Posts Tagged ‘trip report’

North Georgia Trip Report — Chattanooga, TN: Tennessee Aquarium

Situated on the south side of the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga is the Tennessee Aquarium.

The aquarium itself is divided into two separate buildings and experiences.  The original aquarium is known as River Journey and it is the world’s largest freshwater aquarium.  The second, and newer, building is Ocean Journey, and it focuses on saltwater creatures and fish.  Admission to the Tennessee Aquarium includes both buildings and requires a few hours to see and appreciate all of the fascinating exhibits.

Arriving at the Tennessee Aquarium, you’re treated to two creative and imaginative structures that house both primary exhibits.  Although the glass pyramids on top of both buildings may feel more like the Journey into Imagination pavilion in Epcot at Walt Disney World, the rest of the building is a massive, multi-level complex filled with dozens of exhibits and literally thousands of animals that live above and below the water.  Long escalators take you to the top of each building, and a self-guided tour takes you back down to the street level, seeing many interesting exhibits along the way.

Outside of the buildings is a creative display of various water features in the sidewalks.  It’s fun and imaginative, and I’m sure that the kids love to splash around in them during the summer months. Read more…

North Georgia Trip Report — Chattanooga, TN: Ruby Falls, Incline Railway & Rock City

During our week in the Ellijay, Georgia, area, we decided to take a one-day excursion to Chattanooga, Tennessee and be tourists for the day.  This part of the trip report involves activities on Lookout Mountain including Ruby Falls, the Incline Railway, and Rock City (includes the full park guide map for Rock City).

Well, to be honest, we actually planned on going there well before leaving for the trip.  Purchasing ticket combos through our local AAA office saved some time and money in the process.

Lookout Mountain

Situated mostly in the state of Georgia and not really Tennessee is Lookout Mountain, a 2,392-foot mountain home to several of Chattanooga’s most famous tourist attractions and spectacular views of the city.

Driving up the mountain involves lots of elevation changes and curvy roads.  Just take note that some of the attraction directional signs can be misleading and actually take you off the main roads and through residential land.

Ruby Falls

Our original plan was to visit Rock City first, but very overcast skies send us deep into Lookout Mountain and through the caves to Ruby Falls.  As it turned out, seeing Ruby Falls first was a great idea as our tour group only had about eight people.  Later groups that morning had about thirty or so people.  Score another one for BDL (born dumb luck). Read more…

North Georgia Trip Report — Helen & Brasstown Bald

Part two of the North Georgia trip report involves an excursion that we made to Helen, GA, followed by Brasstown Bald, the highest natural point in the state of Georgia.

Helen, Georgia

Driving to the alpine-themed town of Helen is one of the most scenic drives in the state of Georgia.  This drive was even better for us from Ellijay as we took a number of scenic roads through the mountains as we drove to the town.

Helen originated as a logging town.  As the industry declined, the town switched to focus on tourism and themed the town to that of the Bavarian region in southern Germany.  The result is a German-themed town that brings in plenty of tourists, especially in the fall during its Oktoberfest celebration. Read more…

North Georgia Trip Report — Intro & Amicalola Falls

Just the other week, my girlfriend and I returned from a week of vacationing in the north Georgia mountains along with Chattanooga, Tennessee.

For me, vacation time always meant loading the car and heading down to theme park land in Orlando, Florida.  Other trips went north to Detroit, Michigan, to visit the Motherland, but those weren’t so much as vacations as they were family visitation periods along with taking trips down several memory lanes.

Although I’ve lived here in metro Atlanta for well over twenty years, my experience in the mountains just north of here is almost nothing.  Friends of the family live on Lake Burton in the northeast corner of the state, and I’ve made many trips to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains many times, but as far as the mountains in Georgia, I’ve generally skipped them.  This past week in that region was quite a unique experience.

My girlfriend has a condo in Ellijay, Georgia.  Ellijay is a quaint little town, although listening to the southern accent can be quite brutal at times, especially when it’s spoken by children.  The local Walmart parking lot is the hangout place for teenagers after school.  A local clothing store we visited had seats up front for the husbands to sit and socialize while the wives went shopping.  Otherwise, Ellijay has a nice mixture of livestock, farms, and very hilly and curvy mountain roads.  At least most of the locals know how to drive fast along the roads.

And as I discovered, Ellijay is a great point of origin for accessing many locations throughout that part of the state. Read more…

Six Flags over Georgia – After the Flood

This past Sunday my family and I made a visit to just outside of downtown Atlanta.

Last week the amusement park as well as the entire metro Atlanta area had national attention as 12-18 inches of rain fell and caused massive flooding.  The entire main parking lot and parts of the park were underwater as the Chattahoochee River and Sweetwater Creek overflowed their banks.

The waters did recede and a massive cleaning operation began.  By the end of the week the park’s officials declared that the park was going to be open for the weekend including all of the major rides.  The AJC carried the story.

My brother and I both have season’s passes, and this past Sunday was the last day for us to use our bring-a-friend-for-free coupons, so we brought our parents for a visit to the park.  They aren’t into the coasters and thrill rides, but they both haven’t been inside of the place for several years now and wanted to visit it again.

Six Flags over Georgia - entrance

On Sunday the weather was partly cloudy and nearly perfect.

Read more…

Everything Else – Day 7 of 7

PIZZA – LOTTO – BEER – WINE – DELI

Those are the words that seem to grace at least one store on most street corners and blocks in the Detroit metro area, especially in the Roseville and Warren areas.

This is one of the more amusing aspects of Detroit (well, at least more amusing for my family and I, and I’m sure other visitors get a kick out of it as well) as you can see how dependent the city’s residents are upon alcohol as well as a unique part of the Detroit dining experience — lots of different independent dining options.

Detroit, Michigan is a solid blue collar town.  There’s no doubt about that.

Read more…

Michigan State Fair – Day 6 of 7

The 2009 running of the Michigan State Fair.

Where does one begin?

Well, today was fair day as originally planned, and for the most part the weather was outstanding for our visit.  It’s a shame that the opening day of the Michigan State Fair was drowned out with a nearly all-day rain event, but today we had partly cloudy skies, periods of bright sunshine, and daytime temperatures that seemed to reach into the mid to upper 70’s.

The great weather was about the only highlight of the day at the fair (except for a freak occurrence of running into some relatives on the other side of the family just before we left — they didn’t know that we were even in town let alone at the Michigan State Fair the same exact day as them.)

Read more…

Detroit Casinos – Day 5 of 7

Another day in metro Detroit and another trip downtown for an attempt to visit the Detroit casinos.

The Tigers were scheduled to play at 1 pm today, so we were expecting heavier crowds and possible parking problems at two of the three casinos.

As it turned out, parking was only an issue at the Greektown Casino and we didn’t really encounter any higher than normal crowds.

Read more…

Metro Beach and More – Day 4 of 7

Cool, windy and cloudy.

That’s how it was when we left the hotel this morning.

Here we are in late August (we’re usually still hot and humid back at home well into September) up in Detroit and I was wearing jeans and a light jacket for most of the day.  One of the TV personalities was telling us that we were a little bit cooler than average, but when the wind was blowing it felt downright cold at times!

So what do you do when it’s cold in Detroit?

Go to the casinos downtown!

Unfortunately, that didn’t exactly happen as planned.

Read more…

Frankenmuth and Farm Country – Day 3 of 7

Don’t you just love those days when you get out of bed and it’s raining outside, the forecast calls for rain and thunderstorms all day, and the weather radar shows lots of precipitation approaching?

Yeah, that was today for us in the Detroit metro area.  Lots of rain was headed for the city and it was going to be around for most of the day.

The good thing was that it looked like most of the rain was going to stay in the lower part of the state, so we went ahead with our original plan of visiting the awesome German town of Frankenmuth, Michigan.

And for the most part, this was a great visit and the weather was not much of a factor at all.

Read more…

Ohio and Michigan – Day 2 of 7

Welcome to day two of this live trip report.

As it was noted in yesterday’s trip report, today started in Dayton, Ohio and a visit to the United States Air Force Museum at Wright Field.

The USAF museum was nothing short of outstanding!

If any of you out there have any desire to see one of the largest and best collections of modern and vintage military aviation aircraft dating back to the early 1900s (plus lots of other military artifacts from all wars and battles from World War 1 to today), then you need to make a journey to Dayton, Ohio at least once.  The museum has free parking and free admission (you only need to pay for IMAX, food and souvenirs if desired), and the vast majority of the displays are in a single massive building composed of many climate-controlled aircraft hangers.

Get there when they open and just plan on spending at least half a day looking at all of the different displays.  It’s that good and large of a museum.

Read more…

On the Road Again – Day 1 of 7

This week has presented me with an interesting travel experience.

Well, probably more than one interesting experiences while traveling.

Instead of doing the usual trips down to central Florida for the ultra-awesome theme parks that everybody knows or loves, or a quick trip to Cherokee, NC and the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee (mainly Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg), I headed up north a ways.

Quite a ways.

Right now I’m spending the night in the always exciting Dayton, Ohio, and tomorrow I’ll be back in Detroit, Michigan for a couple of days.  It’s been a couple of years since my last visit to my home town of the Motor City.

Yeah.

Read more…