Jaunted

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'The Vampire Diaries' Turns One Georgia Town into an Unlikely Attraction

Last night The Vampire Diaries returned to The CW after a brief winter hiatus, and tonight the cast is returning to Covington, GA, which has played Mystic Falls in the series since its first season.

The Vampire Diaries is expected to shoot scenes for an upcoming episode tonight from 4:30 p.m. clear to 4:30 a.m. along Clark Street, between Church and Monticello, on Hays Street from Clark Street to Usher Street, and on Hunter Street between Clark and Usher streets.

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Food Travel / Museum Travel / Georgia Travel / → All Tags

There's More Than Just Rings at the Onion Museum

If you’re a tasty food item, chances are that there’s a food festival—or festivals—dedicated to you where it’s all about you, all the time. On the flip side, there aren’t too many foods that have their very own museums, and that’s why we were excited to hear about the Vidalia Onion Museum.

America’s sweet onion is apparently famous enough to get its own permanent space filled with exhibits, hands-on displays, and all kinds of other onion facts, figures, and history. Not only can you get bad breath, but you can also learn all about the Vidalia onion’s impact on culinary and cultural history while collecting a couple new recipes for your cookbook.

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Architecture Travel / Design Travel / Airport News / Airports / Georgia Travel / → All Tags

The Middle of Nowhere Builds a Swanky, Modernist Airport

If you think the Saarinen-designed TWA Terminal at JFK Airport looks cool, then check out these images of a new airport building just opened in Mestia, Georgia. As you may be able to tell from the snow and mountains, we're talking about the country of Georgia here, not the US state. Mestia is in the Caucasus Mountains, on the northern border of Georgia nearby Russia, and apparently it's looking to inject a little life into its tourism with a fancy-dancy designer terminal.

The building, constructed in only three months, comes from the Berlin-based architecture firm Jurgen Mayer H. It's simply gorgeous and it reminds us of the Zaha Hadid ski jump in Austria. Of course it looks small and light enough to push around like a sled on that snow, but we're enamored nonetheless.

The only question now is...what is there in Mestia (aside from this airport terminal) to actually make tourists want to fly into it?

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Holiday Travel / Christmas Trees / Christmas Travel / Museum Travel / Chicago Travel / North Carolina Travel / Georgia Travel / → All Tags

Get Your Final Dose of Holiday Cheer at Three Museum Christmas Tree Exhibits

Aside from good will toward people and all of that stuff, the most beautiful part of the holiday is a good Christmas tree. Whether you have a sad Charlie Brown tree at home or want to see some top-notch tannenbaums before the holiday season ends, several museums have tree displays that will leave you green with envy.

Check out three museums full of Christmas trees after the jump.

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Bad Ideas / Sports Travel / Football Travel / Tourist Traps / Georgia Travel / Sex Travel / → All Tags

Ben Roethlisberger's Sexual Assault Case Brings Tourists to Small Georgia Town

Back in March, Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was accused of sexually assaulting a very drunk 20-year-old college student in the bathroom of Capital City Nightclub in Milledgeville, Georgia. Though the quarterback was not officially charged, he does admit to having contact with the woman but says they didn't have sex and that whatever did happen was completely consensual.

Whether or not his story is true, Milledgeville's mayor is ready to cash in on the incident. According to Perez Hilton, Milledgeville Mayor Richard Bentley recently said, "Anything that can draw interest to our town and make people want to visit, we would like." And even though he acknowledges the unfortunate cicumstances, he added, "If it peaks people's interest about our city, we would certainly welcome them here.”

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Spring Travel / Nature Travel / Festival Travel / Lists / Spring Festivals / Japan Travel / Seoul Travel / Georgia Travel / San Francisco Travel / Brooklyn Travel / → All Tags

The Top Five Places to See Cherry Blossoms...Other Than Washington DC

Cherry blossoms in Japan.

Spring is here, and a lovely sign of its arrival is the blooming of cherry blossoms all over the world. The most well-known stateside spot to see the pretty pale pink and white flowers is Washington, D.C., which will have its annual Cherry Blossom Festival soon—from March 27 to April 11. But you don't have to battle crowds at the capital to see clusters of pink-flowered trees.

Check out the The Top 5 Cities (Other Than D.C.) Where You See Cherry Blossoms, after the jump!

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Museum Travel / Museums / Food Travel / Georgia Travel / Fast Food Travel / → All Tags

You Can Visit The First Waffle House, But You Can't Eat There

Loads of people remember visiting Waffle House through the years, and these same people probably also have several visits that they can’t remember. Regardless of your level of sobriety during your last breakfast stop, this chain of diners has made a name for itself across the country—especially in the South. To honor the restaurant, you should consider taking a trip to where it all started. After years of disrepair and a brief stint as a Chinese restaurant, the first ever Waffle House has been restored as a museum.

Waffle House Unit 1—that’s their corporate lingo—is now open for tours in Decatur, Georgia. You won’t find anything to eat, but you will get to see how the original diner was set up back in 1955. You’ll learn that everything was originally made from scratch at the restaurant except for Coca-Cola and Heinz ketchup. When you finish your tour you can tell all your friends that their sweet cream waffles were just 40 cents. Don’t worry, they still use half and half in the recipe, but now they’re just waffles and cost way more. The place even used to sell Chick-fil-A sandwiches.

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Television Travel / Georgia Travel / Vampire Travel / Movie Set Travel / → All Tags

Check Out The Real Hometown of 'The Vampire Diaries'

The CW recently jumped on the vampire bandwagon with The Vampire Diaries. The series was destined to be hit as it is executive produced by Dawson's Creek head honcho Kevin Williamson and is based on a series of popular teen novels. It also has all the ingredients of a great teen drama: a girl who is grieving the recent death of her parents and who deals with two brothers who are both into her and have been waging a war against each other for most of their lives, which equals about 150 years since they also happen to be vampires.

The show is set in the small town of Mystic Falls, VA but is filmed in Convington, GA. The pilot was filmed in Vancouver but Georgia's film tax incentives lured the production back to the U.S., which is just as well; there are already enough vampires in Vancouver.

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Rock Slides / Water Sports / Active Travel / Georgia Travel / State Parks / → All Tags

A Hike Into A Georgia Gorge Awards You With A Water Slide

If you're not into the water park scene, then it seems like Georgia is the place to cool off in the summer. We’ve already told you how to get down in The Hooch, and now we’ve found another rock water slide to entertain on a warm summer afternoon. The two sites are actually pretty close to one another, so if you’re really into water sports, you can go for a double-header.

Tallulah Gorge State Park has a lot to offer. There’s campsites, hiking trails, and waterfalls to help fill your day with fresh air and sunshine. Just try to keep your cool when you cross over the rickety suspension bridge as it sways above the bottom of the gorge. All that other stuff is fine and dandy, but the best part of the park is the natural rock water slide.

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Best Tubing Spots / Tubing / Rivers / Water Sports / Georgia Travel / → All Tags

Get Ready To Float Down The Hooch In Northeast Georgia

If you’re looking to beat the heat and humidity of the nation’s Southeast, then Helen, Georgia should be on your shortlist. Not only does the town traditionally feature cooler summer temperatures thanks to its location within the Blue Ridge Mountains, but it also does its best to recreate an alpine village; zoning laws ensure that the town’s buildings feature a little bit of Bavaria, including architecture from the old-world and cobblestone streets. It’s not quite the Alps, but it is the Appalachians.

Once you’re done touring a little bit of faux Europe, you’re probably going to want to cool off from all that excitement. Grab a tube and plop your butt into the Chattahoochee River. There’s two different river courses to choose from, but definitely go for the longer 2.5 hour journey. A bus will load you up and take you up river, so when you’re all done you can be fully prepared to peruse the gift shop or chow on some picnic foods.

The Cool River Tubing Company will be floating people down the river all summer through Labor Day. It’s only $5 for adults, and if you want to go all day a pass only costs $9. This is definitely a sweet deal for an afternoon filled with splashes and sunburn. If the river ride gets a little boring they have a waterside too, but that’ll cost you a few extra bucks.

Related Stories:
· Cool River Tubing [Official Site]
· Hot Dogs And Hot Tubing Between Different States [Jaunted]
· Tubing coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Official Site]

Gold-Mining / Gold Mines / Treasure Hunting / Adventure Travel / Pioneer Travel / Georgia Travel / → All Tags

Pining For Gold Mining: Some Real Peaches in Georgia

It's a whole new type of laid-off travel; gold mining is back with a vengeance and oftentimes, the richest veins are closer than you think. All this week we'll be digging deep into the USA's dirt to uncover the best spots for sifting your way into a small fortune, or at least one month's rent. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

As any visitor to Tennessee tourist towns will know, gold mining isn't just an activity left to the Southwest states. In fact, the first major US gold rush happened in Dahlonega, Georgia in 1828— the town's name even means "yellow money" in Cherokee. Although most of the big stakes were cleaned out by the US Treasury back in the day, the rebranding of the area as a wine country has reinvigorated tourist gold mining as a secondary activity.

The king of mining in Dahlonega is undoubtably the Crisson Gold Mine, which offers treasure hunting activities for every level of fortune-seeker. From metal detectors and panning to using a trommel—machines that effectively pan for you, and at a faster pace— Crisson offers some of the most tourist-friendly gold hunting around. The quarry out back even boasts old mine machinery and a quartz stamp mill for the the historically curious.

Gold ore is available in two ways at Crisson: fresh from the earth and ready to be panned or trommelled, or "salted," which is essentially more expensive ore as it has been purposefully peppered with possible finds. And if you can't make it down to Georgia anytime soon but want to try your hand at panning, the mine offers 1 gallon of the "super high grade gold ore concentrates" for $125, shippable to your house. What an idea for a summer backyard BBQ party!

Related Stories:
· Crisson Gold Mine [Official Site]
· Panning For Gold Makes a Comback [Jaunted]
· Gold Mining Coverage [Jaunted]

[Quarry photo: Crisson Mine; Gold photo: aresauburn]

St. Patrick's Day / Parades / Georgia Travel / → All Tags

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day in…Georgia?

When we crowned Chicago as the best St. Patrick's Day city, we were mostly comparing it to New York, Boston and Dublin, and have to admit we overlooked one of the biggest Irish pride fests in the country. Thanks to commenter morrrilld for pointing out that Savannah, Georgia, of all places, has the second-largest St. Patrick's Day party in the country.

The city's 185th annual parade is expected to bring out some 400,000 people, and there's no bowing to other cities by staging an early party—Savannah celebrates on the day itself, Tuesday, March 17. And while they may not top Chi-town in the green water department, Savannah does pretty well too, dying the water in Forsyth Park's historic fountain green.

As for where to get your post-parade Guinness, we have to admit we're not too up on the Savannah pub scene. Anyone out there have recommendations for St. Patrick's Day in Savannah? Let us know.

Related Stories:
· Savannah St. Patrick's Day Parade [Official Site]
· On St. Patrick's Day, Chicago is the Greenest City of All [Jaunted]
· Savannah travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: rjones0856]