Thursday, October 23, 2014

A Trip to the Library

291/365

One thing I wanted to do over Fall Break was go to the library.  Not just Any Library, I wanted to go to the downtown library.  Then last week, it was requested of me, that I pull together a cub scout field trip to a historic building.  Turns out, the Marion County Public Library (aka Central Library) downtown is a historic building!  Woohoo!  So that's where we headed.
I can remember my Dad taking my sister and I, or just me, down to the library, and I'd curl up and read. He'd leave me reading, and go find his 'blood books'.  Lisa and I had a theory, the bloodier the picture on the cover, the more he'd like it.


But this was the first time I got to take all my sweetboys to the library downtown.  
I parked them on the same stoop out front that Lisa and I would sit on.  And they took off running up the same steps that we would run up and down and up and down waiting for my Dad to catch up.  



Immediately after we arrived, the boys went to the kids area, and dug right in, while we waited for our tour to begin.  They called it the Vortex, a round area surrounded by bookshelves.  


During our tour, we got to visit the theatre room.  They had a great green screen, and the kids all pretended to walk on the moon. 


This was one of the old reading rooms.  I love that they had a fireplace still in it, but no actual fires were gonna happen here, they were sealed up.  


Look at the detail work in the ceiling.  Amazing! 
This part of the Library is the historic part, 97 years old, built in 1917. 


Oh, if these walls could talk! 
I could get lost for hours here! 


In 2007, they built a 6 story addition onto the back of the building, where more books, and the kids area now are.  There's a giant lobby, with a cafe, and a question station.  And you can see up into the floors



This sculpture is called the Peace Dove, it was in the lobby, it's made entirely from weapons confiscated by the Marion County Sherriff's office. Can you see the olive branch of peace is actually a revised gun?  Kind of cool.  


From the 6th floor, this was our view, out over the city, over the old building.  
The kids wondered if they could slide down the glass ceiling, like a snowhill.  Um, No.


There's something Beautiful to me about row after row of full bookshelves.  
This was my artsy shot. ;) 
There was a room, where they store 1st copies, and autographed things, that you can get an appointment to view.  I want to do that.  Can you imagine a signed work by James Whitcomb Riley or other local authors?  They even said they have a first print of Shakespeare, what a neat collection!
 The kids couldn't have cared less about that room, I could have stayed in that room forever, for sure. 


This was probably Chris's favorite part.  After going up to the top, we took the escalator back down.  
He had been bugging me to ride the escalators from the moment we walked in.  
Definitely his favorite.



At the librarian's suggestion, we added an Intro to Robots class. 
The library tour was 1/2 hour, so she added this on, to give us the full hour. 
And what Boy wouldn't want to learn about robots?  Nor girls either.  The siblings that tagged along had a wonderful time learning about these lego robots.  I didn't understand it, the gal talked too fast for me, but isn't that a sign of the times, that the kids just latched on to the technology and were able to program those robots like superchamps.  And they got them to go!  


They had a great time.  
And Jacob did wonderfully up until the end in my backpack carrier.  


As one last hurrah, I took a picture of them on the cement stoop inside that I used to curl up and read and wait for my Dad.  I remember how wonderfully cool that thing felt to lay on on a hot day.  Such a nice quiet place to read.  If you ever lose me, check the library, I may have found a quiet nook there, and be lost for a while to regain my sanity.   I Can't Wait to go back!

2 comments:

Elizabeth said...

This has motivated me to get to the Central Library soon! I have only been there a time or two in my life and that was about a decade ago. Looks amazing! Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

My Brownie co-leader got the info and set us up with the same deal you guys did, library tour & robot class. Thanks for the idea! -Kathleen