Ari’s taking a Georgia history class this year at our local homeschool center, and the class includes lots and lots of field trips (to which parents and siblings are invited). He’s actually off on one right now, but the rest of us are having to miss that one owing to some snotty miserableness in certain small members of our family. (I feel like I am doing some very strange and unnecessarily complicated things with prepositions in this post thus far. I will try to stop that).

But last week, we went to Stone Mountain, and no one was sick, so we all got to go. You can do lots of things at Stone Mountain like hike up the mountain or ride a terrifying tram up, or ride bikes around the bottom, or take a train ride, or watch a laser show….but we didn’t do any of those things. We need to go back and do them soon, though. We’re only 45 minutes away from Stone Mountain, and I remember going there fairly regularly as a kid, but my kids had never been before. For shame.

Anyway, this was the first field trip for the Georgia history class, so it focused on really old history….like the part with all the rocks. We visited the new Discovering Stone Mountain Museum and the quarry exhibit.

We met up outside, where kids climbed on rocks for awhile (I am, incidentally, keeping my pictures to my kids and the kids of people I know are okay with me posting them. If you were on the Stone Mountain field trip and you’re reading this, that’s why I didn’t put in any pictures of your kid. Not because your kid isn’t adorable. Exception being that one up at the top. All the kids are in that (or at least most), but they’re so far away you can’t make anyone out. I hope this is all appropriate blogging etiquette. I try.):

Then we went inside and learned about Stone Mountain’s history:

The exhibit is, I understand, pretty new, and it’s really nicely done. I learned a lot about rocks. I think maybe the kids did, too.

Stone Mountain when it was just a baby!!! Squee!

Also there was a tunnel to run through. I don’t think that’s what it was FOR, really, but that’s what the kids did with it.

We learned that Stone Mountain is a monadnock. Which is fun to say and means “a hill or mountain of erosion-resisting rock rising above the surrounding countryside.”

Since we didn’t go up the mountain, this picture of a picture is the best thing I have for you to show you what Stone Mountain actually looks like. Rocky.

Abe was there, too.

Well, here: this is what the bottom of the mountain looks like. If you’re going to walk up it, you start here.

On to the quarry exhibit! I was surprised to learn that they kept taking granite from the mountain right up until the 70’s. I’m surprised they haven’t started up again with all the money to be made these days selling counter tops.

I was also surprised to learn that granite is really heavy:

Also we learned that working in a quarry sucked. But I think we already knew that.

Looking forward to more field trips to force us to get off our butts and out of the house! Also for the education and stuff.