Woo-hoo!!!! Spring break!!

Another sign of spring is when the magnolias begin to bloom. The picture above is a magnolia in flower at the Isgrig archeological site near Little Rock--even after two years of volunteering at this location, I hadn't seen this tree in flower until the other weekend...

This last week was Kenny's spring break, so I coordinated a training session for myself in Atlanta, Georgia for this period. We left Monticello last Saturday afternoon, driving to Starkville, Mississippi where we visited a college buddy of mine and his family at their home. The next day, we drove to Atlanta. Hope had a full week of visits to significant sites planned. Below, is a picture of the kids at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site:

Below is a picture of the Atlanta skyline from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield, a Civil War engagement:

I attended my training during the day from Monday through Thursday, but the evenings were free to explore the city and engage in fine dining experiences. Below is a close-up picture of the Atlanta skyline outside of the Georgia Aquarium:

As with any of these big city sight-seeing venues, they are not cheap, but some had a wow-factor that is hard to describe. The Georgia Aquarium was one of these--amazing exhibits of fish and other water organisms. Below, Kenny gets up close and personal with an alligator (behind glass, of course):

The kids were also amazed with this display of a coral reef:

They also had some exhibits you could reach in and touch, including some rays and sharks (non-dangerous ones, of course). Below, Stephen and I figure out what hermit crabs feel like:

Their biggest tank was full immersion via a tunnel, which lets the sea life swim all around you:

One day, Hope drove the kids about an hour and a half south of Atlanta to go to Andersonville National Historic Site. This was the location of a large and notorious Civil War prisoner of war camp in Georgia:

This location has particular meaning to Hope, as she has a great-great-grandfather who survived imprisonment here and returned to Pennsylvania after the war to start his family. Apparently, his long life was plagued by the effects of this imprisonment, and he struggled for many years to get the Federal government to recognize his service and provide a pension. A different day, Hope took the kids to Macon, Georgia, to look at some Indian mounds at Okmulgee National Monument:

There was also a cherry blossom festival going on in Macon at that time, so the kids got to ride some carnival rides:

On Thursday, as my leadership training was wrapping up, Hope stayed in the Atlanta area and took the kids to Fernbrook Natural History Museum, which had a lot of exhibits on dinosaurs:

Below is a pterodactyl, which were scattered all about a large atrium:

There were also a lot of hands-on exhibits for the kids to play with, including this one with soap bubbles:

On Friday, we left Atlanta to begin our return to Monticello. Our return trip took a couple detours, including one to Etowah State Park north of Atlanta, which is another major Indian mound site. Below are some stone statues found when one of the mounds was excavated:

The mounds are pretty large and impressive, as you can see across the plaza:

The largest mound, shown above Kenny in the picture above, is over 60 feet tall. Here is a picture from the top of this mound, looking back over a mound about half its height in size:

Our next destination was Huntsville, Alabama, which took us past the following waterfall:

Our primary objective in Huntsville was to take the kids to the space museum there. The Bragg kids may remember (well, not Bill--he hadn't been born yet) our family trip to Mississippi--we stopped at this museum on our return trip. Below is a full-scale model of the Saturn 5 rocket that took the Apollo astronauts into space:

This picture doesn't do the scale justice--this rocket is over 300 feet tall. Below is a Saturn 5 disassembled in stages to show visitors how the booster stages worked:

The people in the picture above help give scale to this rocket. Below, Kenny and Stephen enjoy some time in one of the space capsule models they had in this museum (Kenny is more-or-less properly seated):

They also had a large example of the space shuttle on its booster rocket near the museum:

We spent the night in Huntsville, and then returned to Monticello yesterday (Saturday). On our return, we got onto the Natchez Trace National Parkway in northwestern Alabama and took it well into Mississippi. Just outside of Tupelo, Mississippi (no, Mom, we didn't do any Elvis-related sight-seeing), we stopped at the Parkway's headquarters to let the kids work on the Junior Ranger program there. We happened to luck into the one weekend a month that a local historical re-enactor group is at this visitor center. Below, a group of women work on spinning cotton into thread and quilting:

Beth was enthralled with a basket-making demonstration, helping to build a basket:

Kenny visited multiple spots, spending time on some leather work stitching:

He also played a dulcimer and listened to others playing (the guy with the banjo is the same one that helped with the leather work):

It took Beth well more than a hour to "help" assemble the basket, for which she and the artisan took great pride:

The rest of the trip to Monticello was breezy but largely uneventful. We all had a good time on this spring break, enjoying good food, plenty of sight-seeing, and other adventures. My training, while not revolutionary, was helpful, and we were all really glad to be in our own beds last night! The cats were particularly glad to see us back!!