Civil War Museum, Underground Railway Museum and a Surprise

Hi Y'all,
We are sure hearing lots of the southern drawl. It is so easy to fall into speaking this way! 
We are also finding a few sayings that are unique.
"No outlet" means a road with no exit.
"Take away" means a restaurant that does take out

It was a day of mixture today. 
Some heavy moments and some very light moments and a couple more God timing moments!

Anna-Lee has written her own blog about today that I found quite poignant. Find it here: http://letseatkentuckyfriedchicken.blogspot.com/
under today's date of August 6th.

From Linda
Going to a small Civil War museum was one of the highlights today. We were given a personal tour by the volunteer and told many stories including one about a woman spy who ended up both captured and rescued.
We had another God timing moment as we arrived just moments before a senior high school student who loves history so much he is involved in reenactments. He said he didn't know what to do today so he chose to come to the musuem and appeared in full Confederacy uniform. We spent quite a bit of time getting to know him this morning.
Both of these men had ancestors who fought in the Civil War for the union. One as a Brigadier General and the other in the Union cavalry.

"Henrietta," our GPS, had some trouble today. She kept trying to send us down one way streets the wrong way, doing illegal U turns, and turning down streets that were no longer even there! Going in circles in Cincinnati trying to find a parking space for the Underground Railway Freedom Museum got a tad frustrating when it appeared a Cincinnati Bengals Football game was also going on.
However, we soon discovered this was going to be another God timing moment.
We happened upon a parking space right outside the Stadium for the Bengals. We decided to go in and see if we could get some last minute tickets to catch at least a quick look at a US football game.
Instead, we found that it was the one day of the entire year that the Bengals open up the Stadium for families to come in free and watch them practice!

Orange was definitely the colour for today!

We even got to see a touchdown and the ROAR of the Bengal Tiger

Then it was a quick walk down the street to the Freedom Museum. This was an incredible experience that could take a week itself. It reminded me of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Israel.
Not only did it include a very deep and moving history of American slavery and escape via the underground railway, but it also included a very profound and intense look at slavery around the world today in the form of child labour in mining, textiles, stone and brick carrying especially in Nepal (just like the Hebrews in slavery in Egypt). It included children being thrown into a lake to untangle fishing nets in Ghana and human trafficking even in the USA. All of these were in a photo exhibit by photojournalist Lisa Kristine.

Just like Yad Vashem in Israel, this Museum has many personal testimonies

Outside the Museum they have an actual slab of stone from the Berlin Wall as a memorial.

The slab of the Berlin Wall. A memorial and tribute to freedom everywhere

To end the day we took a drive around the burbs of Cincinnati, with Anna-Lee shouting  left or right or straight ahead. We ended up in some very interesting neighbourhoods!

Anna-Lee and Linda playing the piano at the riverfront

A huge row of swings fitting 2, 3 or 4 people at once.

 

The river front is very wheelchair accessible

From Monica  
I thought the end of day drive was hilarious. At one point we deliberately went down a road that was marked "no outlet." Dad ended up having to back up it all the way as it was a narrow windy road with no turn around except a no trespassing driveway. It was pretty though with a little bridge and pond with some ducks and even Canada geese!

The Freedom Museum was powerful. I am glad we live in Canada.