2022 Dec 1, Athens Christmas Parade and Adventures Athens, AL

Athens Courthouse was decorated for the holidays, and crowds of people lined up to watch the Christmas Parade. 

North Pole & Candy Carnival Float in the Christmas Parade 

I had a hard time getting good pictures at the parade. They were moving pretty fast, and we were sitting inside the car, so I had to take them through the windows. But I did get a few good ones. We enjoyed the parade & shopping at UG White Mercantile. 

We bought supper at Zaxby's in Athens, but our food was overcooked, so we didn't eat much of it. We did buy a couple of Chocolate coconut Macadamia candies at UG White Mercantile. The parade was over at about 8. 

We parked right across the street facing Merchant's Alley, waiting for the Athens Parade.

Christmas at UG White Merchantile 

 It is merchandise that sells southern-made goods, where treasures can be found like stepping back in time. 

We stopped in Rogersville to see their Christmas Trees in the park. 

Rogersville Tinsel Trail 

Stopped at Jack's for a couple of Strawberry cheesecake pies and was in bed a little after 9. 

From 1-3 Crafting at the Florence Library (making a Christmas card with watercolors.)

🎂🎂🎂 2017 February 20, Celebrating Washington's Birthday Montevallo, Alabama

Hubby and I celebrated Washington's Birthday in Montevallo at the American Village.
George Washington came out of Washington Hall at 12:00PM and gave a speech and everyone sang Happy birthday to him.
People lined up to receive a free cupcake but there were not enough cupcakes to go around.

Celebrating Washington's Birthday

The exterior of the hall is inspired by George Washington's beloved Mount Vernon. It has beveled-edge block walls. When mixed with paint and sand it gives the appearance of stone masonry, a process called "rustication".

The unique open-air colonnade walkways to the dependency buildings were personally designed by Washington. The four-columned portico is reminiscent of the piazza on the back of Mount Vernon, which overlooks the Potomac. The large Palladian window in The Mount Vernon Room is defined by the arched window, 

Greatest Miniature Museum 

Hall of Presidents and First Ladies

Founders Hall

We visited Colonial Chapel where we listened to a story about a slave who wrote poetry. 

We strolled through the Liberty Bell Garden

The Liberty Bell 

The Liberty Bell was commissioned on November 1, 1751, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges for his Pennsylvania colony. The radical charter granted religious liberty to persecuted faiths, including Quakers, Jews, Catholics, and others, thus establishing America’s tradition of religious freedom.

The Bell cracked when first tested. 

Two local foundry men recast The Bell and it began service in 1753 tooling special events. In the Revolutionary War, The bell tolled to announce the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the first public reading goes The Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.

It cracked again on July 8, 1835, during the funeral procession of Chief Justice John Marshall. It was repaired but cracked again in 1846 when it rang for George Washington’s birthday. It has not been rung since. It was not called “The Liberty Bell” until 1839 when William Lloyd Garrison’s anti-slavery publication, “The Liberator” published a poem about the Bell. This use by advocates of the anti-slavery movement made The Bell a new symbol of freedom.

We strolled through the fields of Tulips selecting a few to take home.

Oval Office We visited the Oval Office located in the West Wing of the White House where the last 45 presidents have spent many hours working. We saw a bust of Abraham Lincoln, & Ronald Reagan.  Pictures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, a group of Ford, Carter, Bush, Nikon, and Reagan. Books are written by various presidents. 

The Resolute desk is a large, nineteenth-century partners' desk mostly chosen by presidents of the United States for use in the White House Oval Office as the Oval Office desk. It was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the English oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship Resolute. 

We saw two little girls sharing a seat at Independence Hall

 Montevallo University ranked 13th best public university in the south in its division U.S. News & World Report
College of Distinction
2012*2013*2014*2015*2016

Helping Hands 
The Becoming Sculpture was created by Ted Metz, a University of Montevallo art professor. The sculpture, 16 feet tall and made of bronze, was unveiled on February 15, 2003. The pedestal underneath the sculpture is made of limestone and red bricks. The sculpture depicts two hands: a young hand representing university students reaching out toward the future, and an older hand representing the university itself guiding the student to that future. The separation between the hands represents the student’s graduation. The older hand was modeled after Metz’s own hand, while the younger hand was modeled after one of his student’s hands. The sculpture was created on campus by about 40 university students under the direction of Metz and took 22 months to complete. Approximately 90 individual molds were cast using 5000 pounds of bronze. The sculpture stands near Main Hall and Wills Hall.

We visited the Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo. 
Initial construction began in November 2008 and created space for 1,000 casket burials and 1,000 in-ground cremations. Except for minor irrigation work, construction was completed in early June 2009. The grounds were consecrated on June 18, 2009, one week before burials.

Ate a Nacho Supreme for dinner

It was a great day for traveling.
We were home by 6:30PM.