An honest teacher’s review of top Atlanta attractions including Stone Mountain Park, MLK National Historical Park, and the Jimmy Carter Library. Why Atlanta left me uninspired.
I usually love a city and enjoy getting to know the vibe of the city while exploring the main attractions. However, Atlanta just doesn’t seem to be my city. I am sure that there are tons of people who have fallen in love with it, but I am really struggling with finding the vibe and finding some inspiration for the next school year.
Stone Mountain Scam – Never staying or going here again!
We stayed for camping at Stone Mountain Park. As this is Georgia’s number one attraction, I thought that the campground would be nicely laid out. Instead, the only nice sites were the premier sites right next to the first loop and the pool. All other loops were done so poorly that I watched multiple campers leave and find other campgrounds rather than stay at Stone Mountain. Our site looked like someone had tossed an explosive on the asphalt. There was no ability to level it, and most sites on my loop looked like they weren’t even usable. There was an electric box knocked over on the site across from us, and the water hookups were terribly low on some sites. I have seen premier camping resorts before, and this is not a camping resort.
As for the Stone Mountain itself, the cable ride was nice, but the reality is that you should not purchase from their website. The website forces you to buy the amusement park tickets, and says nothing about individual tickets for the tram. I wish I had just gone up to the counter and purchased a pass on the skytram (with a toddler, we couldn’t hike it) which would have cost 40 dollars. Instead, buying through the website, I paid $90. For us, the amusement park was a complete waste of money since the train wasn’t running, and a toddler isn’t going to stay up to 9:30pm for the drone show. The staff couldn’t even explain to us why the train wasn’t running. Two staff members said it was down for maintenance, another two said that it was running, I just had to wait, and another person said that the person who ran it was out sick. The staff have no knowledge of what is going on in their own park. Oh, and don’t bother asking for a refund. Stone Mountain will not give refunds for any reason, including weather. The grist mill and quarry area are so cool, but not maintained like they should be. The playground area needs work and there is nothing left of the Atlanta Olympic games here. You had the archery area still intact, and you could have done something amazing on that section at the very least.I was so disappointed by Stone Mountain. I have no plans to ever return.
MLK Jr. National Park Complex – A light to the world, that lives in a dark and cramped museum
There were multiple parts to the MLK complex, but I want to talk about the main museum. You have a large national park desk, then a tiny gift shop with virtually no cool items to purchase. This is a major miss for the National Parks as gift shops can improve revenue. Then you have a small cramped room where the museum is. MLK Jr was a light to our country and to the world. Exactly why does his museum have no light? Instead, you walk into a tiny cramped museum. Down the middle of the museum is a Walk to Freedom memorial that you can walk on. That feature was beautiful and haunting. On either side were three circular sections that told different aspects/times of MLK Jr’s life and work.
Sadly, each of those circular sections is tiny. There was no reason to make it so small, but the national park service did. They also made it so dark. In each circular area was information about the civil rights moment or MLK Jr. It also had video or audio playing in each little circle. The video and speeches were cool, but the reality is that the sound clashed with all the other videos and speeches being read aloud. It was chaotic. I like that each section had a circular shape which was probably meant to help with the sound. Honestly though, since everything was so cramped together, it made it difficult to hear the audio or video recordings. And with everything so dark you couldn’t read the information well.
There was only one moment of light. The one moment of light was from the Jimmy Carter room that was on the right hand side of the museum. The walls were done in white, everything easy to read. It was also a huge area. Despite the pictures and the writing, the room tried to develop a relationship between Jimmy Carter and MLK Jr. that just didn’t connect. As far as I can tell, these were just two great men from Georgia. I don’t see how their paths really crossed, so it made less sense. It made even less sense to take up a third of your museum space on Jimmy Carter when he has his own library in the same city.
I did enjoy the walkway to the museum. There are squares with different civil rights activist names and their shoeprint on the ground. I loved seeing all the names that had helped make civil rights in this country better for all. But there were so few aspects that I loved, and no new information for me to take away to my classroom which was a bitter disappointment. Usually the National Parks really help me delve into a person’s life and I can pull something to help my students connect. I honestly believe that this National Park Museum needs a redesign. I get that you can go to the church and the other areas in the complex to get a more indepth history, but if a person only has 30 minutes or an hour, you should make the museum incredible. I have often extended my time at National Parks because of the great museums, but when a museum is done so poorly, people leave early. We did, and that is a shame because MLK Jr and the Civil Rights Movement deserve so much better.
Jimmy Carter – Simple Man, Simple Life, Simple Museum
The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library is beautiful. The outside is lovely, and they have wonderful green space. It is well designed as a museum. I have been to many of the presidential libraries, and this was one of the simplest libraries. That doesn’t mean it was bad, but it wasn’t expansive on the information or on the artifacts, especially when compared to the other presidential libraries. However, that simplicity made the museum feel more personable versus cold. I liked that they changed the flooring when you got to the Camp David Accords section and that there were benches throughout to sit at. My daughter enjoyed sitting on every one.
However, even after reading all the information, I didn’t feel like I learned a ton more about Jimmy Carter and his thought process as a person. Often when I leave a presidential library, I better understand the time period and why certain actions were taken. This library didn’t have a ton of information on the time or the thoughts of the president. I am going to Plains Georgia later this summer, so I am hoping that there is additional information in that area.
The gifts from the other countries was probably my favorite section. My mom loved the fabregie egg with a cabinet room built inside it, and I like the cat with the prying mantis. When you look at the gifts from the other countries, you really need to pay attention to the tags or talk to the museum personnel. The cat and the prying mantis was done in silk threads, not glass like I originally thought. The thread is thinner than a human hair and I was amazed by the artistry. Once again, the gift shop was a huge miss. It didn’t have much, but I did pick up a few books.
Centennial Park – Beautiful Green Space
Atlanta once hosted the Olympics, but you wouldn’t know it by how the city showcases itself. Centennial Park is probably the only spot in the whole city that seems to care that there was an Olympics. The park is beautiful. There are the Olympic Rings that everyone takes their picture at, a splash pad with the rings is also lovely. Each section of the park has something really special, including playgrounds (an inclusive playground), waterfalls, statues, and memorials. Everything was up to date and clean. It was wonderful to walk around and enjoyable for all ages.
The section that I loved was a simple sign of redemption. Centennial Park posted a sign thanking Richard Jewell for saving so many lives. It was beautiful and well deserved. He was a man who faced such harsh criticism when he lived, and it is nice to see his name finally redeemed. I hope that future generations only think of him with kindness rather than the cruelty that he received before his death.
But once again, the visitor station in Centennial Park didn’t have a great gift shop. Seriously, it would be so easy to sell me a shirt or a book focused on the Olympics. Why do cities miss such easy revenue? The other problem was that there was little information on the Olympics themselves. Is Atlanta trying to erase this part of their history? I was hoping to get some great sports info for my middle schoolers. It can be so frustrating when cities don’t think about educating people while they are going about their daily lives. There were so many missed opportunities for the Olympics in Atlanta.
Overall – Great City, but no Muse
It isn’t that I don’t like Atlanta. I like the city, but I didn’t really learn anything new to put into a classroom. I also didn’t seem to find a magical moment where I fell in love with the city. Would I come back, maybe? But there are so many other places to see, so with nothing to draw me back it won’t top my bucket list. Atlanta should rethink some of its top attractions, and consider how to make their city focus deeper into their roots. Maybe then I will come back.
