I’m 62 minutes away from home according to the GPS. It’s been a long day but a fun vacation. We had an amazing time in New Orleans and managed a few fun stops on the way home.
It started last night in Jackson Mississippi. We had a quick (but really good!) dinner at Babalu. The dinner was so quick I decided we could take some quick pictures at the Jackson State Capitol. It’s pretty. Actually we were quite impressed with Jackson. On the way to New Orleans we stopped at the car wash – this time we were in the high brow neighborhood. Very nice houses.
Then we plowed through to Memphis with one plan in mind. We checked out Graceland Memorial Gardens because well, first Graceland is cool. But more importantly given the posse with which I roll, it is free to visit the gardens if you come between 7:30-8:30 am. How cool! We got to check out the grounds and see Elvis’ grave. It was more than enough for the girls. It got them out of bed early and helped us get on the road. I’ve visited Graceland before and would easily visit again – but again given our crowd the quick, cheerful and cheap tour was best.
Then we drove forever. We had a nice dinner in Iowa City. (I know, who knew?) We stopped at a place on the campus called Graze – nice small plates. Then I learned about Devonian Fossil Gorge. It apparently an inland sea that has dried up a few times (in the last 15 years) resulting in tons of fossils. It’s probably a lot better when it’s warm outside. Although it was very close to the city, very easy to get to, a good break for folks who have been in the car – just if it were a little warmer.
Now we’re just waiting to dock at home!
Day two on the road to New Orleans. Not a ton to report. We had brunch at a place called Brother Juniper’s in Memphis. Monte Cristo with maple syrup – nonstandard, yet really good! Then we tried some car washes in Jackson. And we drove a lot. We saw snow until nearly Memphis – which was a little sad.
We arrived in New Orleans in time for dinner. We ate at a place called Mother’s. Apparently it was on Man v Food. Man tried to eat the giant Po’ Boy. We didn’t. The food was good. Poor Lily had nothing to eat with Mother’s does no specialize in vegetarian dishes.
We spent one last day in Florida with Patrick’s family. I enjoy them very much – but there’s a lot of inertia going on with making a plan there. All I’ll say is Joe’s Crab Shack is never going to make my 10 Ten Must-See List in any city. (Partially because you can find them in any city.) But it was fun to talk to all of his family and celebrate his mom’s 80th birthday. Did I note – 80 years old and spent 10+ hours at Disney World?!
Saturday morning we got up very early and poured the kids into the car. We drove *all day*. It turns out that Tennessee and Kentucky are really pretty states. The mountains are beautiful. We stopped in Macon Georgia for lunch. I found someplace on Trip Advisor that was well noted for pizza. It was good – and fun not to go to a burger joint for a change.
Then I decided that we had to have a break of some sort and we stopped in Atlanta. We went to visit the Martin Luther King Jr History Center. It is amazing! I think I mentioned that Lily had been working on a paper on MLK and Malcolm X – so it was timely and we had all been talking about racism and life back in the 1960s. The Center is an emotional and inspiring place. They have a nice timeline of events in MLK’s life, which was helpful in talking to Aine about who MLK was. She knew who he was and knew about his assignation – but not so much about his life.
Also the whole area is peppered with quotes about nonviolence and standing up for what you believe. Obviously good lessons for everyone!
States visited: FL, GA, TN, KT, IN
States visited next day: IN, IL, MN!
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