The federal government shutdown has caused multiple sites we wanted to see to be closed. I'm bummed because Tuskegee was one of the sites I most wanted to see in Alabama. I remember watching an old film about the Tuskegee Airmen and was inspired by it. A more recent film about them was called Red Tails. This airfield is home base--where it all began.
Though we couldn't go in to the buildings, I was able to run around and take some pictures. It was raining pretty hard at some points!
A panorama of the Tuskegee Airfield
Also closed was Booker T. Washington's home adjacent to Tuskegee University which he founded in 1881.
Washington's boyhood home.
Since all that was closed, it didn't take us as long as we thought to get through, so we headed over to Montgomery to catch some things we hadn't had time for during our last trip this direction. Our first stop was the Rosa Parks museum. Before paying, Bonnie took a quick peek to see if we wanted to do it and quickly realized that there wasn't much to it and wouldn't be worth the cost for our whole family. A bummer, as we were hopeful it would be great! She wondered if she was missing something, but it didn't seem like it. At any rate, we did decide to go on the children's "time-machine-bus-ride" next door and learned more about Rosa Parks' experience and other Civil Rights events.
The Rosa Parks Museum
From there we went over to the Freedom Riders museum and again Bonnie stepped in to peek. This one was even less than the Rosa Parks museum. In fact, it was all in the front room that she could see by stepping in to the front desk. Again, not worth paying for our whole family--those expenses add up fast with seven of us!
So we decided to split up. I would try the Civil Rights Memorial while Bonnie went around the corner to tour MLK Jr's church. The memorial building was engaging and thoughtful--well put together. Unfortunately the memorial itself was closed due to construction. :-/ But given that I only had to pay $2 for my entrance and that the kids entrance was free, it was well worth it even with the memorial itself being inaccessible.
A room inside the memorial building
Sisters being cute together
A mural at the Baptist church where Dr. King preached.
After heading home, we put together the gingerbread train the kids received as a Christmas present.
While they liked building it, I think they were most excited about eating it after. To their dismay, they found they didn't like gingerbread as much as they'd hoped! They sure liked the icing and candies though!
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