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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.
For the final two weeks of our adventure, we hosted our good friends, Scott, Dianne, Kaleigh and Madyson from British Columbia. We began in the Keys and enjoyed a day trip to Key West, some beach time and a snorkeling trip to Looe Key. The highlight of the snorkel trip was watching two sharks (one 8 feet long) swim below us!
Next, we travelled to Everglades National Park and took in an airboat ride through the "river of grass." We tried fried alligator and frog legs for lunch (thumbs up on the alligator, thumbs down on frog legs!). Lastly, we biked 15 miles at the Shark Valley Visitor Center with alligators galore grinning at us all along the path. Lots of baby alligators this time of year. The birds were diverse and beautiful. 
Dianne had to head back to work, so we took Scott and the girls to the Gulf side of Florida. We stayed on Pine Island and enjoyed day trips to Venice Beach (where we beach-combed for fossilized shark teeth), Sanibel Island (for shells and sun) and an overnight camping trip to Cayo Costa State Park. Unfortunately, the wind was whippin' and chilly at Cayo Costa. However, it is an undeveloped, beautiful beach with more shells than we've ever seen and we will definitely be back! The kids enjoyed setting up stores and trading treasures.
Always fun to spend time with friends. As Jackson commented, he was glad we got to see people along the way because "it might have been lonely" otherwise. So fortunately, after our goodbyes to Scott and the girls, we had the pleasure of meeting more friends! We joined Brenda, her daughter Kelli, and her two sons, Gannon and Carter at Disney's Boardwalk. They are former PA neighbors of Jerry and were visiting from California. It was great to catch up and meet the boys.
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!
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.
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. 