Annie came to visit us over Labor Day. She missed out on the family visit last year in April, so it was nice to have her come out. Annie didn’t have many requests of things to do, so we just went on another adventure through Georgia and took her along with us.
We had been wanting to go to the Mayfield Dairy and check out their tour. It’s local to Braselton so it was a good place to start. The tour itself was fine. We saw a silly video, but it really made us crave some milk and ice cream, then we put on awesome hair nets to go into the processing part of the building. At this location they process the milk and fill various sized cartons. They also fill other company’s milk products. Mayfield milk’s claim to fame is that they use a system involving an aerovac that uses steam to rid the milk of any contaminate that may be present, including smells and tastes that come from the cow’s diet. By going through this process the milk is more pure and tastes better. They also package their milk in yellow containers. They say this helps prevent damage from the UV rays that can taint the milk. I will have you know, that although it feels weird to buy a yellow gallon of milk, it’s worth it. I totally agree with Mayfield, their milk is superior to other milk, but of course it comes at a price. Currently a gallon of milk in Georgia costs around $2.20, but a gallon of Mayfield milk costs around $4.50! When milk was even more expensive last year, a gallon of Mayfield could be over $6! It’s really good though, and when you come visit, we’ll spring for a gallon so you can try it.
After the tour you can’t get out of the gift shop without buying some ice cream. It’s fun because they have a porch with rocking chairs that you can relax on and eat you ice cream. Of course it was delicious.
I guess this is the Mayfield mascot.
After filling up on some ice cream we took the scenic route to Stone Mountain. We didn’t want to spend a lot of time there, but we hadn’t been to the top of the actual stone mountain and we figured that would be enough for Annie.
On our way up the tram we saw this sweet tattoo:
Here are some tram shots of the carving on the granite:
We hung around the top of the mountain for about 20 minutes. It was actually pretty hot up there and it didn’t take long to look at it all. You can always walk up or down the mountain if you don’t want to take the tram, but we were feeling lazy.
The one thing Annie for sure wanted to do was to see the Bodies exhibit. So we made a point of getting down to Atlantic Station with enough time to see Bodies, and do the Dialog in the Dark that they had going as well. The Bodies exhibit was really interesting. I thought I would get sicked out early on, but I was able to make it through the whole thing, I just had to focus on it being interesting and not focus on that fact that these were real bodies and body parts. It was just amazing to see the various parts and systems that our bodies have. There was a section about the nervous system and they had a brain with all of the nerves that follow down the spine, and then just a body shaped vein pile. It was amazing that they could single out all of these various parts of the body. I thought that the section of the fetuses was extremely interesting. To see the growth an embryo goes through to become a fetus and then an actual baby, amazing!
The Dialog in the Dark was also really great. I didn’t think I would like it, but it was actually quite interesting. You started by getting a walking stick that blind people use and then moving into a room to get settled in. We all were sitting on cubes that were lit up and while the guide was describing what would be happening the lights started getting dimmer and dimmer and then it was dark. You literally could not see your hand in front of your face. We were then told to stand and move toward the raining in the middle of the room, once there our new guide came to the room to introduce herself. All of the guides for the experience were visually impaired. The goal of the exercise was for us to follow the sound of our guides voice and experience various environments, like a park, a grocery store, a boat ride, walking through a city, and ordering a drink at a bar. All of it was really quite interesting. I wasn’t as explorative as I perhaps should have been, Joe really got into it, but I was feeling timid and definitely out of my comfort zone. But the entire experience was really great. Out guide (I think her name was Cynthia) had lost her site and was learning how to live life again on her own. She was quite independent, but she said that she definitely has a system, and has learned to trust people. The thing she hates the most is when people just grab her arm or whatever to help her across the street. She knows they mean well, but she’s fully capable of getting across the street on her own, and it’s definitely uncomfortable to be touched without being asked first. All in all, it was a great experience, and if you have the opportunity I recommend you go. Both exhibits are worth it.
