Yellow River Game Ranch
Bordering the Yellow River, this 24-acre animal preserve offers close encounters of the 4-legged kind -- a chance to view, pet, feed, and generally mingle with some 600 animals (always including quite a few babies) who live in open enclosures or right out in the open, along a 1-mile oak- and hickory-shaded forest trail. Owner Art Rilling knows every animal on the ranch by name and can give you chapter and verse on each one's personality, preferences, and in some cases, romantic history. The animals know they're among friends here and are highly socialized, so you have a unique chance to study them up close. Keep in mind that all these animals smell like, well, animals. If a barnyard atmosphere bothers you, don't visit.Inhabitants include donkeys named Rhett and Scarlett, Georgia black bears that stand up and beg for marshmallows, goats, dozens of rabbits in Bunny Burrows (kids can pet the bunnies), an assortment of interesting-looking chickens, a herd of buffalo, sheep, burros, goats, ponies, a skunk named General Sherman (we are in Atlanta, after all), and a groundhog named General Beauregard Lee who lives in a white colonnaded Southern mansion complete with miniature satellite dish.Consider packing a picnic lunch. There are tables throughout the property, and one especially nice picnic area overlooks the river.

The King Center
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s commitment to nonviolent social change lives on at this memorial, museum, and educational center. A nongovernmental member of the United Nations, the center works with government agencies and the private sector to reduce violence within individual communities and among nations.The tour of the center, which is self-guided, begins in Freedom Hall, where memorabilia of King and the civil rights movement are displayed. Here, you can see King's Bible and clerical robe, a hand-written sermon, a photographic essay about his life and work, and, on a grim note, the suit he was wearing when a deranged woman stabbed him in New York City. Also on display is the key to his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was assassinated. In an alcove off the main exhibit area is a video about King's life and works. Additional exhibits include a room honoring Rosa Parks (whose refusal to give up her seat on a city bus led to the Montgomery bus boycott), and another honoring Gandhi.The center's library and archives house the world's largest collection of books and other materials documenting the civil rights movement, including Dr. King's personal papers and a rare 87-volume edition of The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, a gift from the government of India. The library is open by appointment only for scholarly research.In addition to serving as a museum and hub of social justice activity, the center is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s final resting place, a living memorial to this inspiring leader that is visited by tens of thousands each year. Dr. King's white marble crypt rests outside in the Freedom Plaza, surrounded by a beautiful five-tiered Reflecting Pool, a symbol of the life-giving nature of water. The tomb is inscribed with his words: "Free at Last. Free at Last. Thank God Almighty I'm Free at Last." An eternal flame burns in a small circular pavilion directly in front of the crypt. The Freedom Walkway, a vaulted colonnade paralleling the pool, will eventually be painted with murals depicting the civil rights struggle. Located at the end of Freedom Walkway is the Chapel of All Faiths, symbolizing the ecumenical nature of Dr. King's work and the universality of the basic tenets of the world's great religions.A store on the premises offers King memorabilia and a wide selection of books and cassettes. Ranger talks focusing on the community and the civil rights movement take place frequently on Freedom Plaza.

Margaret Mitchell House and Museum (Birthplace of Gone With the Wind)
Six decades after it was first published, Gone With the Wind continues to fascinate people around the world. But until this attraction opened in 1997, after a 10-year effort to preserve the house from demolition, disappointed pilgrims found precious little evidence here of the famous book or its author. Now the house and museum are a must-see for visiting GWTW fans.It's rather surprising that it took so long for restoration efforts to get underway on the dilapidated Tudor-revival apartment house where Margaret Mitchell wrote most of her epic novel and lived with her husband, John Marsh, from 1925 to 1932. The structure was built as a single-family dwelling in 1899, then moved to the back of the lot in 1913 and converted into a 10-unit apartment building 6 years later. It remained an apartment building until 1979, when it was abandoned and eventually boarded up. When the newlyweds moved in, they called it "The Dump." It was not an affectionate nickname; according to a friend of Mitchell's, she disliked living there (finances left few alternatives) and would probably be offended by the notion of its restoration. But the house has been attracting its share of visitors -- from all 50 states and more than 70 countries.The house and museum tell the complex story of the famous novelist. Guided tours, which last an hour to an hour-and-a-half, begin in the visitor center. Before beginning the tour, guests enter the theater to see a 17-minute film titled "It May Not Be Tara," featuring an overview of Mitchell's life, and interviews with some of her friends and family members. Also in the theater is an exhibition of photos taken of Mitchell in her teens and 20s. The tour of the house includes a visit to the Mitchell-Marsh apartment, which is furnished much as it was when the couple lived here. Mitchell wrote much of her novel in the front room, seated at a typewriter and desk below the beveled glass windows in the small corner alcove. Like most writers, she preferred to keep her literary efforts private and would throw a towel over her typewriter when friends dropped in -- which was often.The museum contains movie memorabilia and chronicles the making of the movie, its premiere in Atlanta, and the impact that the book and movie had on society. The tour concludes in the museum shop, which features a variety of GWTW collectibles and memorabilia. If you finish your tour around mealtime and you're ready for a real change of pace, walk a few blocks south on Peachtree to the Vortex, a rowdy burger joint and bar that serves some of the best hamburgers in town.

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