Birthday weekend BREAK

Rolled out of bed at 5 am and called my bestest buddy to get him moving then had to prod the kiddos out of bed.  I wanted to head out at 5:30 but we had some small delays, I think we got rolling before 6 am though.  We stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Calera, gassed up the Mini Cooper and hit the Interstate.  We made one quick stop at the rest area--can I just please say if you are entering or exiting your vehicle please be considerate of the one parked next to you and DON'T open/slam your door into someone else's car, THANKS cause people are way too disrespectful to one another in society nowadays.

We arrived at Stone Mountain Park about 11am.  Picked up our tickets from the hotel desk but our room wasn't ready; the desk clerk took my cell number and said she would call if our room was ready early.  Since I got a parking spot in the shade we left the Cooper there and walked across the street.  After making a pit stop by the restrooms we entered the gift shop and then into Memorial Hall.  It felt sooo good in there!  Walking out onto the terrace and seeing the mountain was WOW!!  You just have to go and see it to really appreciate it.  My son found out we were supposed to have our arm bands before going in the museum so we headed to the sky ride to pick up our armbands.  It was a little stuffy in the cable car but once we got moving a breeze circulated.  AWESOME view and a great breeze was blowing.  After going down the sky ride we looked around in that gift shop.  We walk over to the crossroads area and see the sky hike.  My son borrows Pat's shoes to go up, I didn't notice that you had to have closed toe shoes for this.  After hanging out about an hour (seemed like 3) we were ready to go do something else.  We watched one of their little skits in the center area, my girl got to participate in that, which was fun.  We watched the 4D of Yogi Bear and that was entertaining for us all.  We stopped at the candy kitchen and got a piece of candy, looked around and decided to check on our room (no phone call).  It was ready and we got our bags out of the car.  It was very spacious; of course the menfolk had to turn on the tv. 

We were all getting a bit hungry and decided to go eat and then let the kids swim.  We at at Applebee's and I was disappointed in this one.  They brought us bbq boneless wings instead of the Asian sweet & spicy and my steak had alot of fat in it (the flavor of the steak was good) and our seasonal vegetables (plural) was just broccoli; also, the sweet tea wasn't that great.  We picked up a doughnut for a snack later and went back to the hotel to lounge a bit.  The kiddos swam for about a hour and then we headed back to the park.  We rode the train around the mountain and played mini golf.  We headed over to the lawn to get a seat around 9 pm and just claimed some of the big rocks.  Everyone seemed to be having a good time and there was a pleasent breeze that really felt good.  We sat on the lowest area of the lawn and I have never been that close to fireworks before, WOW!!  It was amazing.  If you have never been--GO!  Staying at the Stone Mountain Inn was definitely a big plus cause other than dinner we didn't have to move the car and fight traffic after the show.  Our room also came with 2 day passes for 2 adults/2 kids to the park and buffet breakfast for each of us.  After taking our turns with the shower we went to bed and they were very comfortable, unfortunately I didn't sleep soundly.