The school year may be over, but the learning shouldn’t stop… sound familiar? My dad used to use that line on me as a kid. It was his way of trying to convince me (and my brothers) that our summer days would be better spent at the museum rather than at the local pool.
In previous blogs I have offered many suggestions for summer vacation destinations, though I will sheepishly admit many of them fall under the amusement park/water park category. That said the following more-educationally-friendly destinations (my dad would be so proud) are ones you may want to add to your summer travel itinerary, especially if you have school age children.
Frederickson, Virginia is the site of the soon-to-be open U.S. National Slavery Museum. It won’t be ready in time for your summer trip this year, but a garden meant to signify the struggle of slaves to be free is scheduled to open next week.
On June 21st the Spirit of Freedom Exhibit Garden will open to the public. It has nine educational displays about abolitionists, runaway slaves, acts of bravery and the need for endurance on the road to freedom. In addition, the garden features wooden carvings from West Africa, where many of the slaves were from. The garden gives visitors a taste of what’s to come when the actual 290,000-square-foot slavery museum opens late next year. The structure will be home to more than 5,000 historic relics of slavery, galleries and a full-scale replica of a Portuguese slave ship.
The garden is opening this summer to coincide with the other outdoor activities planned for this year’s 400th anniversary commemoration of the founding of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English settlement.
If your summer travels take you anywhere near Atlanta, Georgia you may want to swing by Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum. That’s where an exhibit of Holy Land artifacts from the first through sixth centuries is on display. The exhibit offers a glimpse into everyday life in what is now Israel at the time when Christianity emerged. It also provides visitors with a lesson on how rooted Christianity was in Judaism.
Some of the more notable displays include:
· Tableware from first century Jerusalem, the kind that would have been used at the Last Supper.
· Stone burial boxes, inscribed with the names Mary and Jesus to show that those names were very commonplace among the Jewish community at the time.
· An 1895 photograph of the village of Cana.
· Six large stone vessels similar to the stone jars described in John’s Gospel as used at a wedding feast in Cana where Jesus turned water into wine.
· A fragment of the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls from the first century, the Temple Scroll, which called for a new interpretation of the Torah.
· An interactive map illustrating some of the sanctuaries built across the Holy Land.
· A reconstruction of a Byzantine church through artwork from different structures, including a small baptismal font.
The exhibit entitled, “Cradle of Christianity” is on view at the museum through October 14th.
Other Educational Vacation Destinations:
East Coast Whale Watching Adventures
Atlanta-Where To Go Outside Of The City
Visiting Pearl Harbor’s Newest Attraction
Pearl Harbor: An Unforgettable Trip
Hawaii’s “Not So Famous” Military Memorials
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl