Activities On Our GA Vacation

Our first day in Atlanta was pretty laid back and relaxed. It was our niece’s and nephew’s last day of school, and they were both a part of the end of year talent show. Our nephew had a really cool act showing off his Tae Kwon Do abilities. And our niece was one of the talent show’s stage hands. Everyone put on a great performance!

After the talent show, my parents, husband, and youngest nephew all headed over to Party City and bought a bunch of Silly String. When the kids got off the bus, all of us sprayed them with the string. It was a good time and everyone had a lot of fun. Lots of silly string to be picked up off the yards, but well worth it.

Friday through Monday we spent at Callaway Gardens. Friday was spent packing up and driving, but we still got there early enough to do things. We decided that would be a good day for the Butterfly Center. There were a ton of butterflies, moths, and other critters. This guy was my favorite. I love the color of his tail.

Saturday we had a nice time outside. We headed over to the Birds of Prey show at the Discovery Amphitheater. We’ve seen this show before, and it seems as though they added in a new element. The birds, including the Harris Hawk below, swooped over the audience several times. I don’t remember them flying over the audience in past shows. They always flew from one perch to another So that was exciting. I had to duck several times, because I thought I’d get hit in the head.

Sunday was a fun-filled day for most of our gathering. First we headed over to Robin Lake Beach, where the kids swam in the lake and had a lot of fun. I just enjoyed the bench swing and the amazingly cool weather. My husband and I also took a short walk up and down the beach on the sidewalk. I didn’t know how long we would be there, so it was a short walk.

Later that day, my sister, brother in-law, my husband, and our niece all did the Treetop Adventure. This adventure is a series of zip lines, and in between these zip lines are what I describe as aerial obstacles. I really wanted to try it, but there was no way. I might have been able to do the zip lines by themselves. Maybe. But the other obstacles, no way. Lots of balance and coordination was required, and I lack in both. So I planted myself in a good spot, and I took a lot of photos. I should have switched the camera over to movie-mode (or used my iPod, duh) to take a video of everyone going along on the course. Everyone in the group did amazingly well, and I was told, that yes it was very hard. Everyone was really sore for the next few days.

Monday, we went back over to Robin Lake Beach for a little while, and then started the drive back to Atlanta. I once again enjoyed the nice weather and cool breeze sitting on the bench swing. Our time at Callaway was a lot of fun, with interesting activities.

The rest of our trip was spent in Atlanta. Tuesday we went somewhere brand new (well at least for the out-of-towners). We went to The Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA. The Science in Motion exhibit takes you on a journey through time, from the Wright Brothers to the moon. You’ll see a lot of classic cars, a quadricycle from 1896, and a Benz Patent Motorwagon from 1886. In the space portion of the Science in Motion exhibit, you’ll see a replica of Sputnik, as well as replicas of a Mercury capsule and Apollo I capsule. Pretty cool stuff.

There is also a fossil gallery and a mineral gallery at the Tellus Science Museum. You’ll get to see a ton of minerals on display as well as gold and other gems. The display signs tell you where in the world you can find these minerals. In the fossil exhibit there’s replicas of a saber-tooth cat, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and a whole lot more. This is what we saw when we first entered the museum.

There is a lot for kids to do at the Tellus Science Museum. They can pan for gems and dig for fossils in the Fossil Dig and Gem Panning exhibit area, and there’s also a large area called My Big Back Yard where there there are a lot of hands-on science activities to do.

I could go on and on about this science center, it was really an interesting and fun place to visit. There’s also the Solar House exhibit which we didn’t see. We’ll have to check that out sometime in the future.

That’s about everything we did other than a few trips to the book store and seeing the movie Epic. We had a really fun time this year in Atlanta and Callaway. I’m sure we’ll be back very soon to do more fun stuff with family.