Jessica and Daddy's Excellent Adventure: Stone Mountain

Tuesday morning Jessica and I dropped Elyse off at Granny and Pa's house and went to Stone Mountain Park for a day together. Here's a picture of the two of us shortly after we arrived, posing in front of the famous carving:

(This picture was taken by a Stone Mountain Park employee who asked if we wanted a picture of both of us. His uniform said Michael, but I don't know the rest of his name. In any case, thanks!)

Nearly everything in the Crossroads area was closed. How can you play, laugh, and pretend when the toy store is closed?

There were, however, plenty of rocks to climb on around the reflecting pool at the edge of the Memorial Lawn:

Jessica was so exhausted after all the walking and climbing that she had to lay down on a comfortable-looking rock and take a nap:

(She laid down on her own, not at my request as a photo opportunity. I'm not even sure she was aware I was taking pictures.)

We took a break and went outside the park to CiCi's for lunch, and then returned to hike around the walk-up trail for a while. Here she is posing on a rock on the side of a mountain:

As we walked, we picked up various detritus on the side of the mountain, including nuts, bolts, and washers, some of which may be remnants of the mountain's time as a working quarry. Here are a couple of pictures of Jessica showing off washers she found: