Leonland - Leon Barnard
Chapter 3 > Atlanta/Stone Mountain, Georgia
I was sent to Stone Mountain, Georgia for a month for work. It wasn't too bad, I'd never been to Georgia, so that was cool, and Stone Mountain is only about 30 minutes from Atlanta, which is a city I had been wanting to visit for a while.
I went to downtown Atlanta the first weekend that I was there and stumbled on a festival in Olympic Centennial Park called "Atlanta Unites", which was a benefit for the victims of the September 11th attacks. It was a good way to get a feel for the city and its people. The tall, cylindrical building is the Westin hotel, which I went to the top of later to get a great view of the city.
A patriotic couple watching kids play in the fountain.
The park was built for the 1996 Summer Olympics; here is a statue in the center of the park with the Olympic rings above it.
The CNN Center is located right across from the park. I would've taken a tour if I had more time.
In case you were wondering where the name Stone Mountain came from, there is an actual stone mountain. It's really cool, it feels like you're on the moon. You can either take a gondola up and down or you can walk. I took the gondola up and walked down. Here is a view from the top and the path down.
A pretty cool carving on the side of the mountain. The world's largest relief carving on the world's largest mass of exposed granite. Impressive. The carving shows Robert E. Lee, "Stonewall" Jackson, and Jefferson Davis.
It does look like some kind of lunar landscape, huh? Except for all the tourists.
A good place to fly a kite.
Posted by Leon on October 10, 2001 11:06 PM [Top of page]