Here are some updates to our Georgia travel book:
NEW
ME – Statesboro. BORO FAMILY WATER PARK. The park includes a five-lane Mat Racer slide & Spray Ground, three waterslides, two body slides, one inner tube slide, and a zero-depth entry play pool designed to accommodate a variety of ages with low level water. An 800-foot Lazy River encircles the play and leisure pools. Pools are open year-round under a portable dome structure. Full concession stand with seating area, and more. https://splashintheboro.com/
NE – ATHENS, GEORGIA added info:
- Free and fun for all: The State Botanical Garden of Georgia (free) is a 313-acre collection of flora and fauna that’s perfect to visit on sunny days. The Alice B. Richards Children’s Garden really sets it apart by offering interactive, educational component for children to explore under, around and through. Think watering plants, digging for dinosaur bones, checking underneath the soil for how plants grow, etc. – it can all be done here!
- Encounter Georgia’s native wildlife at the Memorial Park and Bear Hollow Zoo (free). While you’re there, visit the pond, play at the expansive playground, and stroll the wildlife trail to spot black bears, bobcats, white-tailed deer, owls, and more.
- Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia (free) just brought back its backpack tour program. Available to grab at the front desk, each backpack (free) offers goodies and activity cards, available in English and Spanish, for families to use throughout their gallery exploring adventure.
- Stay: Lodging is available for every budget, including modern inns, hotels, B&B’s and short-term rentals. Homewood Suites is a favorite of families, located downtown and right next to the head of the Firefly Trail.
NW – CIVIL WAR RAILROAD TUNNEL. Dalton (Tunnel) – 215 Clisby Austin Road (I-75 exit 341 west on rte 41) 30755. Phone: (706) 876-1571. civilwarrailroadtunnel.com. Tours: $7.00 per person. 8 passenger golf carts. Hours: Monday-Saturday 9am-5pm.
Explore the 1,477 foot tunnel completed in 1950. This was the scene of the Great Locomotive Chase and the first tunnel through the Appalachian Mountains. The 1848 Clisby Austin House on the property served as Sherman’s Headqtrs. in May 1864. On tour, you can stand where General Sherman stood as he devised his Atlanta Campaign.
NW – SOUTHERN MUSEUM OF CIVIL WAR AND LOCOMOTIVE HISTORY. Kennesaw https://kidslovetravel.com/a-good-civil-war-and-train-museum-for-kids/ (recent visit post)
NW – ATLANTA BRAVES @ the BATTERY & BALLPARK TOURS. Atlanta. 755 Battery Avenue (I-75 exit 246, Fulton St East) 30339. https://atlanta.braves.mlb.com. Located in the new Battery entertainment complex, try arriving a couple hours early to do some shopping, eating and entertainment. From bowling to bull-riding, karaoke to concerts or farmers markets and games (virtual TopGolf & Nintendo), this complex offers it all. Inside the ballpark, take advantage of activities such as pre-game pep rallies with various drumline and hiphop entertainers. Take pictures with mascots or by famous statues in Monument Garden. To keep kids busy during the game, visit Hope & Will’s Sandlot.
BALLPARK TOURS are offered Mon-Sat on non game days or off season. $25 adult, $15 child.
MW – NATIONAL INFANTRY MUSEUM AND SOLDIER CENTER. Columbus. www.nationalinfantrymuseum.com. The museum is just off Fort Benning Road, about two miles south of Victory Drive. If you are using a GPS, enter 3800 South Lumpkin Rd., Columbus, GA 31903.
The National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center sits on a 200-acre campus outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. LAST 100 YARDS ramp is eight U.S. Infantry battle scenes from Yorktown to Baghdad. Fort Benning Infantry school soldiers graduate on a parade field behind the museum every week, marching across ground that has been seeded with soil from major Infantry battlefields around the world. Graduations are open to the public. World War II Company Street is a collection of seven buildings constructed in the 1940s when the Army signed up 16 million Americans to defend the nation. They include authentically recreated barracks, mess hall, chapel and the headquarters building and sleeping quarters General George S. Patton used while stationed at Fort Benning in 1941.
The Family Gallery, which recognizes the sacrifices made by those who love an Infantryman, includes a child-size area where kids can try on soldier uniforms and peer from inside of a pretend Bradley Fighting Vehicle at a humanitarian mission in Iraq. One of the Museum’s galleries demonstrates what it takes to turn a young farm boy from Ohio or a football star from Texas into an Infantryman. Inside the museum is the EST 2000, a rifle range simulator exactly like what soldiers train on at Fort Benning. The museum is the only public facility in the nation with this attraction.
SE – Savannah – Leopolds 212 E Broughton St, Savannah, GA · (912) 234-4442 http://www.leopoldsicecream.com/ Hours: Daily 11am to 10pm – This local favorite, founded in 1919, still sources many ingredients from area farms. The ownership has been handed down in the same family. A house specialty, the tutti frutti milkshake, has run ice cream and Georgia pecans.
CLOSED
NE – Helen, Black Forest Bear Park; NE – Blairsville, Misty Mountain Model Railroad; NE – Hiawassee, Crystal River Ranch Llama Treks; NE – Helen, Remember When Theatre
NE – Lilburn, Yellow River Game Ranch. After more than 35 years, the Yellow River Game Ranch has closed. The ranch is famously home to Georgia’s own Beauregard Lee, who is the South’s favorite weather-predicting groundhog. The famous groundhog was moved to a new home in a nearby nature preserve.
NE – Braselton, Mayfield Dairy Farms
MW – Pine Mountain, Butts Mill Farm
MW – Thomaston, Rock Ranch
NW – Dalton, Dalton Depot Restaurant
NW – Atlanta, CNN Studio Tours
NW – Atlanta, Philips Experience
SE – Savannah – Comfort Suites Historic District
SE – Savannah – Whistle Stop Cafe
SE – Savannah – Oglethorpe Speedway
SW – Americus, Habitat for Humanity Global Village
SW – Ashburn, Crime and Punishment Museum and Cafe
Order book: https://kidslovetravel.com/travel-books/ (search KIDS LOVE GEORGIA, 5th Edition)
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