PatanRich's Excellent Adventure

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Ocmulgee National Monument

Never heard of Ocmulgee? Don't know what it is? Join the crowd! We only heard of it from a section of the Atlanta museum that gave information on the original inhabitants of this area of the country. The Ocmulegee Indians were here thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. Interestingly, another group of indians arrived a few centuries before the Eurpeans- they are called the Mississipians, because they came from the Mississippi River delta area. They fully displaced the Ocmulgee because they had superior organizations and farming and weapons. Followign the arrival of the Europeans, and subsequent destruction of Mississippian culture from disease and war, they became known as the Creek indians.

But the Ocmulgee were fascinating! They created buriel mounds and hilltop cultures (because they were closer to the Gods), and within the mounds, were buriels and cultural centers.

At the National Park center, there are diorama's of the different ages the Ocmulgee lived through and developed through:

Typical homes:

Buriel Mound:

Incredible clouds the day we visited!

Entry to the mound

Hallway into the mound

Inside the mound

Atlanta, Georgia- a remarkable city

Ellen, Claire, and I go on vacation for about a week every fall. We leave our respective spouses at home:-). We choose places we have either never been to, or really liked and want to see again. This year, we chose the south! None of us had ever been here before, so it was going to be an adventure. We decided on Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina. It was going to be grand:-). Loved Atlanta- the subject of this post. Not to go too far ahead, you remember Hurricane Mathew? Yea- that bastard screwed up our trip:-). We had to make a lot of changes, and Charleston was totally eliminated:-(.

Back to Atlanta- a major American city, we were a bit worried! After booking 5 days here, suddenly we met people from Atlanta that said there really weren't alot of things to do there. After our 5 days, we all decided those people did not actually live in Atlanta:-). Tons of things to do!! Oh- and the food is fantastic!!!!

We toured CNN, Coca Cola, Jimmy Carters Presidential Library, MLK Historic Site, Museums, and ate our way through the city:-)

CNN is at home in Atlanta! You can tour the studios- all tours are guided, and sadly, no photos. But- when in Atlanta- you must tour it. It is fascinating

Lobby of the CNN building

Studio you can practice in

Cutouts of CNN anchors:-)

Coca Cola is at home in Atlanta! You can tour the Coca Cola museum!

Throughout, there are Coke bottle art from each country

The Coca Cola Polar Bear!!!!

The vault holding the secret recipe:-)

A model soda fountain from yore

THE vault!

There are free tastes of every Coke roduct from around the world! Some are good, others- not so much:-)

Lunch:

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and Historic Site. Contains Ebenezer Church as well as a museum of his life

Final resting place of MLK and his wife

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library! None of us had ever been to a Presidential Library, so we had no idea what to expect. Very interesting place- filled with memorabilia and explanations of the life of the president

Mock Oval Office:-)

The Atlanta museum. Two parts: 1st part are 3 examples of architecture thru the ages: a frontier home, an 1840'sfarm house and slave home, and a 1930's mansion. The 2nd part is historical artifacts relating to Atlanta and Georgian history. I am not posting photos from this section of the museum. As you can imagine, it focuses on the civil war and slavery. It was incredibly educational, but also heart wrenching. It was hard to go through. But- I recommend everyonego thru it.

1930's mansion