Tallahassee

Recently we visited Thomasville, Robby's home town.  We were pretty close to Tallahassee, FL, so we went there for the day.  Our intention was to visit the "Challenger Space Center" for a few hours.  But, when we got there, we discovered that there was (and I am bring totally serious) one display related to space.  Here it is:

Yep, there was one tire from a space shuttle.  The rest of the museum (and I am bring totally serious) consisted of some newspaper clippings from the Challenger tragedy and some Lego models of space vehicles.  We did watch an IMAX movie there, but were incredibly shocked at how small this museum was.  So, we left that museum and went to the Mission San Luis, which is a recreation of a Catholic Spanish mission.  The girls had the opportunity to make dolls out of corn husks:

 The finished product:

They had a huge structure which was used for big church services, but it was closed because they are putting a new thatch roof on it.  We had a fun time watching them put the thatch roof on, but were disappointed that the workmen were using pneumatic nail guns to attach the palm branches.

 We wandered through all the buildings.  Catherine loved this chair:

 Sabrina loved the broom made from a dried palm leaf:

 Sabrina trying on a hat:

This Spanish moss was laying in the sun so that all the bugs in it would die.  They would use it to stuff mattresses:

We saw a lengthy black smith demonstration.  But, we did not get any pictures of it - except this one.  It is hard to tell, but this man made a small twisted hook.  While it was still hot, he rubbed beeswax on it, creating a sealant.  He said that would keep the iron black and it would not rust.

 Here is an old grill:

 One of the highlights of the day was the archery lessons:

After just a few tries, Sabrina was actually able to shoot an arrow with enough force & direction to hit the target:

 Catherine picking out her next arrow:

 Another building was the apothecary.  The girls practiced grinding herbs & making medicine:

 The Mission includes a museum with an insane amount of drawers, each containing some artifact. 

We loved this historical day!