Okay........so let me think about a whole month ago. Really, it's been a month of moving missionaries opening/closing apartments and zone conferences. I wrote about some of the zone conferences. Well, the next week we had the conferences in the northern part of the mission. We drove the truck, pulling the trailer, because we had beds/furniture to haul around. We inspected all the cars during zone conference. Thankfully, the weather was not rainy. I didn't mind the cold--which was not too bad, again thankfully. I just didn't want to be wet. We even cleaned out apartments and moved Elders when we went to Montgomery for our "senior outing" on the 4th.
First you have to indulge me by looking at our MLC lunch on March 1..........We had Cafe Rio chicken salad.... front to back, fresh tortillas from the Mi Pueblo supermarket--yummy; pinto beans, chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, cilantro and the tomatillo dressing. Then they pick up a glass of water and back into the room to sit down. We put the tables right down the middle of the hall so they can go down both sides. President Hanks does not like time wasted dishing up food!
This if from the other end so you can see Sister Newmans beautiful fruit......... Then we had a blueberry dessert Roger has been wanting me to make for ever so long.........
The trees are blooming!!!! Aren't these lovely things? Sorry for the wires and cars........
I don't know what these red things are either.........just out in the forest, along the roads. And I also recognize the red bud......I love those. I'm going to plant one when we get home!
This statue is in the middle of an intersection in Demopolis.........
Okay........ March 4....... we had a "senior outing" in Montgomery at the state capitol........... a beautiful building. I love the history and all.............. Out in front of the building they have an arc of flagpoles for all the state flags in the Union. Cool! They were putting up new flags the day we were there. And at the foot of each state flag is a stone that is pretty obviously sent to them from the State. I had thought, "granite, of course" but I suppose it could have been red sandstone?
What's this, Nancy? Hawaii has some black pumice........
The front of the capitol building............ It burned to the ground somewhere around 1840 so this one was built not long before the war...... wide marble steps all down the front...... not Alabama marble. We learned later--maybe I have a picture.......ahhhh, the suspense!!
Just inside the front door gorgeous circular stairways on both sides. I love the soft lighting and the creamy walls with the dark wood. (I really think the walls are whiter than the picture. The second one is more accurate.)
The rotunda.......yes, it's really pink......
This is the Senate Chamber....... the infamous room where they voted to secede from the Union. It still makes my heart sink.......
I wonder if this picture was behind the Speaker's chair at that time.......I'm sure it made his heart ache.
The paint is "eye fooling" paint. It looks like moulding and raised panels, but really, it's a flat wall. It is a really pretty room. That's the "peanut gallery"--so called because people would sit up there and throw peanuts down when they were displeased with something or someone.
And down the stairs............
The "Executive Residence".......because Lincoln lived in the "White House".....they don't call it that, though the tourist books call it "the first White House of the Confederacy". (I think it looks very much like Lincoln's house in Springfield--though a different color.)
The capitol from the front porch of the Executive Residence. A side view. The clock is in front--oh! and it looks like the state flags are on this side, not in front like I said. Sorry.
Inside the State Archives (or something like that) the walls are Alabama marble. Aren't they beautiful! Alabama marble was used for the Washington D.C. temple. I think also the Supreme Court building and the Lincoln Memorial.......don't quote me on that, but I think so. Oh! notice the marble on the floor? Barely in the bottom right of the picture? It's Tennessee marble. Why? you ask didn't they put Alabama marble on the floor as well? "Because you don't walk on Alabama marble"!
