Traveler’s Rest State Historic Site, located in the Tugaloo Valley just five miles east of Toccoa, Georgia, is a restored 1815 stagecoach inn and plantation house that provides visitors with a glimpse of what it was like to undertake long-distance travel in the first half of the nineteenth century. Following Cherokee trading trails that later became wagon roads, Traveler’s Rest was built to accommodate travelers on the Unicoi Turnpike, a busy thoroughfare connecting the Tugaloo and the Little Tennessee River on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Travelers Rest State Historic Site

Although an imposing structure for its day, the inn was anything but luxurious. The Joe Brown room, named for for Joseph E. Brown, who was Georgia’s Governor from 1857-1865 and a U.S. Senator from 1880-1891, offered the inn’s most luxurious accommodations. Brown and his new bride spent their honeymoon in this room and probably paid about $1 per night – which would equate to about $100 per night today. Despite their status, the Read More »

This past weekend, I did something that is very unusual for me: I traveled without my children.  I flew into Chicago for Travel Blog Exchange, a conference of travel writers, and I had a few extra moments to enjoy the city by myself.

I arrived by plane, took the train downtown, and went on foot from there.  Here’s how I entertained myself:

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High Museum of Art exterior, photo courtesy of the museum

Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, today one of the preeminent art museums in the Southeastern United States, evolved from humble beginnings. Founded in 1905 as the Atlanta Art Association, the museum was originally housed in a private residence on Peachtree Street that had been donated by Mrs. Joseph M. High. When the renowned collection of classic and contemporary art grew so large that more display space was needed, Coca-Cola magnate Robert W. Woodruff stepped up to the plate, offering a $7.5 million grant to build a new facility. The resultant stunning porcelain-enameled building, designed by Robert Meier, has been named one of the “ten best works of American architecture in the 1980′s” by the American Institute of Architects.

A towering atrium, soaring to four interior levels, is naturally lit by sunlight streaming through its glass roof. Spiral ramps surround the central core, leading up to galleries that display 18th and 19th-century collections near the ground floor and contemporary art on the upper levels. Still the museum’s collection continued to grow and more space was needed. The acclaimed Italian architect Renzo Piano was commissioned to design three new buildings, which were opened in 2005 and essentially tripled the available display space. Read More »