Getting up for this adventure found me and my mom taking our time lazing about drinking tea and making breakfast. We were excited to get on the road, but sometimes there is nothing like a cozy Saturday morning at home to start the day, especially with February giving us some just right weather on this day. Warm Springs is about an hour outside of Atlanta and a location that is filed with more history sites than actual activities that will get you dirty like any of my other visits. My mom also likes to visit different historical places, so we did this trip as a mother-daughter adventure. Spending time with her made me realize how much I have picked up of her ways and tendencies. On the way down to Warm Springs, we found ourselves enjoying the sounds of Prince and Luther Vandross. I let my mom play the DJ, but I enjoy all her music just as much as she does. At one point, we ended up on a bumpy dirt road traveling through what seemed to be a small forest, as we had gotten a little of track while listening to Prince’s Raspberry Beret in the background, which was a fairly comical scene.
Warm Springs is actually the name of a small town in Georgia and one of the springs that resides there where late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would visit often to swim in pools filled with water from the spring and relieve his polio. This was said to be where he learned about the issues of Americans and received inspiration for the New Deal legislations. The town still shows a lot of love to FDR with his Little White House, his second home he had built in Warm Springs, now on display with a Museum dedicated to his legacy also on the grounds. You can see how FDR touched the town almost everywhere that you go, with murals of him painted on some of the walls. When we first got to the town, we went straight to the Warm Springs Treatment Pools, which is the restored site of the location of the pools in which FDR used to swim when he was there. The pools are no longer filled with water, but the site has historic facts about FDR and polio and a fountain in the midst of the pools where you can touch the spring water and take a small sample for yourself to go.
As I put my hands into the natural spring water, I felt the perfect 88 degrees temperature water for which the spring got its name Warm Springs. Pulling my hands out of the spring water, they seemed to have a natural glow to them. I do not think that they have every felt softer than after being in that water. I can only imagine what it is like to be able to swim in it. While I was not able to do more than put my hands in the water, close by is the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation, where the water from the spring is still used to treat patients with other disabilities since the invention of the polio vaccine. While I did not know this when I went, you can also do tours of this facility.
After we left the pool site, we drove around to also see FDR’s Little White House, which was his second home outside of the actual White House in Washington, D.C. My mom and I spent time taking in every historical marker and fact in the museum and on the grounds and talking to the women that worked at the facility. There was also a display of each state’s official stone. After quizzing the people and taking in the sites, I learned random facts such as Georgia’s state stone is pink marble, and the tissue on display at his house is the actual tissue that was there when he passed and is now encased because people started taking samples of the tissue when they left. We found ourselves as the last ones on the grounds of The Little White House, but this did not stop us from getting some Sweet Potato Butter from the gift shop before leaving because we were curious to know how it tastes. (The answer is good, in case you were wondering.)
As we walked through the town at the end of the day looking through their shops and prepared for the drive back, I laughed a little to myself and thought how there was no one else that I would have rather spent the day with. I realized that my mom is the source of my love for nature, museums, and all things exploring, as I had watched her exhibit the same inquisitive nature, observing every detail, sight, and fact, and singing along to some of her favorite songs in the car that I find myself listening to when I drive alone. Her tendencies have gradually become a part of me without me even realizing that it was happening.
When is the last time that you spent quality time with or showed appreciation for a parent or significant role model in your life?
What tendencies do you find yourself having inherited from your parents and/or significant individuals in your life?
How have these individuals influenced your interests and values?
How have these inherited ways shaped the life path that you are currently on?
Share your thoughts in the comments below! to check out my post on Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” and
P.S. This week has a special bonus read. Head over to citeasista.com to check out my post on Protecting Our Boundaries: Thoughts from Becoming, to read my reflections from the book on enforcing (or reinforcing) boundaries in our personal lives.
P.S. This week has a special bonus read. Head over to citeasista.com to check out my post on Protecting Our Boundaries: Thoughts from Becoming, to read my reflections from the book on enforcing (or reinforcing) boundaries in our personal lives.
Read more about my challenge to see Georgia’s 7 Natural Wonders:
Great read Shannon… To answer one of your questions above, I would definitely say I have inherited my dads go getter spirit. I saw him take advantage of any opportunity to grow and help improve yourself. I must say that my dads story pushed me to move to states where I knew no one but knew it was for a bigger purpose.
Thanks for sharing! I think that is such a great quality to have. Venturing out on your own is not something that is easy to do, but it is helpful to have those who have experienced that before you in your corner to take bigger steps for yourself.