{Spring Break} A Little Presidential Fun...

...just to break up everything gubernatorial, you know???

Today we headed up the mountain to visit with my mom, and I finally got the little ones over to see the model used by Charles Keck to sculpt the "Presidents North Carolina Gave the Nation" statue that sits outside the North Carolina State Capitol.  It sits right inside the lobby of the Hendersonville City Hall...

 {with his favorite, President James K. Polk}

There's a pretty neat story that goes along with how it ended up here, too (relocated from a warehouse in Rhode Island of all places)...

Of course, its always interesting to see which states lay claim  to which presidents and why...

Both James K. Polk and Andrew Johnson were actually born in North Carolina ~ Polk in Pineville and Johnson in Raleigh ~ but they lived most of their lives (and are both buried) in Tennessee...

By many accounts, Andrew Jackson is a stretch.  He, too, is generally associated with Tennessee, living out his adult life there and being buried there, but his actual place of birth is up for dispute.  Both North Carolina AND South Carolina claim him and have each erected their own memorials to him on either side of the state line!

While up in North Carolina for the day, we also made a stop by one of my mother's favorite bookstores...

Though his interests these days lean more toward football - football players, football cards, college football, Madden NFL, the NFL in general, and every single football statistic he can cram in his brain, take him in a used bookstore and this is what he comes out with...

Love our little football-obsessed lover of presidents, so...

What a fun day connecting with part of the beginnings of something we visited more than 3 years ago, a true, full-circle moment...

{North Carolina State Capitol ~ February, 2014}