2019 Feb 8, Celebrating George Washington's Birthday and Picking Tulips in Montevallo, Alabama

So glad hubby and I did a little traveling today because the next few days are calling for rain. 

It was cold when we left home this morning, the sun came out and it got up in the high 50s today.

But before we got home it was back in the low 40s. 

We traveled to Montevallo to help celebrate George Washington's birthday, to eat one of the beautifully decorated cupcakes placed on a table before us, and before we leave we are going to pick a basket of freshly grown tulips.

On our adventure, we stopped at Jack's in Athens for a drink and a cream cheese cherry pie.

We traveled I-65 through Birmingham taking exit 238 US 31 toward Alabaster, we turned left onto US 119 County hwy 11 reaching our destination at 3727 Hwy 119 Montevallo.

Hubby parked the car and we walked to the front entrance of the museum and paid the admission price. 

The cashier told us to head to the replica of  Mount Vernon to Celebrate George Washingtons' birthday for the party that began at 11 AM.

George Washington made his speech 

George Washington stopping for a picture 

Washington walked out onto the front porch and made a speech and when he finished the crowd sang Happy Birthday to President Washington.

Washington walked out into the crowd stopping for pictures and shaking hands with people in the crowd.

We walked inside the president's oval office where we saw on display pictures of several future presidents. 

We visited the Randall Museum with miniature dolls about many events that happened in the US in the last 200 years. 

The Randal Museum also displayed in miniature the Presidents and their wives.

We walked inside the National Chapel which was just a few yards away from the Randal Museum. 

US Presidents and wives

The National Chapel 

The last building we toured was the Veterans Memorial building. 

Veterans Building

We took the trolley out to the Garden of Tulips where we were greeted and given a basket to place our picked tulips. 

We were told the soil was soft, to gently wiggle the tulip and the bulb would release from the dirt. 

There were so many different types and colors to choose from. I picked several in full bloom and several just budding. 

We took the trolley back to the entrance paid for our tulips and began our travel home.  

Fields of Tulips

America Village Festival of The Tulips You pick your own $1.50 each

Panda Express 

We stopped at Panda Express Decatur for dinner where we ordered Honey Walnut shrimp, one egg roll, green beans, chicken, stirred wheat noodles with onions, celery cabbage, and three cream cheese Rangoons 

🎂🎂🎂 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 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 listen 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