Fun times

Last days in Georgia

The snow storm that wasn't - 1/7

Ice on the trees. Beautiful. 

Ice on the car... Not a problem since we're staying home today. (:

So, Georgia doesn't get weather like this often so the people are not "regulars" at doing snow and ice like they are in the northeast. 

Last year, there was a storm that caught them off guard and some students had to spend the night at school and apparently the government took a lot of flack for "not declaring a state of emergency soon enough". So today, with the weather service saying there may be anywhere from 0-6" of snow, they are telling everyone to prepare for 6" by having enough supplies on hand to stay home for 3 days. So, on Thursday, the governor declared a state of emergency to begin on Friday at noon. Consequently, the museum we planned to go to was closed, as were many public places. And in the end, we got no real snow to play in (though some places north of Atlanta had a dusting). We did have an icy driveway to "skate" on. 

Rocket launch!

Everyone has been working really hard over the past couple weeks to build rockets and today we finally launched them!

Tuskegee

Tuskegee Airmen NHS

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American US military combat pilots. They became known as the the Red Tails because they painted their plane tails red. 

Since the military was segregated at that time, there could not be only African-American fighter pilots. All the positions needed to get those planes in the air and support them from the ground had to be filled by African-Americans as well. So, Tuskegee was really an experiment with the odds stacked against it. And with everything on the line, because these men had to prove that black people were as smart as white people by executing their jobs perfectly. Any mistakes would "prove" that black people are inferior. What a weight on their shoulders!

These four men are former Tuskegee airmen who shared their stories in the excellent video at the visitor center. 

By the end of World War II, almost 1000 pilots had been trained, and almost 14,000 support personnel. Of these 15,000 airmen, there are less than 200 alive today.

This is an original training plane. 

After visiting the airstrip, we also visited Booker T Washington's home, The Oaks, at Tuskegee University, a school he started. 

This is a pretty impressive house for someone who started his life in slavery. 

Our tour guide was so impressed with our kids knowledge, but we were listening to Booker T Washington's autobiography, UP FROM SLAVERY, while driving in the car today. So we kinda cheated/played the homeschoolers well. (:

Through hard work and self-reliance, this man worked from having nothing to leaving a legacy.

These stairs were custom built super short for his 4'11" wife.  

This home was built by Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now called Tuskegee University) students. Mr. Washington's mission was to equip students with life skills, academics, and trade skills. There was no money for supplies or even materials to build any classrooms with, so students made their  materials. For this home, they even made the bricks to build with. 

Booker T Washington was a leader in the black community. He had different methods, but in our timeline of people we have learned about so far on the trip, he comes after Frederick Douglass and before Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Montgomery, AL - Capitol #32

Cue the music...

We listened to it as we entered the state.

Here, they had all 50 state flags and at the base of each flag was a native stone from that state with the name of the state engraved on it. Pretty neat! 

Because they were taking down the Christmas tree, we couldn't get a picture of the front of the state house.

These walls are actually completely flat. They are just painted to look like they're  paneled, which was the style in 1850 when it was built. 

Pretty staircase and dome

Here in the house, the state of Alabama voted to secede from the union.

And here in the Senate, delegates from all seceding states met together. They wrote the constitution for the confederacy, elected Jefferson Davis president and inaugurated him.

The new state house is across the street. It has been used since 1985, but we wanted to see the old one.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis lived here for 3 1/2 months while Montgomery was the capital of the Confederacy. Then, once Virginia had seceded, he and the capital moved to Richmond.

Next stop, the Alabama state museum.

This museum was really well done. We only had an hour to spend, but we could have easily spent four hours here. It was similar in quality to the Smithsonian in DC.

Although we've been learning a lot about the Civil War, all of this information was presented in an Alabama-specific way.

Like much of the South, after the Civil War Alabama had to reinvent itself.

I was particularly interested in seeing their exhibit on civil rights because Rosa parks and the Montgomery bus boycott took place here, but they barely mentioned it. That may be because there's a Rosa Parks museum down the street. But, alas, we had other places to go. 

The kids had an opportunity to make a Mardi Gras mask, but they just chose to take the plain ones and wear them. Maybe because we've been watching the Lone Ranger.

Off to further historical sites in Alabama!

Happy New Year

Fireworks were going on like crazy all night. They sell them at the grocery store, etc. and there's plenty that we heard and saw that no grocery store sells. One gal told me they always by theirs from their neighbor. (I think they are fresher that way.) (:

Swimming at the y.

Quiche and muffins for our first breakfast of the new year.

All the kids are in bed... Sudoku by the fire.