Kennesaw, GA Outdoor Activities

Water features lace throughout Boomers! miniature-golf courses, gurgling cheerfully as putters attempt to elude windmill blades and wacky hazards. These carefully designed courses populate numerous national locations, running parallel to go-kart tracks or lawless bumper-boat lagoons abandoned by the Coast Guard. Inside old-fashioned arcade rooms, video games chirp in response to players' shouts of victory or defeat.

The parks' parent company—Palace Entertainment—maintains 8 theme parks, 11 water parks, and 21 family-entertainment centers tucked into various corners of the nation, making it an expert on providing family-style fun and laundering towels.

As drivers execute hairpin turns and speed along the straightaways, the sleek black-and-blue chrome bodies of superkarts screech across the winding, indoor track at Andretti Indoor Karting & Games. The featured attraction at the sprawling complex, the raceway boasts a junior track for drivers 8 and older and an adult track where racers 16 and older can quench their need for speed without fear of a traffic ticket from a cop disguised as a yield sign. The fun center also fosters adrenaline-charged fun with a high ropes course extending up to two stories above the floor and a climbing wall that, at its peak, rises more than 30 feet. The two high-flying attractions look out over the arcade floor, where visitors play classic games such as Ms. Pac-Man or modern favorites such as Big Buck Open Season, which digitally emulates the real-life experience of hunting today's super-intelligent, talking deer.

The constant clack of billiard balls fills the Sky Bar, where guests tipple frosty cocktails while looking down at the race tracks though a plexiglass floor. Beyond the sports-bar atmosphere of the Andretti Grill, a different kind of entertainment reigns at Bonkerz Comedy Club, where performers' standup routines tickle funny bones before they shrink into humorless elbows.

Since banding together in 1979, the historians at Atlanta Preservation Center have helped ward off packs of angry bulldozers from more than 175 endangered buildings. Working alongside local government, businesses, and community leaders, the preservation team has saved elaborate structures including the Peters House and Winecoff Hotel. In addition, its headquarters—the 1856 Grant Mansion in Grant Park—is one of just two antebellum houses left in Atlanta and the team is currently working to restore the building to its architecturally accurate origins. When it isn’t keeping delicate treasures from crumbling, the Atlanta Preservation Center leads walking tours of historic districts and tells embarrassing stories from the days when the city’s buildings were just a bunch of baby bricks.

Established in 1982, Kennesaw State's athletics program first competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. In the mid-90s, the Owls migrated to the NCAA, where they claimed 7 Division II championships in activities as diverse as men's basketball, cheerleading, and women's soccer. Just as a real owl hones its night vision until it stops stubbing its talons on branches, the school continued its ascent until it joined the Division I Atlantic Sun Conference, netting two national tournament appearances in women's soccer as well as championships in men's track and field and women's cross-country.

Currently the Director of Instruction at Keith Jarvis Golf Academy, Keith and his staff of qualified instructors call upon his 24 years of experience as a professional player and coach to enhance each lesson. Students perfect swings for extra distance off the tee and practice short-game precision for more one-putts and fewer galleries showered with sand. Lesson programs incorporate the wireless 3D K-Vest, worn to limit extraneous movements and develop muscle memory during the swing, and Tomi putting equipment, which helps putters develop a consistent stroke.

Aboard their luxury buses, vans, or motor coaches, the guides at Atlanta Sightseeing Bus Tours immerse locals and visitors alike in the rich history, culture, and architecture of the Greater Atlanta area. As tours trundle past sites including the Atlanta White House, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and the Margaret Mitchell House, tour guides passionate about the region and its myriad anecdotes relay interesting tidbits about historic locales such as the Fox Theatre and Centennial Olympic Park, the site of the three-legged race finals at the 1996 Olympics. During the five-hour voyage, passengers can take pictures, stretch their legs at hand-picked stops, and take in sweeping views of the Atlanta skyline and Appalachian Mountains from 825 feet up in the Skyride swiss cable car at Stone Mountain.