We go through and to Austin quite often. So he's seen the Capitol building, the bats on Congress Avenue (I know not important to Texas history but still fun to watch), and various museums. This time, I thought I'd take them to two places: The state cemetery in Austin, and Washington-on-the-Brazos.
So on Thursday, after we had lunch with Kevin and a friend, we went to the State Cemertery. The kids were automatically impressed. It's quite a beautiful place. It's quiet, cool, and has several majestic trees. We stopped off in the Visitor's Center and watched a video, then looked at the timeline of events that have shaped Texas and the history of the cemetery. I was surprised that the kids were interested in it. Usually after about 5 minutes, they're reading to go. Not this time, they watched the entire video and then walked through the timeline information. Caroline stood patiently, and actually listened, when I read her the information. Then, it was time to go out and look around. The kids immediately found several of the grave sites that were in the video. Caroline was extremely proud of herself for that one. We found the grave site of Tom Landry (with the easily identifiable hat), Stephen F. Austin (got a picture with them on that one), and several others. We read several of the tombstones (since they give the information about their service to Texas), and they both found it interesting that there were old graves mixed in with newer ones. We also found Connoly's grave. Jack became interested in him after watching a documentary on the assasination of Kennedy.
We took a break from our travels on Friday and Saturday to attend the Extremity games. It's a small operation, but it's interesting. Amputees from all over can come and participate in events that range from Cycling to Rock Climbing. It's very interesting to watch and inspirational at the same time. On Friday they had clinics and the kids were very interested in the Rock Climbing. Caroline got up the nerve to try it, and Craig (the guy who was leading the clinic) was very patient with her. He gave her confidence by showing her he wasn't going to let her fall. The interesting thing is, Craig is an amputee. He lost one of his legs in a climbing accident but continues to climb anyway. He even designed a foot that would allow him to better climb, simulating what an actual foot would do when climbing. Caroline didn't make it to the top the first time, but she took a break, went back and tried again. Craig was so patient with her. She finally made it to the top and rang the bell. She was so proud of herself. After that, you couldn't take her anywhere. All she wanted to do was climb. Craig let her as many times as she wanted. She ended up going up two more times. The other good thing was, she was better at it than Jack. It was a boost to her confidence because Jack's always been better at things. Now she was the better one.
We decided to stay on Sunday. Kevin went with us to Washington on the Brazos. It was a 2 hour drive and we ended up taking a detour (not planned) to the Chappel Hill museum. The kids enjoyed it, but I was disappoined because it wasn't the place I wanted to be. Kevin found out where the park was, and we headed out. We got to the park 45 minutes before it closed and headed to the visitor's center. Connie, was a volunteer there and she was tickled that we were there for a history tour. I had explained to her why we were there. She ended up taking us to one of the museums so she could lock up. She gave the kids a wonderful lesson on the importance of Indepence Hall and answered all of their questions. The kids helped her close it down for the evening, and we walked around the rest of park. The kids learned some very valuable aspects that Jack hadn't learned in class. He learned about Washington on the Brazos, the Indepence Hall, the Declaration of Indepence, and The Runaway Scrape. They talked about it on the way home and I know they learned some very valuable information.
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