Thursday, October 16, 2008

At the Stone Mountain Inn



OK, so we left Sanibel at 6:00 this morning. It was probably the longest distance we have ever gone for Highland Games. Usually we make it a stop on our way south for the winter but this year we returned to Sanibel early. That meant coming back north for the Games. It was a 10 hour trip with a lunch stop, gas stops, and potty stops. Gas is as low as $2.86 here. Never thought I would be excited about gas costing that much!

The Stone Mountain Inn is gorgeous. Huge rooms with a balcony overlooking the courtyard--which you can see above. When we got here, we unpacked, popped the cork on the Adult Beverage, and enjoyed cheese, crackers, grapes and a little Vino on our balcony. And lookie--they have wildlife here.


We went into the village of Stone Mountain for dinner. We went to a German Restaurant which we go to every year. Great food and service. They also have a bakery there so I got some Baklava (ok, not very German), Elephant Ears, and some Blueberry PoundCake for Clan Montgomery. Back to the hotel to have dessert and to write this. We are paying $13 a day for internet so I have to make good use of it!!

Tomorrow we will "do" Stone Mountain. I want to go to the top. There are two ways to go. #1 is to climb and #2 is by Gondola. I have climbed it twice but never gone on the Gondola. Mr. Snowbird is acrophobic and doesn't take well to heights so I'm not sure the Gondola is the way to go for him. We'll see.

Stone Mountain is a huge mountain of granite. Years ago, someone decided to carve a Confederate Memorial on the side of the mountain. Work began and stopped many times. I was here in the spring of 1957 with a friend from college who lived in Atlanta. At that time, work was stopped on the carving and there was nothing here except a tiny gift shop at the bottom. We climbed it and it was an amazing view of the area. Fast forward to about 5 years ago when we came back here for the Highland Games and discovered the finished carving along with an amusement park, hotels, a train, duck boats, etc etc etc. Amazing. A couple of years ago, we make the trek up the mountain again. Not as easy 38 years later!! But, we made it. So, we'll see what we do tomorrow. I will take pictures if we go. So, bye for now from Georgia.

5 comments:

Shama-Lama Mama said...

I am looking forward to pictures. I always hear so much about Stone Mountain from you guys but don't really have a sense of it. Hope you are having fun!

Dianne said...

that courtyard is lovely

and I am impressed that you did the hike!!

enjoy!

Anonymous said...

I can tell from the wildlife that you are in for an adventure! The gondola ride sounds fun (you can see how lazy I am!) I've never heard about Stone Mtn so I look forward to the pictures!

Mare said...

The Inn is lovely! =)

And yes, if Mr. Snowbird doesn't like the heights thing, I would bypass the gondola. We did it a few years back, and although it is an incredible experience, we weren't feeling so happy about riding it back down. LOL!

Gayle said...

Ah, $2.86 sounds so nice...$3.80 here. Sounds like a lovely time on the Mt. Looking forward to photos.