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

I'm 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; however, the sun came out, and it reached 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, where we enjoyed one of the beautifully decorated cupcakes placed on a table before us. Before we left, we picked 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 on I-65 through Birmingham, taking exit 238 for US 31 toward Alabaster. We then turned left onto US 119 and County Hwy 11, reaching our destination at 3727 Hwy 119 in Montevallo.

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

The cashier instructed us to head to the replica of Mount Vernon to celebrate George Washington's birthday, as the party was scheduled to begin at 11 A.M.

George Washington made his speech. 

George Washington stopped for a picture. 

Washington walked out onto the front porch and delivered 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 into the president's Oval Office, where we saw pictures of several future presidents on display. 

We visited the Randall Museum, where we saw miniature dolls depicting many events that have occurred in the US over the last 200 years. 

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

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, so we were to gently wiggle the tulip, and the bulb would release from the dirt. 

There were numerous 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, stir-fried 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 at the American Village in Montevallo.
George Washington came out of Washington Hall at 12:00 P.M. and gave a speech, and everyone sang Happy Birthday to him.
People lined up to receive a free cupcake, but there weren't enough 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 Chap, 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. Bell cracked when first tested. 

Two local foundrymen 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 of The Declaration of Independence took place 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.

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 and & Ronald Reagan. Pictures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, a group of Ford, Carter, Bush, Nixon, and Reagan. Books are written by various presidents. 

The Resolute desk is a large, nineteenth-century partners' desk, primarily used by presidents of the United States in the White House Oval Office. It was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, 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 among the South's public universities in its division, according to U.S. News & World Report.
College of Distinction
2012*2013*2014*2015*2016

Helping Hands 
The Becoming Sculpture was created by Ted Metz, an art professor at the University of Montevallo. 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 statue depicts two hands: a young hand representing university students reaching toward the future, and an older hand representing the university itself, guiding the students toward that future. The separation between the hands represents the student's graduation. The older hand was modeled after Metz's own, while the younger hand was modeled after one of his students' hands. The sculpture was created on campus by about 40 university students under Metz's direction 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 the burials.

Ate a Nacho Supreme for dinner

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