Discovering What You Didn't Know You Weren't Missing

Yesterday was just the kind of road trip day I enjoy the most.  We woke up in New Orleans, had lunch in Baton Rouge, where we visited the beautiful state capitol building (built by Huey Long, and the tallest one in the country), after taking a driving tour of LSU, then stopped off in Natchez for a short walk along the Mississippi, took the famed drive along the Natchez Trace Parkway, then finally settled into our hotel in Ridgeland, Mississippi (which is just outside of Jackson). 

I love a day like that because I'm able to fill in images that I never cared much were missing.  For instance, how many times have I rooted against LSU, while having no association whatsoever with the school (well, beyond, perhaps their tiger mascot).  And while I have a vague recollection of Huey Long from the history classes I took so long ago, it's something else entirely to stand in the spot where the man was killed (whether assassinated or in a botched attempt to protect him).  When the kids saw the height of the Capitol Building and learned there was an observation deck on its 28th floor, they immediately wanted to check it out. Daniel ran up the impressive steps, Rocky style, while Dana noted in amusement how a step was devoted to each state, ending in the impressive seal at the top. But, oops, then Hawaii and Alaska joined our country, so they had to be slipped in on either side of that seal (at least there were two of them; it would have looked really odd to have just one name off to the side).

Two hours later, we were standing RIGHT next to the Mississippi River, in a spot reffered to at Natchez Under the Hill, where, according to Fodors, all manner of ruffians made money during the years when Natchez was the richest city in America; there were more millionaires there than in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.  Once the railroads replaced the steamboats as the transportation choice for many goods, Natchez lost that distinction.  Still, it's a lovely place I never knew existed before yesterday (other than by the bit of research I'd done for this trip, of course).  

Natchez is the start (or end, depending on which direction you're driving) of the Natchez Trace Parkway, which goes from there to Memphis, TN.  Dana drove for the first hour or so of the drive, before turning the car over to Maddie.  When Maddie took the wheel to drive for an hour or so, I couldn't imagine a more beautiful (yet safe, we may have seen five other cars during the entire drive, and the curves were never too sudden or too severe) way for her to try out her first historic highway (this one - first as a trail cleared by the Native Americans - has been around for 8000 years!); she properly slowed when she saw a lovely deer staring at her from the side of the road, but, alas, my camera was not out and ready to capture the little guy.

After all of the sophisticated culinary delights of New Orleans, we wound up eating dinner in a little log cabin called Trace Grill, where you order at the counter, they bring the food to you, and you're welcome to add your name to the wood walls where many others have done so before. In the video below you can catch a bit of the sibling dynamic that is making this year's summer vacation such fun, as Daniel films Maddie writing her name on the wall. ;)  Since it was after 8:00 by the time we were stopped for the night, we were among the last patrons there.  The result was undivided attention from two young men (maybe in their early 20's, at most), who wanted to provide us with the best possible suggestions of what to do with our one (half) day in Jackson. They were so sweet and earnest that I will feel quite guilty if we don't hit every spot they recommended.  So... here are a few photos from Baton Rouge and Natchez.  After our whirlwind tour of Jackson, we're on the road again - this time to Birmingham, Alabama.