and cinnamon butter. Herbs and produce are locally grown, cattle is grass-fed and coffees and teas are organic. Sweet Potato Café is also all about the Sunday brunch buffet, which makes it the perfect stopping place to fill up before the journey home. thesweetpotatocafe.net
Village Corner German Tavern
Adventurous eaters will love this unexpected foodie find. You wouldn’t expect to get authentic German cuisine in a small Georgia town, but Village Corner is serving just that. Stick your fork into a plate of real jaeger schnitzel and see how you like the taste of German potato pancakes. Try some traditional tavern food while you’re at it, like a giant pretzel or the German sausage sampler plate. site.germanrestaurant.com
Play
5.25
Hit the Mountain
HOURS
370.5 MILES
adventurous escape
STONE MOUNTAIN, GA Is your family the outdoors-loving, nature-seeking type? Lounging on a beach and catching the evening matinee may be others’ ideal vacations, but maybe you need something to get your heart racing. Stone Mountain is a giant granite formation in North Georgia with a flat top, just begging for you to trek to its summit and eye the scenery. And when you get back to the bottom, there will be plenty more to do.
Sources: southernliving.com, visitsavannah.com
Stay
Indoors Or Out?
Stone Mountain Park is all about letting you choose your adventure. Stay in the lodge, rough it in a tent or rent an RV for the comforts in between. For resort-style accommodations, try the Atlanta Evergreen Marriott nestled in the park. The Marriott Stone Mountain Inn is a charming 19th century inn replica conveniently located near the park attractions. The park’s campground is rated No. 1 in the
state with full RV hook-ups, partial hook-ups for tents and primitive style sites, too.
Eat
The Sweet Potato Café
You didn’t journey all this way for nothing—take a hike! Climb the one-mile trail to the top of Stone Mountain to take in the view. You can see the Appalachians and the Atlanta skyline. Trek through 15 miles of nature trails and songbird habitat through the woods or play a round on one of the 18-hole golf courses. Be sure to make a pit stop at the Confederate Memorial Carving on the mountain’s north face. It’s the largest bas-relief in the world, covering about three acres worth of space.
Park Attractions
If you’d rather see the park from a 1940s locomotive open-air car, hop on for a five-mile excursion around the mountain. Jump into Summit Skyride, a high-speed Swiss cable car, and journey 825 feet above the ground to the top of Stone Mountain. Geyser Towers offers a series of rope nets and ladders for kids to climb, and it’s all built right above a high-shooting geyser. If that’s not enough, the SkyHike above-ground obstacle course offers a real adrenaline rush as you balance on wooden slats 40 feet above the ground (with a safety harness, of course).
Lasershow Spectacular in Mountainvision
If you and the family love music, mountains and an evening under the laser light canopy, this is the show for you. A tradition for locals and visitors alike, the Lasershow Spectacular is 45 minutes of hit songs and jaw-dropping visual effects. Bring blankets, lawn chairs and snacks or reserve terrace seating in advance. Either way, this is a show you won’t soon forget. Watch colorful lasers dart up the mountainside and jump over audience members to tunes from “Sweet Home Alabama” to “Let It Go.” stonemountainpark.com
At this hometown joint, their focus is farm-to-table food to preserve flavor and nutritional value. As the name suggests, sweet potatoes sneak their way onto plates inside biscuits, casseroles and more, and sometimes they’re loaded up with cheese, other veggies
ocalastyle.com JUL’14
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