June 12-15, 2019 (Part 1)

High Falls State Park, Jackson, GA

We had a lovely site at High Falls State Park. 

I was pleasantly surprised when we checked in to discover that we didn’t have to be Georgia residents to be eligible for a senior discount.

Our first excursion was to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta.  The “park” consists of places where MLK Jr. was born, lived, worked, worshipped, and is buried. 

We began our tour at the National Park Visitor Center where I stamped my passport and requested tickets for a ranger-led tour of the King Birth Home.  The tickets are free but on a first come first served basis and the only way to tour the home.  We were told to return a half hour prior to our tour to pick up the tickets. 

 

 We had three hours until our tour time so we walked through the exhibit hall and watched a short film.

 

 

 

 

After a picnic lunch we made our way to the burial site of Mr. and Mrs. King located across the street from the Visitor Center and in front of the King Center.

 

The King Center was established by Mrs. Coretta Scott King in 1968 to preserve the legacy of her husband.

 

 

 

 

We still had time before our tour so we walked one block to the Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King, Jr. was baptized, later became co-pastor with his father known as “Daddy” King and where his funeral service was held in 1968.

 

 

After walking back to the Visitor Center to obtain our tickets we made our way to the King Home a couple of block away.

We have been on many tours at different National Parks across the country but this tour was the first one where our guide was blind. 

He was amazing and funny.  His tour covered the early years of the King family when they lived in the house on Auburn Avenue.

No photography was allowed in the home built in 1895 in the Queen Anne style.   It is a two-story house with a front porch, parlor, study, kitchen, dining room, bedroom and bathroom on the first level.  The second level floor includes four bedrooms and a bathroom.

We finished our day in Atlanta at the Fernbank Science Center where parking and admission are free.  The exhibit hall spans 9,000 square feet and contains numerous display with deal with a large array of scientific concepts. 

 

One level features a live animal exhibit and a live honeybee hive. 

 

 The lower level features space exhibits including the actual Apollo 6 space capsule, a meteorite collection and a taxidermy collection.

 

 

We enjoyed our time in Atlanta except for the horrendous traffic coming and going.