Atlanta - day two - wednesday

I started my day at the Cyclorama. An interesting name that tells you nothing about what it is. Neither does the brochure. One of my roommates had gone and the lady at the visitor's center told me I should go and what it was about. There was a small museum and short film about the civil war in Georgia to prep us. The Cyclorama is a HUGE oil painting painted in the round to commemorate the Battle of Atlanta. The painting is 50 feet tall, 400 feet in circumference and weighs nine tons. There is also a 3D diorama at the base that expertly fades into the painting (it is very difficult in some cases to tell where one ends and one begins). You sit on stadium seats on a slowly rotating platform and watch as the painting and battle are narrated and lights shine on the parts of the painting that are being discussed. The second time around, bc there were so few of us, we were invited to the bottom row to see the painting and diorama up close and the docent answered any questions. It is an amazing piece of work. Apparently there used to be heaps of these types of paintings and now there are only two or three in the US. Another interesting thing is that it was painted by 12 men in about a year.

The painting was commissioned for several hundred thousand dollars and sold at an auction with some circus animals for about eleven hundred dollars. Both were donated to the city and voila the cyclorama and the zoo.

The zoo was crowded with youngsters on school trips, all screaming and excited by the things they could see and disappointed in animals they couldnt find or werent moving. I saw a bird that I have never seen before that was large (my height) and mean looking, but the sign said was common in Africa. It reminded me of what I think a griffin should look like. Do you know what it is? Answer at the end. There were several active baby gorillas that were fun to watch. The zoo was small and not that impressive to me, but then again I go to a lot of zoos.

I drove outside of town to Stone Mountain, the Rushmore of the South. It is a huge block of granite 800 feet tall jutting out of the ground and on one portion of it is a memorial commemorating Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Robert E. Lee. The carving doesn't look all that big on the face of the huge rock, but it is over 90 feet tall. I walked through the little town full of eateries and junk shops. I didn't have much else planned for the day so I hiked up to the top and all around the base - about 8-9 miles - through woods and along lakes. Very pleasant.

The Whole Foods salad bar is dangerous. The first time I ate there my salad was seven dollars. This time it was nine. Sheesh. That means my salad was more than a pound. The problem is that they offer so many vegetables and things to put on a salad that is adds up. What vegetable-lover wouldn't want to put as many vegetables as possible?

answer: dratsub irok