In Atlanta we don't get snow very often. If we are lucky, we will get ice once or twice a year. So when Stone Mountain Park decided to become SNOW Mountain Park we were definately in.
They took the gigantic sloping lawn (typically used for Laser Show viewings) and have turned it into a snow tubing slope with 8 lanes, snow blowers and the works. THey added a snow playing area and provide everything you need to build snowmen, igloos, sled, etc. We just purchased a lift ticket and show up - no equipment or toys needed.
We got to the park at 3pm today and I brought all of our snow clothing - bibs, boots, heavy coats, gloves, hats, scarves - you name it, I had it. We got out of the car and proceeded to put the stuff on before walking over to the entrance. I started to feel really silly because it was actually really warm out today - 62 degrees at the time we were doing this. People in the parking lot were in short sleeves, no coats, and thought perhaps we were over-dressing for this. I got the kids all suited up, but I carried my own snowpants. I needed to see if they were actually necessary before I was going to put them on. Turns out, lots of people were wearing snow gear, so we didn't look ridiculous once we got to the tube hill.
See what's wrong with this picture? This is the line for the tubing hill, all these people you see are going SNOW TUBING. Do you see the guy in khaki shorts and a Tommy Bahama shirt??? SNOW tubing, people.The first area we went was the snow playing area where the snowmen/igloo building was. It was very soft "snow", but it was super slippery. It was the consistency of an ICEE drink. The snow blower then came on and the "snow" was coming out in giant chunks. It was funny to watch this pipe toss out hunks of ice/snow mix. It was not at all like snow blowing at ski resorts - likely due to the temperature. My kids still thought it was awesome. You can't tell from the picture, but they are standing in the falling snow chunks here. They put on their coats so they would not get it in their hair, but they both spent most of the day with their coats off. It was warm!!
The tubing line was long, on the first run we waited for 30 minutes. The sessions are only 2 hours, so I thought that a 30 minute wait was a bit obnoxious. It turned out in the end that we were able to go down the hill 4 times in 2 hours. We may have been able to get in one more run, but the kids slowed us down a bit. The tube ride was fun - the "snow" had melted quite a bit with the bright, warm day we were having. Everything was pretty drippy, but there was a nice thick base so the slopes were fine. By sundown, the melty was beginning to get packed and hard so the slopes got a lot FASTER. They kept blowing the icee mix the whole time, and I am still amazed that they are able to keep SNOW in this weather. It is crazy!!
I am VERY glad we wore all the snow gear because if you can imagine playing, rolling and tubing in an ICEE you can imagine that we got very wet. The snow clothing came in handy for keeping us dry, though we were all a bit hot in the thickness.
I don't have a lot of good pics, we had the camera, but Hunk ended up leaving it at the school function we stopped at along the way. We needed to go help the Drama dept. get ready for a play my oldest is in. They were playing with the makeup and we took a few pictures, the camera was put down and then forgotten. I did end up purchasing a toss away camera, but I won't see those pics for a few days. It is hard to use film after being so accustomed to digital. I ran out of shots quickly because I'm so used to taking a bazillion pics and just deleting the bad ones. Hopefully I don't have a film roll full of bad pics!! I guess in this respect that film will never die. There will always be the disposable camera, I don't think they will be able to create a disposable digital camera - or maybe there is such a thing and I live under a rock.? What I have today is from my iPhone....so yeah, they suck.
We had a lot of fun - I hope I got some good pictures on the disposable camera, because this was just something to see - in Atlanta - a snow slope. Who would've thought?? We are actually expecting some REAL SNOW according to the weather man - possibly on Monday evening. Can everyone please just put all your karma, postive thoughts, prayers or whatever you choose that we will get a frickin' BLIZZARD? I could use a day off this week - my calendar is packed!!
|