Monday, September 19, 2011

Old Salem

Old Salem is this super old area up around Winston Salem. Really close to the hospital where we always take Caleb. Who knew this was like 2 exits up? Anyway, they were having homeschool days last week so we took advantage of it. The Andersens (minus Chris) along with Ella, the Lewis girls, and a couple of Kales, all piled into the vans and headed back in time.

This is the covered bridge that takes you into Old Salem.

This church was a black church that the slaves went to once they converted to "moravian-ism"

hanging out before the official tour started

This lady told us all about electricity and how this church was one of the first (if not the first) black church in NC to have electricity. This is also where the slaves say when they heard that they had been emancipated - yes it was all that old and original!

This man was also talking about electricity and told us about some black man who helped invent light bulbs. and then we got to play with light bulbs and electricity!



I think this was the tavern. Not like a drinking alcohol tavern, just a hotel/restraunt that was called a tavern. George Washington even stayed here at some point!
These ladies told about different parts of the tavern like the bedrooms and kitchen.

The boys weren't very interested in any of it.....

Look at Cadence and Ella taking themselves tot he woodshed :)

This man was doing some kind of gun demonstration.

Pumping water. Everyone had fun with this since it was still hot on this day.



We watched the men of the town look at the equipment in the Fire Department and then it was time for an old-fashioned fire drill! So, everyone came out into the street to be a part of the bucket brigade. It was so fun to watch all the kids work together to fill the "fire truck" with water. It's a good thing we didn't live in Old Salem a long time ago because the whole town would have burned down :)

Some of us chose to watch instead of participate - although i'm sure Caleb, given the opportunity would have been right in the middle of it!

Click HERE to watch a video of all the fun!


This is a really old pipe organ that was in the Moravian church. I don't have lots of details on these next pictures because I chose to stay outside with the boys so that maybe our kids could actually learn/hear something.

Using flint to make a fire.

In Old Salem, there's also a real Moravian bakery. It had lots of breads and cookies that were super good.

Blogger is being stupid, but there were also plenty of modern-day drinks to choose from. Cadence always wants a Tummy Yummy from Target but I never buy them for her. So, she was pretty excited that Mrs. Karen took her into the bakery so that she could get one :)


This is what the boys did while Cadence was in the bakery.


We all had such a fun time at Old Salem. and I'd say that our first field trip was a success!
Creed would agree :) I think every post should end with a picture of this boy smiling because it's just so darn cute!

2 comments:

Elizabeth Bradley said...

What a fun field trip! You guys saw and did a lot. And as always, your girl just gets bigger and bigger.

mama said...

One cute grin for sure!! Looks like it was educational, so glad you got to take Shae on her first of many!