 Our intention had been to spend one more day in Mobile but this morning we awoke feeling worn out by a month of travelling and decided that what we needed was head for Apalachicola and just relax for a few days. Since Apalachicola was a four-hour drive and we had two things we wanted to do that were not exactly on the way it took us all day to get there.
Click Read More below right...
0 Comments
 On the way to GulfQuest we drove through some lovely live oak shaded Mobile neighborhoods. This was a big day for Mobile with two Mardi Gras parades and the Senior Bowl. We were stopped at one point by the motorcycle and siren blaring police cars accompanying the fan buses being transported from the center of Mobile to the stadium. Southern fans are serious about their college football but before today we didn’t even know what the Senior Bowl was. We called Will and asked – it’s the country’s best senior collegiate players and top NFL draft prospects on teams representing the North and South.
Click Read More below right...  Today we added to our list of superb southern Gardens. Bellingrath Gardens is just south of Mobile. It’s the garden that Coca Cola built. Mr. Bellingrath was a distributor of Coca Cola who turned his Fishing Camp on the Fowl (a large natural channel of water) River into a grand home and Mrs. Bellingrath who after a trip to see Europe’s grand gardens built one for herself. Open to the public since the 1930’s the 65 acres are even a joy to behold in late January. Especially since the weather was like a beautiful spring day. We happily walked three miles completing the loop through the different landscapes. Hopefully the photographs will do it justice.
Click Read More below right...  Before leaving St. Francisville we wanted to see the gardens at the Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site. When picking which plantations we wanted to see on this trip we chose those that had a compelling story. Rosedown did not make the grade but it did have 25 acres of historic gardens and 12 outbuildings that could be seen without taking the house tour.
Click Read More below right...  Recently I read Richard Rhodes biography of John James Audubon. One of the places Audubon travelled to in his quest to find and draw the Birds of America was Oakley Plantation. He was here for four months in 1821 to teach drawing to Eliza Purrie the daughter of James Purrie. Audubon’s agreement with the Purrie’s was that they would pay him $60 per month to teach Eliza in the morning and he would then roam the woods, fields and bayou’s in the afternoons observing, sketching, and shooting the birds he would then paint.
Click Read More below right...  We packed up this a.m. and said our goodbyes to Karen and 816 Gallier St. But before leaving the neighborhood we had one more cup of coffee at Satsuma and soaked in the vibe.
Click Read More below right...  Staying with our musical theme for New Orleans and wanting to get out and walk we decided that our first destination of the day would be Louis Armstrong Park, which is just north of the French Quarter.
Click Read More below right...  Our intention today was to have our weekly day of rest but in retrospect we seem to have done quite a lot.
Click Read More below right...  We had so much fun yesterday availing ourselves of the Park Service Jazz events that we decided to do it again today.
Click Read More below right...  We started the day returning to our favorite NOLA coffee shop. Satsuma isn’t just our favorite because it is just a few blocks away it’s our favorite because it is funky, the clientele are funky and the coffee and food are really good. It did not disappoint.
Click Read More below right... |
Want EMail
|
RSS Feed