Author: marionvermazen

Duke and I are in week three of a four week road trip. We started in New Orleans and will take the train back to Reno from Washington, DC next week. Last Tuesday, May 7, we drove from Dayton Beach, Florida to Savannah, Georgia. Along the way we stopped at Fort King George State Historic Site. It was built in 1721 by the British and was the southernmost outpost of British North America.

When I have ever talked to someone about Savannah, Georgia she has told me how pretty it is and how much she liked it. We stayed in Savannah two nights and it was wonderful. We stayed in the Old Harbor Inn right on the River. Savannah is one of the busiest ports on the east coast. It is also 18 miles from the ocean. Giant ships coming up the river were right outside our window and tey were coming and going all the time.

We walked all over Savannah enjoying the old buildings, the big trees
covered with Spanish Moss and the squares every
few blocks with trees and statues. I had heard great reports about the food in Savannah and we
had two fantastic meals, One at Jazz'd Tapas Bar with live music and one
at the Old Pink House.

The waterfront of Savannah is lined with old Cotton warehouses.

My brother and his wife have a vacation rental property on the beach at Hilton Head, South Carolina. They happened to be at the house last week so from Savannah we drove to Hilton Head. This was the first time we have seen the house. It is right on the beach and is really beautiful. If you ever want a fantastic place for a vacation check out the rental web site here. We walked on the beach, sat on the patio and read and then enjoyed a wonderful dinner overlooking the ocean.

 Last Friday we left Hilton Head and drove to Columbia, South Carolina. We thought we would be able to get a tour of the South Carolina capital but it turned out it was closed because of Confederate Memorial Day.

The capital grounds have a statue of Strom Thurmond who ran for President of the US in 1948 as a candidate of the segregationist States Right Democratic Party. He was the senator from South Carolina for 48 years. After he died it was revealed that he had a mixed race daughter whom he had supported. The statue had been altered to reflect this.

The capital grounds also had a powerful African American History Monument.

On Saturday we stopped at Morrow Mountain State Park near Charlotte, North Carolina and had a short visit with one of my daughter's friends who I watched grow up. Amanda now has two little girls. It was fun to see her and to meet one of her daughters. The park is on top of a mountain that early people used to quarry and create stone tools.

From Columbia we drove to Winston-Salem, North Carolina to visit my nephew and his wife. We had a wonderful visit. They just got married last December so it was so much fun to see them. They drove us through the Old Salem, the historic district. It was pouring rain so we didn't get any pictures. It looked like a fun place to visit on a future visit.

 From Winston-Salem we headed east. We stopped briefly to see Duke University in Durham.

Next we stopped in Greenville, North Carolina to visit a High School friend of Duke's. We had a wonderful visit. We enjoyed an evening of music and got a tour of Eastern Carolina University where Duke's friend is a proffessor.

From Greenville we drove North into Virginia. I'll talk about Virginia in my next post.

Last Thursday May 2 Duke and I drove from Biloxi, Mississippi through the southern tip of Alabama to Destin Florida. We stopped outside of Mobile to see the Battleship Alabama. It is moored there as a museum.

In Pensacola, Florida we visited the National Naval Aviation Museum. The planes, spacecraft, ship models and other displays were fascinating. I enjoyed our tour guide explaining to us how planes are launched and recovered from aircraft carriers. We spent about three hours there and could have spent all day.

In Destin we had a yummy boiled shrimp dinner at a local bar called Elmo's. It rained very hard the whole time we were there. They were getting over an inch of rain an hour.

On Friday we drove from Destin to Duke's Brother's house in Tampa. It rained most of the way so it was a good thing that we didn't have any site seeing planned.

Saturday we visited the Dali Museum in St Petersburg. They have a large collection (almost 100) of Salvador Dali paintings and drawing. I learned a lot about Dali. He lived from 1904-1989. I think my favorite is the large painting that up close is a naked woman gazing out a window and from a distance is Abraham Lincoln .

The museum building is stunning too.

 Sunday afternoon we drove from Tampa to Orlando. Monday we drove to Daytona Beach. Along the way we stopped at Blue Spring's State Park and took a two hour boat ride on the St John's River. We had a very knowledgeable guide who also had a few good jokes. The St John's River is the longest River in Florida. It flows north. According to our guide this is not because Georgia sucks but because the river drops 30 feet over it's 310 mile length.

The boat ride was wonderful. We saw several interesting birds, alligators ranging from babies to giants, lots of turtles, and what was most amazing and interesting, a water moccasin snake crossing the river on top of the water.

We have taken lots of alligator pictures on this trip. I never get tired of seeing alligators. This next picture is the giant we saw on the river bank and the picture after that is several young alligators

The guide says it is rare to see a Purple Gallinule but we saw several of them. They have big feet that allow them to walk on top of the vegetation on the water.

This turtle is warming his feet in the sun. Since turtles are cold blooded this is apparently how they warm up their blood.

 After the St John's River trip we spent the night in Daytona Beach. Our hotel was right on the Atlantic. We went for a walk along the water, sat and had a drink outside overlooking the Atlantic and had a great dinner in a restaurant called Ocean Deck that was open air and right on the beach.

The weather the last few days has been perfect, in the 70s and sunny with just a few clouds. This is a great time of year to visit Florida.

Duke and I are in week one of our Spring 2013 road trip. Monday and Tuesday we spent in New Orleans. This was my first trip to the city. We stayed in the French Quarter and did a lot of walking and exploring.
We drove into New Orleans from the north on the more than 23 mile long causeway over Lake Pontchartrain. 

On Monday we took a river boat cruise on the Mississippi on a steam driven paddle wheeler called the Natchez. It was fun. The size of the Mississippi and the shear volume of water it contains  blows me away. At one point on the river they told us the water was 240 feet deep!!

 Tuesday night we had tickets to see Charlie Hunter and the California Honeydrops at the Little Gem Saloon. We have seen Charlie Hunter with his band at Yoshi's in Oakland several times. It really cool to see him on his own at a much smaller venue. I love his music.The Little Gem Saloon was a great small show room too. I bet there were only 100 people there.

I had never heard of the California Honeydrops. They were high energy and energetic. Everyone was out dancing and having fun. I would love to see them again some time.

Before we left New Orleans yesterday we explored the cemetery and the cathedral and lots more side streets. We drove to Biloxi, Mississippi where we spent the night.  It has also been raining quite a bit and we got wet a few times but it was fun.

Duke and I are on a road trip again. Friday we flew to New Orleans. Our plan is to drive to Washington, D.C. exploring along the way. We'll be back home in Reno in about a month.

We have already had two rental cars. Renting the car for the trip at New Orleans airport would have cost us about $1000 more than renting it in Baton Rouge. The tax alone would have been more than we are paying for the whole rental! So we did a one day rental Friday night when we arrived. Saturday we drove to Baton Rouge. We visited the old capital and the current capital along the Mississippi. The current capital is the tallest capital building in the country. The view from the top included the river, Baton Rouge and all the surrounding country.

We picked up our second rental car, the one we will drive to D.C.,  in Baton Rouge and drove back to New Orleans to drop off the first car. Then we headed south to Grand Isle. We drove through the swamps on causeways and saw lots of fishing boats. As I looked out the car window at water on every side I was struck by the fact that we were visibly at or below sea level.

Grand Isle is a narrow Island due south of New Orleans right on the Gulf. Their are lots of nice houses and it looked like a great relaxing vacation spot. Every building is on stilts including the church, the Post Office and the school. After looking around a bit we headed back north and spent the night in Morgan City.

For dinner Saturday night we ate at Susie's Seafood. What a great experience. it looked like a dive and the tables were covered with brown butcher paper. We soon saw a big bin of boiled seafood coming out of the kitchen. The bin was dumped in the middle of the table of the people who had ordered it and they dug in.We had a fried seafood platter with frog legs, shrimp, fish, crab balls and some other stuff. it was really good.

This morning we went to Avery Island to see the Tabasco factory. It was interesting and the gift shopping and sampling were fun. But the best part of Avery Island for me was exploring the more than 150 acres ofJungle Gardens that were created by the McIlhenny Family. We drove through the gardens and got out multiple times to explore.We saw several alligators. The weather was humid but it was overcast and in the 70s. An absolutely perfect day. Don't miss the alligator in the picture below.

The gardens include an artificial lake with platforms built above the water to allow snowy egrets to nest. It is called Bird City and is a heron sanctuary. The map for Jungle gardens says that 20,000 nests are built each spring. The sanctuary was created to help save the snowy egrets that were almost wiped out by plume hunters. The sight of all those beautiful herons in one place was stunning.

Here is a short video of the birds at Bird City.

From Avery Island we drove to Mandeville on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain where we are tonight.

If you would like me to share my trip photo stream with you drop me an email and I will add you to the list.