So I hear it's cold back home. It got a bit cooler here today too. Which made our day outside just perfect. Em slept in a bit more today, and we had breakfast downstairs with some lovely people from the Dept. Of National Defense. The Redstone Arsenal is located just behind the NASA training center. A few of the people we met are from Arkansas, and have families travelling with them. Tonight Em and I spent time at the pool today with one mom and son, from this group. Let us tell you about our fantastic day! The Huntsville Botanical Gardens was our first stop today. http://www.hsvbg.org/. We were excited to learn about their summer special exhibit, Alice's Garden of Wonders. As you wander through the park, and through the beautiful gardens you discovered the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, The White Rabbit, and the Queens Castle. Em's favourite Exhibit was the Giant Round of Croquet that you could play with the Cheshire Cat looking on. Em and I liked the arbor walkway... where we found a few of our favourite things. There was also a collection of lovely statues of different kinds. Here are a few we really enjoyed. Em had some fun with this one though. "It's a Small World"- We were approached by a mom and her two kids, who after seeing our license plate in the parking lot, told us they were from Waterloo, ON. They have lived here in Huntsville for 8 years now, but have a Canadian Flag on their car. :) After the Botanical Garden we continued towards downtown. Huntsville is not a city full of skyscrapers. It is very well preserved. The Historical Society has made sure it has kept its old buildings and its view of the mountains. One of these great old buildings is where Em and I had some fun exploring today. Harrison Brothers Hardware Store. http://harrisonbrothershardware.com/ In operation for over 113 years. It was bought by the preservation society when the Harrison Family wanted to retire after multiple generations had been its proprietors. When the preservation society purchased it, they not only purchased the building , but all its inventory, and supplies as well, which still reside in the building as a part of the display and museum that is quietly run as the building is also still a store. I guess like us, the store draws you in as the customer, but then teaches you a little something while you are there. The upper shelves are full of cans and goods, the floor to ceiling little drawers are still full of nails and bolts, and the old telephone and order forms are still tacked to the wall. The store is still full of things to buy that you could have bought many years ago, like penny candies and trinkets and even the bags of marbles which Emmy picked up for herself. At $0.10 a marble she was able to fill a bag for $3.00. Picking shooters, and cats eyes and many other different colours too. But perhaps the very best part of our stop here was when Emmy went to purchase her marbles. She got to ring in her own sale on the 107 year old cash register that they still use every day. That was fun!!!!! The wonderful sales lady/guide told us that the reason they had a marble ledge on the cash register was for checking counterfeit coins in the early 1900s. Coins such as pennies and nickles would be tapped on the marble, and if someone tried to use a metal slug to pay for their goods, they would know, because they made a different sound. (There's your history lesson for today!) ![]() Keeping with our history theme we continued through downtown and headed up to Burritt on the Mountain. http://www.burrittonthemountain.com/ Located at the top of Round Top Mountain, it is a historic park where you can learn about homesteading farmers, and miners. Here is the view from the top of the Mountain. Look...we can almost see Ethan at Space Camp below. Do you see the white rocket? HI ETHAN!!! WE MISS YOU!!!!!!
Em was also able to try and be a gold miner herself. In the early 1900's mining hopefuls came to these mountains in search of gold. Today Em found some gold and crystals. (wink wink)
2 Comments
shirley
7/29/2014 03:39:19 pm
Looks like fun emmý
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Yvonne
7/30/2014 01:20:42 am
Very cool! Glad that y'all are having fun. ;)
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