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A Road Trip...

This is the time of year when I usually take my annual vacation.  I couldn't decide where I wanted to go this year.  I found a couple of locations that sparked my interest, but for various reasons, I decided to put those trips off until a future date.  I would have loved to have been able to hit the beach in Puerto Vallarta for several days of R&R, but I was afraid I'd be killed or worse, so that didn't seem like a good option.  Finally I decided to hit the road and go see a couple of places that I've always wanted to visit.

Last Saturday, at the crack of dawn, Lisa and I set out on a little road trip.  If you follow me on twitter, then you know all about my trip, or at least where I went.  For the rest of you, here's a hint...
Yep, after about 3 hours of driving, we weren't in Kansas...er I mean, Texas anymore.  First stop was Natchitoches, Louisiana.  Turns out we were mispronouncing the name of the town until we walked into the downtown visitor's center and the lady said, "Welcome to Natchitoches (Na-ca-tish) Y'all!".  We looked at each other and said "Na-ca-tish?".
We hit up their adorable downtown first, which is situated right on the Cane River.  They have cute little shops and lots of yummy sounding restaurants.


We decided to have the regional dish of a Meat Pie.  Lasyone's is apparently The Place to have a meat pie, so that is where we headed...

A meat pie is filled with ground beef, ground pork, onions, peppers, and garlic all fried up to perfection in a pie shell.  It was good stuff y'all...

Then we did our Steel Magnolia's walking tour.  Yep, this is where they filmed it.  We had already seen where they shot the end scenes of the Easter Egg hunt because it was in the park along the river.  We had also seen where Spud had surprised Truvy with the "Truvy's #2" (Blue Building) while we were in downtown....

Also, on the way to lunch, we had seen the cast's "stars" in the sidewalk...
Then we passed by Truvy's church...

Aunt Fern's house (where M'Lynn went to pick up the baby after Shelby died)...
The American Cemetery where they filmed the funeral scenes...


There are some really old burial plots in this cemetery, including these three Civil War soldiers...


Of course, we had to drop by and visit M'Lynn and Drum...or at least walk by...

There were several other places we didn't make it to, but that is on our to do list for our next visit!
Walking around Natchitoches was just wonderful.  The weather held out and didn't rain.  The smells were heavenly...you could smell magnolias in bloom, the honeysuckle, and gardenias...it was all the wonderful smells of the south!

And while they didn't put off a heavenly aroma, the hydrangea bushes that exploded in color were a feast for the eyes...

There were other beautiful homes everywhere you turned.  I just love old homes.  People have been asking Lisa and I what we were planning to do on this trip, and when we said, look at old homes, they looked at us like we were crazy (and sometimes even said as much), but there isn't anything about old southern homes that I don't love.  Here were some of the ones we saw in Natchitoches...



This one wasn't particularly beautiful, but it was built in 1776.  1776 y'all, and people were still living there!

There were also very pretty churches.  I'll spare you the photos of all of them, but here's one...

Before leaving town, we went back to the kitchen store for a Geaux Pop.  I chose strawberry, peach, yogurt & honey...
Lisa and I decided that since it was only a 4 hour drive to Natchitoches, we would be going back for a fun weekend get-away.  As we left town we drove out past 3 local plantations that you can tour.  We didn't stop for the tour because we wanted to save that for the next trip!

We hit the road again and headed East.  We passed some lovely homes on the next 3 hours of our trip.  I had to stop and take a photo of a some...

Finally, here we are crossing the Mighty Mississippi...

Next stop Natchez, Mississippi...

Comments

courtney said…
how fun!! i love old homes, too! love the history and the stories behind them! can't wait to see what the next leg of the road trip holds!
JEF said…
You know Nachitoches is where my Dad went to grad school and is why I was born in Shreveport (because it was the closest hospital at the time). They were dorm parents and so I lived in the dorm at the school for the first 6 mos of my life before they moved to Midland.

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