Thursday, October 29, 2015, Montgomery, AL

We finally ventured into Montgomery, AL, today with an extensive list of places to visit.  Union Station, below, was just a bit of serendipity as it housed the Visitor's Center.  It was adjacent to the river, so we spent an hour walking around the developments lining the water.

The Alabama Capitol was the least ostentatious we have seen so far.  We actually found this to be refreshing.  It showed a bit of fiscal responsibility on the part of the state politicians.  Their money was still well spent - the building was impressive (as long as you didn't look too closely at the details).

History buffs, especially those interested in the Civil War, appreciate this as the capital of the Confederate States of America.  Across the street was the Archives Building which was built for the president of the CSA (the Confederate equivalent of the White House).  I am not one of those Civil War history buffs, so we walked around the capitol building, appreciated the architecture, snapped our pics and left after about 30 minutes.

The 1920 murals were painted on canvas and then attached to the wall and illustrate Alabama's history.  They were created by Scottish-born Roderick Mackenzie.

Next stop - another art museum.  The museum was larger than it first appeared.  It was set in a large, well-used park with lots of trails.

Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts

Below is a sampling of some of our favorites. 

Ojigi-Bowing, 2010, by Karen LaMonte, cast glass (5 ft. tall)

Dusk Wings, 1860, by Thomas Moran, Oil on canvas

Daniel, 1976-77, by Joseph Hirsch, oil on canvas

 Close-up, the flesh tone is bursting with color. (Click on the picture to enlarge.)

 Hills Before Taos, 1930, by Georgia O'Keeffe, oil on canvas

 Standing Donut, 2009, by Jaehyo Lee, chestnut on painted steel stand

 New York Office, 1962, by Edward Hopper, oil on canvas

 Twelve Degrees of Freedom, 1983, by R. Buckminster Fuller, chrome and stainless steel wire

The museum had an interactive section where, thanks to a full-size set, Joani was able to walk into one of the masterworks (see Edward Hopper's, New York Office above).

An extensive children's area was empty on a Thursday midday.

We headed to Cheddar's for a late lunch/early dinner before the day's final stop at the Hyundai plant for a tour. Our tour was scheduled for 6:30. We arrived at 5:59 and were turned away because we were not allowed in more than 30 minutes before our tour. Seriously, we drove down the road a half-mile, made a U-turn, returned to the gate and we were then allowed in. Cameras were prohibited so there are no pictures, which is unfortunate because the tour was very impressive.

Hyundai Plant (pronounced Hunday - photo lifted from their webpage) 

The plant cranks out 1,550 cars per day (399,500 cars/year at full capacity). They build Sonatas and Elantras in this 2 million square foot facility on 1,744 acres. Nearly 500 robots and 3,000 employees work an amazingly choreographed assembly line to turn raw materials delivered on a "just-in-time" basis into finished cars. There was so much going on we will have to visit again someday to see what we missed!