Charleston, Charleston....

This is at The Battery. The Battery is a portion of land that has cannons on it that were used during the Revolutionary War to protect Charleston from an attack via the water. Downtown Charleston has water on 3 sides: Charleston Bay, Cooper River and Ashley River.

Welcome to Charleston, SC. This is overlooking Charleston Harbor from the bridge that connects from one of the many islands around the city to the downtown.

There are many streets of houses such as these. These are along The Battery, which is located along the water facing Charleston Bay. We located a townhome for 1.5 mil. After being in Savannah and Charleston both in one day, I would say that Savannah is smaller, more laid back. Charleston is fancy and citified. Both have their charm.

Savannah, GA

Savannah is a beautiful town. We walked from the Visitor's Center a few blocks to have lunch a a famous "dining room" which came highly recommended by David and Lauren. On our walk, I took some pictures. The scenery looks much like this: The streets are lined with hundred year old trees and every block or so, there's a "square" where it's more trees with park benches dotted through out. Very picturesque.

Here we are at Mrs. Wilkes. She's only open from 11am-2 pm and we knew a lined formed early. We got there at 10:30 and there were already about 20 people in line ahead of us. It was starting to get hot. Like 90 degrees hot. Fortunately, we were seated by 11:05. (they took the first seating at 10:45)

At Mrs. Wilkes, you eat family style. We were seated at a table for 10, so you chat with your neighbors. This shot was taken right before we were seated, just to give you an idea of what it's like inside.

Here's the line by 11 am. We're almost at the front of the line, but those poor people clear to the corner were in for a wait. There is a water jug out there, which was a good thing. The food was the BEST Southern food I have ever had. When you sit down at your table, the food is already there. There were bowls and platters of : fried chicken, potatoes, rice and gravy, mac and cheese, collard greens, rhutabagas, cucumbers, black eyed peas, butter beans, green beans, creamed corn, biscuits, squash, sweet potatoes, (are you getting hungry yet?!) and for dessert the choices were peach cobbler or banana pudding. Of course, you're served sweet tea! Delicious. Worth the wait, but that's easy for me to say, our wait was nominal compared to some of the poor souls.

Alabama, Florida and Georgia

So, yesterday we drove many miles, starting from New Orleans and ending up just north of Jacksonville, FL. actually just over the border into Georgia. We did that in order to have a shorter day today in Savannah and Charleston. I regret to say I took no pictures of either Alabama or Florida. But, I will say this. All of us were surprised at how pretty Florida is. When I think of Florida, I think "beach" but what we drove through was heavily wooded and gently rolling terrain.

When we crossed the line into Georgia, this is the welcome sign we saw:
WELCOME TO OUR STATE
We're glad you have Georgia on your mind

If you listened to Country/Western in the 70's, you would remember the classic "Georgia" by Willie Nelson. The state is enjoying some mileage on that one.

The Gulf Coast

We pulled off the interstate in Gulport, MS so we could get a look at the Gulf of Mexico. Here's Brooke sticking her feet in the water. It is much, much warmer than our California waters.

Uh-Oh. I stuck my feet in the water too and came out with some OIL! The workers were working the beach, I should have had them clean up my foot. (Just kidding, folks.)

NOLA

Ok, so we're now in New Orleans, LA. We are heading across the Mississippi (I think we crossed it 5 times in two days) to stay in what's known as the West Bank, which is across the river from New Orleans. This is the Huey P. Long Bridge, named after a Louisiana governor. Apparently in Huey's day cars were much smaller because as you can see, we didn't fit in one lane very well, so we took up two.

There is a ferry that takes passengers from the West Bank into downtown New Orleans. It is free for pedestrians. We're on the ferry and Brooke is posing quite nicely for the picture.

So, the first thing on our agenda is to ride the St. Charles Streetcar which runs from the downtown to the Garden District, where you find beautiful homes along the way. This is our car. Anybody ever seen the movie "A Streetcar Named Desire?" (Don't raise your hand, it's a rhetorical question) Well, I've never seen it (an old black & white classic, I'm sure) but I understand it centers around one of these streetcars. Anyway, back to the travelog. We passed some of the most beautiful, grandest homes I have ever seen. I have only included one shot on the blog, because uploading pictures is taking way too long. It's coming up....

A view inside the streetcar. These aren't just for tourists. Locals use them, too. It's cheap transportations as we only paid $1.25 to ride quite a ways into the Garden District.

Here's one of the old homes I was mentioning earlier. Multiply this by 50 and you'll get more of the picture.

Bourbon St. Hmmmmm.....what all do I say? If Las Vegas is Sin City, then Bourbon St. is it's worn-out older sister. Bourbon St. is a narrow street in the French Quarter, nestled in downtown, surrounded by tall buildings. It is wild, crazy and LOUD! There are policemen stationed throughout, so we felt very safe, but as the sun went down the nightlife went up.

We did enjoy sitting in a courtyard and listening to a live jazz band playing some old fashioned favorites such as "Summertime" and "Bill Bailey won't you Please Come Home!".

Here's a shot after dark. We had had enough by about now, so we walked to catch the ferry back to the West Bank, where we stayed at a State Park. Thus concludes our visit to New Orleans. It was worth a visit, definitely as it is such an interesting city. I used to say that San Francisco held the honors of the most interesting city. I think New Orleans is right up there.

Dixie Land

For those of you who have never driven past Fort Worth, East Texas is surprisingly pretty. Here's a freeway shot. It is thick with trees and has a gently rolling terrain. We are starting to get more heat and humidity. Dave has a humidity sensor (a gadget from his FD days) and it was registering 92%.

We have now arrived in Natchez, MS. Here's a shot from the Mississippi side looking towards Louisiana.

This is a view of the Mississippi River looking North. It is very pretty here in MS. Everything is lush and green. In many of the trees there is ivy growing up to the top. We just had a good rain storm so the temp is down into the mid 70's. Cool and humid instead of hot and humid. There are lots of plantations in the area from the Civil War era and before.

Dinner was at The Pig Out BBQ that came highly recommended by Southern Living magazine and also had good reviews on Yelp.com. Click on the picture and make it big so you can read what they love about the South.

Here we are driving the streets of Natchez. On this street the houses are very quaint and very old. Most of the homes appear to be in their original state. We ended up a few streets over...in Black Town. This was exactly what you'd picture, but in years past. A narrow street lined with old houses sitting close to the road. Front porches with rocking chairs filled with black folks who sat, just watching life going by, maybe a cold soda in their hands. There were young kids playing in the street and as we passed, we heard someone holler, "Get out de way!" One boy flashed me a grin and held on to his dog as we slowly drove by.

We drove through the Natchez National Cemetery. There were markers from Civil War days and possibly even earlier. Very interesting.

I liked what this gravestone said.

Stay tuned for New Orleans.....

A little trouble uploading pictures...

Not sure where the difficulty lies, but I'm quite sure it's not in the operator...:) Probably something in this McDonalds here in Baton Rouge. I will get the pictures up of Natchez, MS as soon as I can.