Warm up your mind this summer by exploring Middle Georgia
Summer is the time that we allow our brains to take a bit of a vacation. We lounge by the pool reading fluff magazines, binge watch reruns on Netflix and maybe let our kid’s school reading list slide just a bit. Who can blame us? It’s too hot to move, let alone think.
The school year is coming though. Retailers have begun to stock their shelves with pencil cases, backpacks, college-ruled loose-leaf paper and economy sized Lysol wipes (for those inevitable back-to-school germs).
While summer can hamper the ability for complex thought — even Einstein must have taken summers off — there are ways for families to activate their minds before the bus picks up the kids for the first day of school in August. Luckily, a few of these places even have air conditioning.
Indian Springs State Park
This 528-acre site is one of the oldest state parks in the country. Contained in a stone building is the still-functioning spring that the site is named for. Creek Indians who populated the area long believed that the spring had medicinal properties and would travel to the area in search of healing.
Visitors are welcome to hike the paths, wade in Sandy Creek, swim in McIntosh Lake or visit the museum to learn about the Creek heritage of the area and the following resort town boom.
If you go: 678 Lake Clark Road, Flovilla; 7 a.m.-10 p.m. daily; $5 parking fee; gastateparks.org/IndianSprings
Jarrell Plantation
Built in 1847, Jarrell Plantation is now a Georgia State Parks Historic Site. The Jarrell family farmed this land continually from 1847 until 1965. It was gifted to the state in 1974 and all the buildings on the site’s 50 acres are on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can see the many iterations of the plantation’s main house, its gristmill, gin house, barns, privies and the remains of the slave quarters.
The buildings on the site reflect nearly every social, historic and economic shift in Georgia’s history — from slavery, to the Civil War to the destruction caused by the boll weevil to the emphasis on the diversification of industry. On special occasions, costumed volunteers demonstrate to visitors the way the farm was run during its peak.
If you go: 711 Jarrell Plantation Road, Juliette; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; adults $6.50, seniors $6, youth $4, children under 6 are free; gastateparks.org/JarrellPlantation; 478-986-5172
Museum of Arts and Sciences
This museum is all-day affair for people interested in science and the natural world. Currently featuring an exhibit called “Great Balls of Fire” about asteroids, meteors and comets, this hands-on, interactive exhibit teaches visitors what these objects are, what they’re made of and how potentially dangerous they can be to Earth.
Children will enjoy the museum’s Mini-Zoo where they can see tarantulas, hissing cockroaches, geoffroy’s tamarins, iguanas and turtles.
Don’t miss out on the permanent installation, “Science On A Sphere.” The room-sized global display system is the only one in Georgia. Video projections display planetary data onto the six-foot diameter sphere. Visitors can see the storms on Jupiter, the curve of the Milky Way and the ice caps on Mars in a three-dimensional way.
The Mark Smith Planetarium presents “Sky Over Macon” on the fourth Friday of each month at 8 p.m. followed by an opportunity to visit the observatory and see the sky through professional telescopes.
If you go: 4182 Forsyth Road, Macon; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday; $10 adults, call for senior and student admission rates; masmacon.org; 478-477-3232
Andalusia Farm
Thirty-three miles to the northeast of Macon lies Andalusia Farm. This former dairy farm was the home of author Flannery O’Connor during her most prolific years. O’Connor lived with her mother at Andalusia from 1951 until her death from lupus in 1964.
The 544-acre site is now an independent nonprofit museum. O’Connor’s home is the main attraction although there are also nature trails visitors can walk. The fact that the museum uses O’Connor’s and her mother’s original furniture makes the museum an immersive experience.
“We say we have conversations rather than give tours,” said Visitor Services Manager Abbey Lee Hite.
Hite and her staff are a wealth of information about O’Connor. From O’Connor’s daily schedule to the meaning of her obsession with peacocks, the staff is able to explain it all.
As most of O’Connor’s famous stories have some connection to the farm, a visit is a must-do for readers of O’Connor’s work.
If you go: 2628 North Columbia St., Milledgeville; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday; $10 suggested donation; andalusiafarm.org; 478-454-4029
This story was originally published July 23, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Warm up your mind this summer by exploring Middle Georgia."