Summer Field Trip to Athens

Now that the girls are out of school, we are taking a few "field trips". This first one was to two local historical items in Athens. Here is a bit of history from wikipedia - The double barreled cannon: In 1862 John Gilleland, dentist, builder and mechanic, designed the only known double-barreled cannon in existence. Gilleland's invention was a failure. On 22 April 1862 the cannon was tested for the first time. The cannon was aimed at a target of two upright poles, but uneven detonation of the powder and casting imperfections in the barrels gave the connected balls a spinning movement in an off-center direction, destroying a cornfield and damaging some trees before the chain broke and one ball damaged a chimney and the other one killed a cow. It was reported that "the observers scattered as though the entire Yankee Army had been turned loose in that vicinity". "The tree that owns itself": The "tree that owns itself" is widely assumed to have legal ownership of itself and of all land within eight feet of its base. The original tree fell in 1942; a new tree was grown from one of its acorns and planted in the same location. The current tree is sometimes referred to as the "son of the tree that owns itself".

We have now enjoyed these bits of local history (it only took us a year!).
Alyssa loves things like this and was thrilled. Natalie and Jake thought they were pretty cool too. Logan . . . he would have enjoyed being elsewhere and didn't like getting in and out of the car for a few minutes of looking at something he didn't realize was really interesting.