Vacation . . . Days 1 and 2

We left early on Friday the 13th. Ominous I know, but since neither of us believe in luck (or bad luck as the case may be), it was all good.

The first day we headed toward Louisiana. After crossing the mighty Mississippi we stopped for the night in Baton Rouge.

Yes, I was the loon hanging out of my car window on the bridge so I could get a semi decent photo.

On Saturday morning we took a little (little meaning four plus hours) detour down River Road so we could see at least one plantation home. 

We stopped and toured Houmas House also known as the Sugar Palace. The grounds and gardens are unbelievable, and the house is in the process of being restored. The owner is doing an amazing job of returning it to it's original glory. It was fun to tour because you could touch and photograph almost everything in the house. It is full of period appropriate antiques. Most didn't come with the house, but were picked because they fit the time period and overall culture of the old south. Andrew even got to blow the fog horn that was in the house (don't worry you use your foot to blow it . . . not your mouth). 

Everything is extremely short. Apparently people used to be substantially shorter. I must've been born in the wrong century. ;)

Ummm . . . Arsenic anyone? Opium? No . . .

Obviously, not a statue you would normally see in a southern plantation home. The owner got it for a steal at an auction, and when he started cleaning it up he realized that it is pure silver and sculpted by Gutzon Borglum who also happened to sculpt Mount Rushmore.

There are no nails in this spiral staircase. The banister is one piece. The wood was soaked in the Mississippi and then bent/molded to create the spiral.

Andrew Jackson's traveling bar or as the tour guide deemed it a "party in a box".

The original kitchen. Even though the owner lives in the house he's never built an updated kitchen. He just eats in the restaurant on the grounds. Kind of handy if you ask me.

From Houmas House we hit the road once again. We traveled through Mississippi . . . beautiful tall trees. A tiny portion of Georgia. And into Alabama. Alabama was super pretty with wooded rolling hills. Loved driving through it. We ended up stopping around 8:30 Saturday night in Hoover, Alabama outside of Birmingham. Hi Ruth! I so wish we would've been there long enough to visit. But we were in Hoover less than 12 hours and most of that was spent sleeping . . . maybe next time. :)

To be continued . . .