{Weekend Adventure} The Tigers Take Tally

This weekend, we headed down to Tallahassee to watch our Clemson Tigers take on the Florida State Seminoles, and brought our little football expert along for the ride...

Because I believe that getting there is more than half the fun, we of course made a few stops along the way...

We trucked it clear down to Tifton, GA on Friday night.

Then, on Saturday morning after admiring the seemingly endless fields of cotton, we made our first stop at the First Presbyterian Church in the tiny town of Quitman, GA...

 

Though I think this building was built after his tenure, James Pierpont, author of "Jingle Bells",  once served as the organist of this congregation...

After crossing over into Florida...

we stopped in another tiny town, Greenville, FL, the boyhood home of Ray Charles...

 

 

After our musical morning, we continued on in to Tallahassee...

and grabbed lunch at Andrew's Capital Grill & Bar, a favorite among local politicians and sports fans alike...

before another run up the state capitol steps just a block or so away...

 {See that little bit jumping?}

You can read about his first capitol steps run in Tallahassee here...

From there we headed over to the stadium...

 

and enjoyed yet another nailbiting Clemson win...

On the way home on Sunday, we made a quick pitstop at a memorial to President Dwight Eisenhower and his support of what we know as our interstate system today...

Phew...it was a quick little trip, but some good fun with our boy...

{All In a Day} Confederate Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens - Crawfordville, GA

Having grown up in this neck of the woods, and given our family's love of all things presidential, I've been wanting to get the littles down this way for a day trip. With school out for fall break and Hubby out of town with the guard for the long weekend, today was the day!

We headed out mid-morning, and spent most of the day in Crawfordville touring the house, museum and grounds of Liberty Hall, home of Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy...

 

Stephens is buried on the grounds of his beloved retreat...

On the way out of town, we swung by Stephens' birthsite...

And, since we just happened to be in the neighborhood, we took a mini "heritage tour" detour through Washington-Wilkes, the little town that I lived in from the time I was a  toddler through elementary school.  The littles were amazed that the post office I used to ride my bike to is still a post office, and that the bank where I had a little savings account is still a bank...  Oh, and that my primary school is still a school!!!  I mean, I'm not George Washington, kids...  The 1980s weren't that long ago, were they???  Ha!!!

I can't help but think that maybe my daddy was smiling down on us as his three grandchildren posed proudly in front of his old office building on the square...

...and would you believe that my childhood home is actually for sale???

Washington, D.C. {2016} - Day 3

Today Hubby got up early and headed out to meet up with a few of his S.C. Army National Guard colleagues for the 8:00am Army Ten-Miler race.  The 3 little ones and I grabbed a quick breakfast in the room, and hopped on the Metro to meet up with Hubby at the Pentagon and race their own little race...

We looove Champ the Cheetah!

Fun, yet WINDY, times...

After the youth runs finished up, we headed back to the hotel to freshen up & made a couple more stops on our way out of town...

Congressional Cemetery...

where we viewed the public vault, temporary resting place of more that 4,000 individuals, including Presidents John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor, First Lady Dolley Madison, and sixteen congressmen who died while serving in office, including Vice President John C. Calhoun...

and grave of our 5th VP, Elbridge Gerry, who served under President James Madison...

VP Elbridge Gerry, originally from Massachusetts, is also notably the only signer of the Declaration of Independence buried in the nation's capital...

We also happened upon the grave of John Philip Sousa, the famous composer and conductor, who the girls just happened to have been studying in music class last month.  They were actually kind of excited to find him there, since they're usually tagging along as we seek out dead politicians for their brother...

From there, we made a quick stop at the infamous "Deep Throat Parking Garage" in the Rosslyn community, over the Potomac from Washington, D.C.

No, we haven't gotten into any specific details of the Watergate Scandal with the little ones, but knowing that this little piece of history is scheduled to be demolished as early as next year paired with B's interest in all things presidential, I knew we needed to make a stop.

He'll thank me later, right???

After grabbing an early dinner in Fredericksburg, we made one last stop.  Still a private residence, the former home of Judge Joseph Jones, an uncle of James Monroe, is where the would be president lived 1786-1790...

See ya later, Virginia!