Back to Florida

We were excited to head back into Florida, first stopping for a week on the Emerald Coast for our second time.  It was only slightly warmer than our last time here in early February.  We highly recommend the Topsail State Park in Santa Rosa beach.  There was a nice 3/4 mile paved trail to the beach and then 3 miles of undeveloped white sand.  We took a day trip to the Blackwater River for a canoe float and enjoyed biking on the trails of Highway 30A.

This past week was probably our most relaxed of the entire trip.  The temps warmed to the mid-70's.  We found an RV park on Chokoloskee Island, part of the Everglades called 10,000 Islands.  We are literally at the end of the road!  The lack of services has been refreshing…and interesting.  The note on the closed grocery store said "now open Friday through Sunday."  We enjoyed lots of fishing over the week, some from the marina dock and some from a chartered skiff.  Nothing like the taste of fresh fish.

We had the pleasure of seeing Uncle Art and Aunt Jan in Naples and having grandma and papa with us during the week.  Mom and dad were along as we took a sunset boat trip through the maze of mangrove islands which culminated in watching hundreds (thousands?) of birds roost for the night.  Our big night out came with a trip up to Ft. Myers to see Chris Tomlin in concert.  It was a fabulous, uplifting night and was the boys' first concert.  They loved it!

Civil War and Civil RIghts

     Thanks for following our blog!  We've reached our goal but you're welcome to follow us a little longer while we wrap up our travels.
     We travelled back through Alabama, this time from North to South.  The same storms that hit the midwest brought snowflakes to Birmingham.  We made our way to Montgomery and were amazed at all the area had to take in.  Our first day there we travelled to Tuskegee to visit the site of training for the Tuskegee Airmen.  After that we went to the Tuskegee Institute for a tour of Booker T. Washington's home, the Oaks.  The house and almost all of the buildings on the college campus were hand made by the students…down to making the bricks and inlaid floors.  It's a beautiful campus.  We learned of the controversies of Booker's mission for the college and his place in the history of rebuilding the South after the Civil War.  We were disappointed that George Washington Carver's museum on the campus was closed for remodeling.  Jackson had been GWC for the third grade wax museum at Grace Christian school in Anchorage, and we learned a lot about him through that.
     In Montgomery, we took in the First White House of the Confederacy.  This was the home of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.  He only stayed here for a few months and then the Confederate White House was moved to Richmond, Virginia, closer to the fighting of the Civil War.  Asa saw a picture of his wife hanging in the house and remembered that he had seen it before.  Sure enough, she was from a wealthy family in Natchez, Mississippi and we had seen the picture there.  They are paying attention!!  We were reminded how deeply some in the South still feel about the Civil War as our tour guide referred to it as the "War of Northern Aggression" and "Lincoln's War."
     From there we toured the parsonage where Martin Luther King Jr. lived with his young family.  It was quite moving to be standing in his kitchen while they played a tape of his voice talking about a late night epiphany he had there.  They were receiving up to 40 threatening phone calls a day; threatening not only him but his wife and baby girl.  A bomb had gone off on the front porch.  He was ready to give up.  Then God told him that he must continue the fight.
     Just like happening to be in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, we ended up in the Montgomery area during the anniversary of the Selma-Montgomery march for voting rights in 1965.  Joe Biden came to Selma to speak on Sunday.  We all had heavy hearts as we learned about this time in history.  This march came 100 years after Blacks were freed, yet they were still not permitted to vote.  And if they did participate in marches or tried to vote, they were kicked off their farms and forced to live in tent cities, in the best case scenarios.

The visit to this area of the country taught us things we did not learn in the classroom.  You have to experience it.  

Arkansas

The winter storms sweeping through the country kept us on our toes as we headed north to Hot Springs for a visit with Jerry's Aunt Rose and Uncle Ken.  Cousin Carl, Catherine, Eva and Anna (from Duluth)  were visiting for the week as well, taking advantage of their Winter Term break.  We had such a fantastic week!

Our first field trip together was to the Heifer International Farm about an hour north of Hots Springs Village.  Heifer International is a world relief agency that provides livestock and training to enable sustainable life skills. This 1200 acre farm used to provide the animals for export, but is now an education center and hosts groups.  Their youth camps in the summer focus on teaching sustainable life skills using villages modeled after third-world countries.  They also have a variety of animals on-site including a water buffalo, camels, goats, sheep, rabbits, turkeys, ducks, and pigs.  Much to her chagrin, Anna did not get to milk any of the animals. A mid-week ice storm moved us from our scenic Ouachita State Park campsite to a site closer to town. The next day we explored bath house row in the historic downtown Hot Springs and enjoyed a traditional "bath" at the Buckstaff Bath House.  The quote of the day was from Jackson during the sitz bath…"Dad, why am I sitting in this thing?"

We enjoyed wonderful home-cooked meals from Aunt Rose's kitchen and catching up on years of family stories and history. On our final day together we all ventured into Little Rock.  We toured the Heifer International headquarters whose design boasts a Leed Platinum certification.  It is such a beautiful center that it is hard to believe that it sits on land that should have been declared a Superfund site due to the industry and railroads that pre-existed on the site.  Just across from Heifer is the Clinton Presidential Center where we walked through familiar historical timelines and marveled at the cases of dignitary gifts from around the world.  There was a complete replica of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. Our last stop in Little Rock was Little Rock Central High School National Historical Site.  It was there in 1957 that nine African-American students bravely attended the segregated school and the subsequent racial conflict made national news.

Thank you Aunt Rose and Uncle Ken for a wonderful and memorable visit to Arkansas!  Carl and Catherine, we can't wait another 20 years to chat with Jim, milk something and have another bath! Lots of great laughs…we hope to see you soon.