group of kangaroos migrate (for lack of a better word) together across a hillside. It was very bizarre, but very cool.
Day 6, we were in Rome, GA. We checked out the statue of the Capitoline Wolf (a present from Benito Mussolini!), and wanted to go to the Clocktower Museum, but apparently my information was wrong and it was only open on the 1st weekend of the month. So we headed over to the visitor center where we saw a cotton gin (I had never actually seen one before) and a humongous lathe, among other pretty cool things. We politely collected some brochures from the lady who worked in the visitor's center before heading back home to KY.
All in all a very good trip. I think probably the thing we liked most about it was that we got to see such a variety of things all in one state.