Georgia On My Mind

When I decided that Atlanta would be a good place for a weekend tag trip, I had not yet heard about the impending riots involving protestors angered by the police shooting of an activist earlier in the week. My trip happened to take place on the same weekend that chaos broke out in downtown Atlanta, so on the heels of all this I have Georgia on my mind for reasons I never expected when I first set out on this adventure.

I feel quite fortunate that I stayed safe during my trip, avoiding the chaos and tagging at arenas mostly north of Atlanta while reconfiguring my return trip so I could fly back by way of South Carolina instead. However, I was not impeded from having quite a few laser tag adventures in the process.

When I first arrived, I rented a car and started driving north to Lakepoint Station in Cartersville, GA where I found a unique building with a well-executed theme.

This is what they call “Miner’s Mountain” and inside is a small, but highly impressively designed arena where they run Laserforce Gen 7. I was a big fan of this theming as soon as I entered the briefing room. The arena is decorated like a cave with textured walls adding to the cavernous effect and crystals depicted on the walls, most notably on one stunning wall where their targets are hidden in plain sight.

Other parts of the arena have depictions to enhance the mining motif.

Bases are found in structures with rock-like aesthetic.

And an upper level gives a nice view, but also includes convoluted spaces that make this arena feel much larger than it is.

As someone who has loved visiting (and mining for quartz “diamonds”) at the Herkimer Diamond Mines ever since I was a kid, this arena really spoke to me. It also makes me think non-traditional attractions (like those local mines, for instance) could look at this as a very good example of how to incorporate a little something extra into whatever your venue offers as an enhanced attraction that can be spot on in theming and function.

Once my game was done, I enjoyed some frozen yogurt as I went off in search of my three favorite things in Georgia…peach pie, boiled peanuts and even more laser tag!