Yesterday, Nicholas had PT in Charleston, and since it was such a nice day, I decided to spend the rest of the day exploring with the kids.
We had a couple of quick errands to run, and while we were doing that, I tried to find a few things for the handbell choir at church. That in turn led me to Gorby's music store in South Charleston. There I met another McWhorter! He is actually part of the family in some way or another. He is a descendant of Henry, just as Mike is. I have touched base with the McWhorter "genealogy guy," Bob, and he doesn't have much on this branch of the family but remembers hearing the names I gave him. I just thought it was funny that I found this guy...and it was on a whim!
Then I asked Nicholas if he would like to see the capital building. He said he would, so we headed that direction. We went to the capital, as well as the WV state museum. Approaching the seat of WV's government, the kids liked the flock of pigeons we saw. (Mommy didn't!) As we got closer, Nicholas was in awe of the golden dome on top of the building. It is a beautiful site! We went inside and looked at the displays around the rotunda. Then we went to the middle of the floor and looked up. There is a beautiful, round chandelier that hangs in the rotunda; Nicholas said "it looks like a disco." As we headed out of the building, the governor's office was to our left. We walked through the reception area. Nicholas wanted to know if this is where Barrack Obama worked. I told him no, this was Gov. Manchin's office, but the President probably has a similar office in Washington, DC. (He is so clever at times!)
As we finally exited the building, I saw a very familiar man headed toward us. It was Governor Joe Manchin! (He is familiar because he is from Fairmont, my hometown.) He was on his phone, but when he got finished, he approached us and asked "who do we have here?" Funny thing is, my dad knows the Governor personally, so, of course, I added that tidbit to my response. Nicholas and I both got hand shakes and Elizabeth had her hair rustled. (It was funny to see Nicholas telling me that last night as I was relaying the story to my dad on the phone, because I thought that he had just patted her on the head. No - I got the full visual on what really happened!) I thought that it was really nice that he took a few seconds of his time to speak to someone on the street....and at that point, he didn't even know who we were!
Next, we went to the state museum. It was really a nice exhibit! It's built so that you walk through time. It starts with WV a LONG time ago (when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) and how we were part of the rain forest and then how the coal got there. Then you progress into the time of settlement and the Indians, and then on John Brown and Harper's Ferry and into the Civil War. There is a tunnel made to look like a coal mine. The pathway through the exhibit goes from dirt like to railroad tracks to a two-lane road. Along the way, there are lots of little discovery rooms (as they call them). Each one has all kinds of neat things to see and learn about. And at the very end, there was a video of scenes throughout the state accompanied by music. It was really nice. I definitely want to go again. There were lots of things that I didn't get to spend as much time looking at as I would have liked. Both of the kids were ready to move on, but I do think that they liked seeing it.
We made a quick stop at the gift shop. There were lots of neat things in there too! Then it was back to the car. I have to tell you that I made it back with 3 minutes left on the meter! I was pretty impressed with that!!!
We had a WONDERFUL time together yesterday!
We had a couple of quick errands to run, and while we were doing that, I tried to find a few things for the handbell choir at church. That in turn led me to Gorby's music store in South Charleston. There I met another McWhorter! He is actually part of the family in some way or another. He is a descendant of Henry, just as Mike is. I have touched base with the McWhorter "genealogy guy," Bob, and he doesn't have much on this branch of the family but remembers hearing the names I gave him. I just thought it was funny that I found this guy...and it was on a whim!
Then I asked Nicholas if he would like to see the capital building. He said he would, so we headed that direction. We went to the capital, as well as the WV state museum. Approaching the seat of WV's government, the kids liked the flock of pigeons we saw. (Mommy didn't!) As we got closer, Nicholas was in awe of the golden dome on top of the building. It is a beautiful site! We went inside and looked at the displays around the rotunda. Then we went to the middle of the floor and looked up. There is a beautiful, round chandelier that hangs in the rotunda; Nicholas said "it looks like a disco." As we headed out of the building, the governor's office was to our left. We walked through the reception area. Nicholas wanted to know if this is where Barrack Obama worked. I told him no, this was Gov. Manchin's office, but the President probably has a similar office in Washington, DC. (He is so clever at times!)
As we finally exited the building, I saw a very familiar man headed toward us. It was Governor Joe Manchin! (He is familiar because he is from Fairmont, my hometown.) He was on his phone, but when he got finished, he approached us and asked "who do we have here?" Funny thing is, my dad knows the Governor personally, so, of course, I added that tidbit to my response. Nicholas and I both got hand shakes and Elizabeth had her hair rustled. (It was funny to see Nicholas telling me that last night as I was relaying the story to my dad on the phone, because I thought that he had just patted her on the head. No - I got the full visual on what really happened!) I thought that it was really nice that he took a few seconds of his time to speak to someone on the street....and at that point, he didn't even know who we were!
Next, we went to the state museum. It was really a nice exhibit! It's built so that you walk through time. It starts with WV a LONG time ago (when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) and how we were part of the rain forest and then how the coal got there. Then you progress into the time of settlement and the Indians, and then on John Brown and Harper's Ferry and into the Civil War. There is a tunnel made to look like a coal mine. The pathway through the exhibit goes from dirt like to railroad tracks to a two-lane road. Along the way, there are lots of little discovery rooms (as they call them). Each one has all kinds of neat things to see and learn about. And at the very end, there was a video of scenes throughout the state accompanied by music. It was really nice. I definitely want to go again. There were lots of things that I didn't get to spend as much time looking at as I would have liked. Both of the kids were ready to move on, but I do think that they liked seeing it.
We made a quick stop at the gift shop. There were lots of neat things in there too! Then it was back to the car. I have to tell you that I made it back with 3 minutes left on the meter! I was pretty impressed with that!!!
We had a WONDERFUL time together yesterday!
No comments:
Post a Comment