Georgia Traveler; 502

This week on Georgia Traveler, we're off to the Alpine Bavarian Village of Helen for an October Fest celebration amongst the brilliant colors of autumn and visit a 50 by 22 foot miniature German village known as Charlemagne's Kingdom. We then head to Zoo Atlanta and explore some of the world's most fascinating animals and their babies. We're one of only four zoos in the United States to have giant pandas. Then get our endorphins flowing at Augusta 70.3 mile Iron Man, a swim run and bike competition. Once you've done one, most of the people are hooked, I'm about to go into my next age of 70 to 74 and I'm still hooked. And it's off to the Crab Jack on Taibe Island, a sprawling marshland eatery that is anything but ordinary.

You brought me the whole Atlantic Ocean. Crazy. Where the Traveler is coming right up. Get ready for the longest October Fest celebration in the south. It's off to the village of Helen for Bavarian style feasts and festivities. Fall in Georgia means the leads are changing colors and their rolling hills of north Georgia start to look like an artist's masterpiece and no better spot than the festive village of Helen, the soak in the beauty of the season. See Alpine Bavarian Village of Helen, a hotspot for visitors from the holidays through summertime,

but the place for October Fest. Welcome to Helen. October in Helen means the village is in high gear. You see the Bavarian theme of Helen all started when a few private investors in the late 1960s hired a local artist to sketch these buildings with German characteristics. He added gingerbread trim, details and colors, giving an Alpine look to the entire town. So naturally in 1970, the annual October Fest began. Jeff Ash, owner of the castle in, has been there since the beginning. October Fest has always been a tradition in Bavaria, Germany. We had our first October Fest at the Old Hoppery House. We attached a tent to the building, put out a bunch of bear kegs, got the German music going. Here we are the day 41 years later. We are October Fest. Now running from mid-September through all of October, Helen hosts the longest October Fest in the south.

Hello Helen, October Fest, yeah! Every store and every little boutique in bakery are open for the seven week extravaganza, from classic beer garden flowing with your favorite October Fest beverages. The street side entertainment offering the unexpected. There are even specialty shops like the Christmas store where it feels like the holidays all year round, even during October Fest. Everybody's happy. You don't see any sad people, because there's new experiences right around the corner and with the music and food and all the activities that go on around in our area. One traditional Bavarian hotspot in town is Hoefers, where I learned the age old art of pretzel making. The larger... Awesome. The wins the busiest time for pretzels. Right now, October Fest. Did you play with Plato a lot as a kid?

Always. My parents were both German and we wanted this to be exactly like a German. We call a Conditera Cafe, which is a bakery and a pastry shop. You know, we try to keep everything authentic. The store fixtures are from Germany, the girls wear German attire. We try to make it as real as we can for the tours. There's a bakery cafe in here, but there seems to be a barb-filling beer garden. We have a beer garden outside. We have our German beer on draft outside. We have the pretzels that we made back in the bakery. During the festival, hotel rooms book up pretty quickly on the weekends, but there are over 1,000 rooms in town. I went for one of the most traditional spots in the village, the Castle Inn, offering balcony rooms over the streetside festivities, or a tranquil, riverside views of the upper chatty Hoechy River. Well, Castle was built in 1983, a small Bavarian hotel in downtown, which is comprised of 13 units, museum of the hills, and then a restaurant owned the Chatea Hoechy River,

which is now we call the day the Trowel Tavern. The Trowel Tavern is one of a few special locations in town that really make you feel like you're in the hills of Germany. Being situated on the river provides a great ambience for people to come up and have a good time. But of all the places in town that get you in the October Fest mood, the massive Festall is the epicenter. All right, we're here in the Festall, this is where the party really gets going. It's about 6.30 and it's already packed. Let's see what happens around 9.30 and no October Fest is complete without your beer and your broth. Start with the beer. Now the broth. The Chatea horse, the ranch horse, the regular broth horse, the leaper pay, the knob horse, and the beer broth. Full of worst and brats and sweet dreams of polka music.

It was time to call it a night in the Alpine Bavarian village of Helen. I'm five. So far. Not the good thing about October Fest, it starts all over again tomorrow. Till then. Of all the Bavarian charm in Helen, there's one spot that actually displays all of Germany, but on a much smaller scale, meet Willie and Judy Linnhorst and their creation, Charlemagne's Kingdom. Helen is a nice town, a German town, and my German manoré would fit perfectly in this town, from a North Sea to the ice. An old hobby turned livelihood that brought Willie's home country of Germany to the hills of Helen. Back in Germany, I never had trains. I came here, I was 25 years old, and with Mary had two kids. My son was 11 months old. To the first Christmas, I bought him my first train set, and I never could stop. The display spans 50 feet from the North Sea up to the 22 foot high Matterhorn.

There's 400 feet of railroad track with computerized trains, making it the largest Alpine model train display in the world. There's a ferris wheel made of over 1,000 tiny little parts, circus tents, moving hot air balloons, a bungee jumper, a wreck on the Autobahn, pets, smurfs, and even a UFO landing. And you would see, of course, the flying saucer didn't fly anymore, did crash land over there because it's a double face, right? They crash on October, and there's even little green men. Yes, they're right. They come from Mars, everybody knows that. With Charlemagne's kingdom, you can capture the entire country, and it's moving parts high up from the balcony level, or look up close from sea level and catch the entertainment going on inside the little buildings. The swimmer was in the swimming pool, eh? There's someone actually swimming. They're moving in the swimming pool. Yes. And in these buildings, you know, you expect them just to be buildings, but when you look inside, there's people in the building, it's a whole store.

Yes, it's an activity going on that you can't see unless you're here. That's right. Charlemagne just stopped at the station. Yes. Like it actually stopped to pick up people. That is why, and he goes now to Rihanna's side there and stops there too, and then after a minute or so he would come back. It's a work of art, years in the making, Charlemagne's kingdom, a one-of-a-kind exhibit, and a one-of-a-kind village. Let's now begin a safari at Zoo Atlanta, where Michelle takes us up close and personal with some of the zoo's newest and cutest baby animals. Just minutes from downtown in historic Grant Park, Zoo Atlanta features the most impressive collection of wildlife from around the globe. Zoo Atlanta is Atlanta's oldest cultural destination. The history of the zoo dates back to 1889, when businessman George Gresh purchased a bankrupt traveling circus and donated the animals to the city of Atlanta, and these

founder animals would become Zoo Atlanta. The 50s and 60s marked the arrival of one of the zoo's most beloved animals, a gorilla infant who became known to the world as Willie B. And when he died at age 41, he was the oldest gorilla in the U.S. to have fathered offspring. Today visiting the zoo is a unique mix of education and outdoor family fun, and the fun begins with the newest cutest additions to the zoo Atlanta family. I'm the curator of mammals here at the zoo, so that means I oversee the management of all of our mammals. That's one of the best parts of my job, it's new babies, I especially love to see mothers with babies. We also have the largest gorilla collection in the United States. We have 23 gorillas, and we have young gorillas in those groups as well. We also have the largest population of orangutans, who are going to see a lot of animals that you wouldn't get to see at many of the other zoo's in the U.S.

Also housed here is the only giant panda cub born in 2010. The name Poe was given to him by actor Jack Black from the film Kung Fu Panda 2. I think one of the reasons everyone is attracted to pandas is because they are very cute and cuddly looking. So they look like teddy bears. We're one of only four zoos in the United States to have giant pandas. One of the reasons that we have the pandas here is to do research. We're very proud of that work. We also contribute to saving pandas in the wild. The tiger is another species that the zoo is helping to save. It's been over 10 years since the Atlanta has had any tiger cubs born here, and they are fun and adorable, and I think people are going to love seeing them on the exhibit. Well, we're very excited about them. The Sumatra Tigers are critically endangered, and so it's important to have the captive population. It serves as sort of an insurance colony for tigers in the wild, who are very much under threat from poaching and habitat loss.

So this birth is significant because the Sumatra Tiger, the captive population, needs to grow. Although there are barriers between the animals and visitors, the exhibits are designed for them to roam freely, as if they were in the wild. Lonnie is here showing us one of the many reptiles they have here. Can you tell us a little bit about this reptile you hold? Well, this guy, his name is Maze. Maze here is 17 years old, and he was hatched out at Zoo Atlanta. So he's one of the animals that we use in our program animal collection. He's entertained lots of families, lots of kids. They live to be about 20 to 25 years old, and they're corn snakes, which is a native snake to Georgia. Can you touch him? Yeah, definitely. Go ahead. He feels so smooth. Yeah. I didn't think I'd ever touch his snake. Oh! Good for you! Visitors can definitely get up close and personal with the new Wild Encounters program. So we have some great educational programs here at Zoo Atlanta, where you can get close to our animals.

This is an example of our Wild Encounters program. We do this program with elephants, lions, giraffes, all different types of animals here at the zoo. And this is where visitors can come. They can get close to that animal, they can talk to the keepers, and they get to feed our animals. It's a very personal experience where you get face-to-face with a lot of the different animals that we have here at the zoo. Zoo curators also train the animals to help them learn together. They're a salute, steady, all right, good girl, they're a step up, good girl, step up, Tara, good girl, you're a weighty, back up, good girl, Tara trunk, open, open, you are really silly. So the training that we've seen with Tara here is training that's applied zoo-wide to all of the species.

I think the quality of the overall experience is notable. Not only do we have this really cool collection of animals. Some animals that you can see almost no-worlds in North America or maybe even the world, but just I think the opportunity to interact with the people and the animals. The elephants make honor a lot of attention, but the life will always be king of the jungle. Visit Zoo Atlanta and hear him. Still to come on Georgia Traveler, Augusta's Iron Man. Special contributor Ashley Mingwasser journeys to this 70.3 mile swim bike and run competition and meets a few of its extreme racers. And it's off to Tybie Island's Crab Shack, an open-air restaurant on the water with massive portions and a multitude of wild attractions. Georgia Traveler will be back in 30 seconds. Nestled in Richmond County along the Georgia South Carolina border, Augusta is well-known

for so many reasons, as host city of the master's tournament. As the birthplace of the legendary singer James Brown. Augusta is gaining new ground with the annual ESI Iron Man 70.3. You've been to festivals. You've seen parades, but nothing tops the spectacle of bodies and superhuman determination that is an Iron Man race. As the world's largest half marathon, the ESI Iron Man draws a staggering crowd for the weekend. On the eve before the starting horn blows, visitors flock to the Iron Man village. There, you'll find compression shorts designed to hold ice packs, shoe strings.

You never have to relase. But by far, the most incredible sight is the sea of athletes themselves on race day. Men and women of all ages, ordinary and all extraordinary. Mayor, I can think of a thousand other things you could be doing today. Yeah, here you are for the second year at the ESI Iron Man. What compels you to compete? Well, I'm a naturally competitive person and this is such a great event for the city. I want to help promote it. It's so great to be able to speak to people from all over America saying you've got such a great city. It's such a great race. People are so nice. Well, to people even recognize you out there, they probably find it hard to believe. Last year, I had another athlete say, are you really the mayor at Swimstar? And I said, yeah, why? He said, well, usually, mayors would be in the VIP lounge, that's several. I'm not that kind of mayor. Where there's a fearless leader, thousands are bound to follow.

And the number 70 point three actually means something. These Iron Man and Iron Women prove that the Iron was all necessary to win by and run to find 70 point three miles. Such a distance can seem downright daunting, so it helps that Augusta's course is charted with competitors and spectators in mind. A 1.2 mile swim in the Savannah River with the current is followed by a hilly and scenic 56 mile bike into South Carolina. And the final 13.1 mile leg of this race is a flat run through downtown Augusta. We design the course, the run course, so it's really spectator friendly. The spectator can stand in one spot and see their athlete at least four times, which is really exciting from a spectator's point of view. You'll be able to watch running for at least six hours of the day and you just sit on the

side of the road and watch 3,000 people come by more than once. It's really very much of a family event. Spectators fill the Augusta Commons and surrounding restaurants to support the nearly 3,000 competitors representing 44 states and 19 countries and they show their love. Sometimes in interesting ways. There really is a place for everyone in the annual ESI Iron Man. How about this? Relay teams? I'm Peggy Sigler and I'm the cyclist, I'm in Vaughan Hill and I'm the swimmer and I'm the trainer hall manager and I am the runner and we are team business. We're going to the last year and it came back to the office and said, we're going to

do this, we're going to do this, we're going to do it like I've been at least. Everything you've learned now is swimming in the pool, forget about that. It's like survival. Nearing the finish line, emotions run high with victory finally in hand. It's unbelievable to see the sheer joy of accomplishment at the finish. It's so rewarding to watch you actually feel a part of each athlete's achievement. They say that while pain is temporary, Iron Man is forever. Once you've done one, most of the people are hooked, trying to go into my next age group 70 to 74 and I'm still hooked, good way to stay in shape, good way to get old. I don't know where your plans take you next fall but for an inspiring good time, I hope

you'll go the distance for Augusta's ESI Iron Man 70.3. It's now time for Gators, Parrots and a steamy seafood feast. It's Taibe Island's famous crab shack serving Islanders since 1982. Beautiful Taibe Island, sparkling water highlighted by a picturesque island sunset and a towering iconic lighthouse spotlighting the gateway into Georgia's rich marshlands. But after a full day on the beach, you may have worked up an appetite. That's where my new friend Captain Jack steps in. There's a restaurant in Taibe that has become synonymous with the island itself, a restaurant unlike any other, the crab shack, where the elite eat in their bare feet. Welcome to the restaurant, I want you to find it. Originally, if you had signed up shirt and shoes, they're not required because most of

our traffic came from people on boats and you know, you don't wear a tie when you go out on the boat. There is a host to stand in several giant crab and gator characters manning the many entry ways but nothing there really defines a front door. This ever-expanding bayside shack is more like a winding maze of tables and attractions. You can walk around and see cats, birds, alligators, we have a little fish and green, they can wrap treats down the alligators, it's a great thing for kids. When you're near the gift shop, you can stop by and say hello to a few friendly birds. This variety of African grays and red and blue macaws among others are the crab shack's collection of birds rescued from distressed environments. The restaurant also offers a cat shack shelter for a few hungry feline friends. You may even notice the unique crab shack lighting fixtures hanging from the trees that

simply dangle in the daytime but illuminate the night. Well, they have a cause the years ago when we first started in business, that was how you bought your crabs, you bought a bush and the crabs and I'm a pack rat and say, well, they usually make lights out. So these are crab shack chandeliers. So the atmosphere is informal but the food phenomenal and unlike most seafood restaurants from crab to shrimp, nothing is fried. Shell fish are the very delicate taste and when you bread it and fry it, all you taste and there's a breading and the grease that you fry and plus the fact it's healthy for you. Captain Jack's first mate, general manager Justin Fowler keeps the kitchen operating at a mad pace to keep up with the over 650 available seats. But Justin also took on the role of teaching me a few tricks on how to take a crack at a crab shack platter.

Hey. Thank you, ma'am. What'd you do? You brought me the whole Atlantic Ocean? Yes, sir. It's a little crazy. What do we got here? These are blue lip mussels. Got our crawfish, snow crabs, some shrimp over there, some potatoes. This is about having fun, yes. What's up with the crawfish? Crawfish. All right. Do you want to take the tail? Mm-hmm. Just pull the tail back a little bit like that. All right. Then you take your peeled legs off here in the shell, pull it out there that should be what we look like when we get finished. All right. And then, uh. Now do I suck the juice out, ma'am. You can suck the head. There you go. That's good. All right. That's the way it is. All right. Crawfish down. Oh, it's snow crab here. So what you do? Break you off the leg there. Okay. You okay? You just work your way up. I see butter there if I want butter. There you go. We'll work on a butter in a minute. You want to taste the meat first.

Okay. Okay. Hey, you got a good piece, all right? All right. Mm. Oh, awesome. All right. Yeah, let's do shrimp. Just Georgia shrimp, right? Yes, sir. This is some of the stuff right off your dock. You got a tail off there. As you see, you got to see food season on the outside also, so whenever you get it, you get it on your fingers. Yeah. You get some of it. So it is there. Mm. So you get your finger. Yeah, that's right. Transforming from a dockside afternoon treat for fishermen nearly three decades ago to a Taipei Island tradition. The whole family can enjoy the crabjack and owner Jack Flanagan have one way or another created a seaside, one of a kind that will most likely have some new unique attraction next time I visit. There's one thing Captain Jack can assure you won't head back to the beach house hungry. Sit down and enjoy yourself take your time. This is Taipei Island relax, this is not New York City. That's all for this episode of Georgia Traveler. We hope you join us next time.

Until then, present turning. I'm going to leave one for you. Stop it. I ordered the large. Mm. Mine. That's a tough job. Okay. Okay. No, don't fill my shoes. I'll give you a donut if you go away. So we're going to see how many you can make in the time it takes me to do one. I'll see butter there. There you go. We'll work on the butter here. I bet you will taste meat first. I didn't even get any meat. I didn't even get any. Now I have to be careful. The balloons are coming. I have to step on this side because the balloons have the right of way to jump in my gym and that's about it. Delicious!

Georgia Travelers produced in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development. This is a GPB Original Production.