Saturday, 13th of Jan, marked the first day of the long weekend over here in the states. 15th of Jan is the national holiday marked as the Martin Luther King Day. Today is also the first day of our road trip. We are heading to the stone mountain park which is about 10 miles east of Atlanta city. It is one of the most scenice place in Georgia offering a natural setting of lakes and a large exposed rock face overlooking the lakes and park below. It is really magestic but it is even more beautiful when we look down from the summit of the rock. We could see the skyline of Atlanta city along the horizon and the other small towns around the vicnity of the mountain. The climb up the to the submit took about 40 mins or so. It was a lovely walk up the path lined with trees and a beautiful view. The weather was a bit warm for winter but it was just nice for climbing. When we finally reached the summit, we had a small picnic at the top of the mountain. It was a simple meal of sandwich, chicken wing and chips! It was really refreshing to feel the cool breeze and warmth of the sun. All of us who were there had a great time and took many photos to capture the moments. There were many people trekking up the mountain. Young and old alike ppl went up and down the rocky path on this sunny saturday morning. There were many young kids who enjoyed themselves running up and down the paths. I could see that the americans enjoy nature too and there are many places that offer such wonders. There was one kid in particular who was real friendly and played with our group. He acted as spider man and spun his web on us. All of us also played along and play dead when he spun his web. He enjoyed every minute of it! After spending the afternoon on the top of the mountain, we made our way down in the late afternoon towards the park at the foot of the mountain. On the way down we stopped by a lake to take in the the nice view of the peaceful lake. We had a pleasent suprise at the lake when we spotted a large group of geese and duck frolicking in the lake. They were attracted to us because we had bread on hand to feed them. It is quite rare to be able to come so close to the birds.