Tallahassee, Florida
Yesterday, January 28, was supposed to be a sight-seeing day but we all decided to stay put and enjoy our current park and the beautiful weather. The girls and I took a couple of walks on which we noticed buds on the trees. Spring has come to Florida although it’s hard for us to really appreciate it having not gone through a winter. Flowers are beautiful anytime of the year, however, and we are enjoying all the azaleas, roses and many other flowers. The weather has been perfect: 70s during the day and cool enough at night to be perfect sleeping weather.
Barry and Eva went out on a boat to do some fishing but got stuck in the mud. As they came back to the camper, covered in thick mud up to their knees, I heard Eva say, “Well, this is a memory right?” Barry replied, “Not this time! I’m going to erase this one from my memory forever!” I didn’t ask any questions but told them they couldn’t come into the camper until they were clean. They finally got the thick, sticky goo off their legs and decided that a game of putt-putt might be a better idea. Jenna and Mikayla went with them while I got some things done in the camper.
This morning we drove to Tallahassee, Florida, to attend church. We were thrilled to find out that Dr. Bruce Ware from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary would be speaking at Grace Church. We very much enjoyed the service. The church is in a neighborhood. We had to park a little ways down the block but we didn’t mind as every yard had beautiful flowers in full bloom.
After lunch, we visited the Florida Historic Capitol Museum. We were disappointed that the current Capitol isn’t open on Sundays but we enjoyed the museum very much and the grounds around both buildings. The current Capitol was built behind the old one. It makes for a very beautiful setting. The grounds are full of majestic trees that are covered with Spanish moss.
Several of the rooms in the Old Capitol are used to describe different aspects of Florida’s government and history. It is very well done and is very clear in its explanation of each theme. There is a special area dedicated to President Andrew Jackson. I wondered how the museum would deal with this president who is now very controversial for his mistreatment of American Indians and slaves. I felt they dealt honestly with these aspects. They also did a good job handling Florida’s secession from the Union and bumpy road to Civil Rights.
In our study of U. S. History, the girls and I say the names of the presidents in order. Today at the museum, I asked them to tell me which number Andrew Jackson was. They each said the presidents names while keeping track on their fingers but I wouldn’t tell them if they were right because I wanted them to find it somewhere in the museum. After searching and searching and even asking museum curators for help, they finally asked their Dad to Google the question on his phone. He did so and confirmed that Jackson was the 7th president. (We couldn’t find it anywhere in the museum.) Eva felt so guilty about giving up and asking her Dad that she made herself read extra information while touring the museum. My idea for getting them to study the museum worked out even better than I had planned! We also found a section on Manifest Destiny which is a question on the older girls’ history test tomorrow. We never seem to visit any historical place that what we are studying doesn’t come into play somehow.
We found Tallahassee to be another one of those cities in which its cleanliness stood out to us from the moment we reached the city limits. Another thing we noticed almost immediately was the majestic trees that seem to line the way to the main part of the city. The area around the Capitol is so beautiful that we walked for several blocks before driving to the Governor’s Mansion. We couldn’t see it very well from the road but it too was surrounded by beautiful moss laden trees and gorgeous flowers.
Tallahassee is a beautiful and historic city. It isn’t on the ocean or Gulf but it’s worth visiting. We hope to camp closer to this city in the future and visit the places we missed.
Florida Historic Capitol Museum: http://www.flhistoriccapitol.gov/