You Asked For It

Ok, so only one person asked about our trip to Atlanta, but you all get to suffer.
We left Knoxville on Monday, March 26 (Apryl's birthday) headed for Atlanta. We left only 1 hour late, therefore the 1st thing we did was stop and eat breakfast. We travel better on full bellies.
We drove 1st to Kennesaw National Battlefield Park. From the top of Kennesaw Mt. you can see the Atlanta skyline 20 miles away. I am sure during the War Between the States they had a good view of Atlanta. We were able to barely make out the skyline behind the smog. It was a beautiful day and we could indeed see a lot of the valley. We walked back to the Illinois monument which was erected on the 50th anniversary of the battle - June 22, 1914. I thought it ironic this monument comemorating the bloodiest was in American History was dedicated even at the 1st ever World War was beginning. As always with history, it was fascinating.
We then drove thru Marietta to our hotel and just took life easy for the evening. Sheila called about dark to say they had arrived at their hotel.
Tuesday morning we went right over to their hotel. It was wonderful to see Michelle and Mary leaving their room for breakfast. The hugs were great. It had been way too long. Caught up with Sheila and Michael in the breakfast lobby. Their hugs were great too.
We all piled in the Suburban and headed for ZooAtlanta. It was a good thing we had the computer with Maps and Streets because it wasn't that easy to find. But find it we did and even parked close to the entrance. We got our tickets to see the Pandas for 11:00 so we had time to walk around the zoo first. ZooAtlanta is very compact, you don't walk far to anything. It was such a beautiful day that the animals were active. One of the elephants was stretching its neck and trunk as far as they would go trying to reach a leafy tree. The crowds were not distracting it at all. Oh yes, the crowds. At least half the 1st and 2nd graders of Atlanta were on a field trip to the zoo that day. They had plenty of chaperones and were pretty good most of the time. Speaking of children, the monkeys were having a good time playing in their cages. A couple of them were reaching thru the netting trying to get the green leaves from the trees. Sounds like a trend doesn't it? One of the monkeys only had 3 legs, but it did not slow him down at all! The gorillas were great. The males were sitting around looking important and the females were busy with the children. One momma had twins and they kept her pretty busy. One of them really wanted to roam so she was forever reaching out and grabbing a leg to pull him back. He would almost make it out of reach and there would be her hand. Another one's baby was a "clinger". He would be playing around, but if she moved he had hold of her leg in the blink of an eye, and then he would crawl up on her back. Once he stood up and beat his chest. Of course, nobody had the camera up for a photo. Bummer.
Then it was in to see the pandas. We did not wait in line very long and got into the compound pretty close to our ticketed time. They give a very nice tour with lots of information. The pandas were all asleep. The daddy did wake up and look out at us from his cozy nook. The mommy yawned real big (they do have big mouths) and turned her head away so all we could see was her back. The baby though, never moved a muscle. Yep, she was asleep on a limb with her back to us. So we can say we saw her, but just her curled up back. We were all happy we got to go though. As we were leaving the park, the elephants were being fed. They were inside the building and at one time they were all lined up with their faces stuck as far thru the bars as they would go. It was so cute.
From there we went to Stone Mountain. No school field trips there! Don, Sheila, Michelle, and Mary rode the gondola up to the top. Sheila and Mary then walked down; but Don and Michelle stuck with the gondola ride. We walked around the park while waiting for Sheila and Mary. The grounds are lovely. Then we headed back to the hotels. Don and I rested for a while, but I understand that Sheila and the girls went shopping.
About 5:45 we all met Chip and Abby (my brother and his daughter) for dinner. It was great catching up and seeing how Abby has grown. She showed us the dance she does to "I enjoy being a girl". Chip sang for her. He carries a tune a bit better than me. Then Abby wanted Michelle to dance. We explained that she could not dance in a small space; so distracted Abby by telling her about Mary's riding. Abby wanted to know if Mary had ever fallen off her horse. Mary just laughed and said she had plenty of times.
We missed Lisa being there too, maybe next time.
Well, this e-mail is long enough. If you made it this far, thanks. I'll be back with more soon.