Southern Hospitality

Well i did much better this time and took some pics while I was on my trip to Louisiana.  I had a great time there and Harold's family showed us a great time-(We missed you though, Mary Martha & Andrew).  I had never been to the real south before and needless to say I loved it! Here are some pics from my trip and unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries so I didn't capture everything.  Most of these pics are from our 2 day trip to Natchez, Mississippi where we visited a lot of old Antebellum homes.

We started out by eating at this fun little restaurant- only in the south can they get away with a place like this- love it!

me and Harold's mom, Martha.  also note the blueberry lemonade-delish!

This is where harold's grandparents lived there first year of marriage.  They lived on the second floor and his grandmother told us that it was tradition for the husband to carry his new bride up the stairs to their new home, which his grandfather did for her.  We found out later that the stairs were on the other side of the house but I love that tradition!

The place above is called the Elms and now is part of the garden club

This was the next plantation home we went to and it was huge!  Very beautiful and if you can see tiny in the picture that will really put things into perspective for you

This is what I was standing on in the picture above.  It is a little set of steps and was used to help them get on their horses.  Not sure if it was just for the women or if men used it too...

Just relaxing on this nice big porch.  I love how so many houses around here have big porches, I think I could get used to sitting around rocking on my porch all day.

I loved this cute blue home with the darker blue trip and the white detailing.  I also thought it was a cool pic with the Natchez water tank behind it.

This home is called Stanton Hall and we actually went inside this one. It is amazing inside and out.  These people must have had some serious money- thank you cotton.

A closer shot

This house is named Rosalie and another beautiful home.   I love the contrast of the red brick in it.  

The house above was right next to the Mississippi river.  This was my first time seeing it.  Huge.

This house's name has slipped my memory but is actually now owned by the government.  It is under some renovation but you can still go inside which was neat to see.  It also had the largest front lawn I have ever seen - like 2 football fields long. Maybe that's where the cotton was grown... ;)

This is Monmouth Plantation where we actually got to stay the night- It was a really beautiful place and we got to eat in the dining room and had a fancy 5-course dinner that was delicious on the most beautiful china set.

This is inside the house just right outside my room- cute lil china set!

You can see the house in the distance- so many homes had really large front lawns.  Unfortunately I didn't capture the back of the house because they had some amazing gardens, ponds, and overall beautiful grounds to walk around.

Here we are driving up to one of my favorite homes, Longwood.

Here is a closer shot of the place but it is so big it is hard to capture it all.  The house was actually never finished and when you go inside you can tell.  It is 6 floors high and has a basement where the family actually lived.  The owner had to leave for war and they weren't able to finish it so they lived in the basement.  Unfortunately after the war they didn't have the means to do so and always lived in the basement.  I couldn't take pictures inside it but the basement was well furnished and beautiful.  The architecture of this house is really neat because it is in a circular shape and very unique especially for the time.  had it been finished it would have been amazing.  But the fact that it wasn't finished gives it a very historical, authentic feel because it help shows some of the effects the ward had on these people and how so many people lost their fortunes.

This is us at Windsor Ruins.  This house burnt down soon after it was made.  Apparently someone's thrown away cigarette started the fire and when it happened the family was not at home.  The columns are huge and had it been saved it would have been one of the largest homes in the south.  Sad that after so much work and money the place burned down- wish I could've seen it in its glory days.

Helps you show how big these pillars were.  Even this picture doesn't do it complete justice.

Next we went to a little Mississippi town called Port Gibson. Really interesting little place and this was painted on the side of a wall and I thought it was fun

Ok so notice the captain moroni looking thing on top of this steeple? Well it is actually a gold hand with its finger pointed towards the sky/God.  I thought it was pretty funny but great that everyone here loves God!

 After this we went to Vicksburg but my camera died.  Vicksburg was where an important battle was fought during civil war and it was a quaint little town that I enjoyed.  We also went to the old courthouse where there was a sort of a pro confederacy museum there. haha. Only in the south. But it was really cool to see it and they had lots of interesting things in there.

Well unfortunately I didn't get many other pics outside of our trip to Natchez which I am bummed about but we had a lot of fun in Monroe, Louisiana where Harold is from.  There is a river in his backyard which you can go boating on so we took the boat out and did some skiing.  We also rode horses on the levy by his house which was fun to see the neighborhood and all the beautiful homes.  We went to some local stops and ate at some really yummy places. I loved the trip and loved spending time with his family, including his mommie (grandmother) and his sister with her husband and 2 kids.  I think it is safe to say we all had a great time even with the super hot heat!

I sure experienced some true southern hospitality...