Stanton Hall and The Carriage House Restaurant

We hung out in Natchez, Mississippi for several hours.  If you're wondering what in the heck Natchez means, here you go.

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Anyway, we enjoyed some amazing Southern food at The Carriage House Restaurant located on the grounds of Stanton Hall, an antebellum mansion (built before the Civil War).

But first, let's see what was across the street from Stanton Hall.  You got it - crape myrtles.  I'm obsessed with them.  There were gorgeous fuchsia crape myrtles all over Natchez.  I want lots of those in my yard, and I want them now!  

So, here are a few peeks at Stanton Hall compliments of Howard.

The building in the photo below (behind me and the gigantic tree) is our only shot of The Carriage House Restaurant.  It's usually closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, but we lucked out because it was Pilgrimage time.  That's a five-week period when thirty or so antebellum mansions, mostly private residences, open their doors to visitors and the tour guides dress in period costumes.

Anyway, here's The Carriage House menu, which was served buffet style.  These people describe the food there much better than I would.  I still can't tell you what grillades are, but I can tell you that they are delicious.  Everything we tried was new to us and delicious.

After stuffing ourselves, we took a tour of Stanton Hall.  The only story I remember is that one of the paintings came from an English woman who toured the mansion.  After returning to England, she shipped it to the guardians of Stanton Hall and requested that they hang it on 'that bare wall in the dining room'.

Swamps and Critters

Our road trip continues.  After a quick visit to Elvis's birthplace, we headed back for the Trace.  First, let me mention how clever Howard is.  He usually picks out some audio books for us to listen to before we take a long road trip.  This time he got Deep South by Nevada Barr, a murder mystery that takes place on the Natchez Trace Parkway.  It's pretty fun to be in the location of the book you are listening to - to actually drive through the kudzu-covered landscape she describes and to visit the places she mentions, especially the murder site.  It can also be scary.  We had just listened to a scene about an alligator attack when we pulled up to mile marker 122.0, the Cypress Swamp.  Here's a blurb from our guide book:

You can enjoy this easy, flat walking trail in 15 minutes, or you can savor it for much longer, quietly waiting for swamp wildlife (such as herons and alligators) to appear.

Wait a minute!  Did he say alligators!?  I love how he nonchalantly mentions alligators, as an unimportant after fact.  On pages 34-36 he warns of the 'Natural Dangers' of the Trace and what to do if you encounter them - things like poison ivy, chiggers, ticks, and venomous snakes.  There is NO mention of alligators on those pages.

122.0 Cypress Swamp (Mississippi)
Anyway, here's our first glimpse of the swamp.  It was a stunningly eerie sight.

Unbeknownst to me that morning, I had dressed in swamp camouflage.  I'm pretty sure that's why the alligators didn't bother me.

Although, Howard wore his beach camouflage and that seemed to keep the alligators away too.

What do you think, log or sleeping alligator?

Just a few more photos from this day.  Before we got to the swamp, we stopped at a very scary restroom.  It was covered in spider webs and some kind of stinging critter nests.  Howard stumbled upon this IOUS (Insect of Unusal Size).  First compare him to the bricks, then take a closer look.  I'm pretty sure he could fly off with a small child.  Anyone know what kind of insect it is?

Stayed tuned for more on the road trip!

Road Trip

Howard and I just got back from a 12-day road trip.  We put about 2,400 miles on three different rental cars - we returned the first car within the first few miles because the steering wheel was shaking and we returned the second car in Houston because it was making a scary random scraping sound.

We spent the first three days driving on and exploring the Natchez Trace Parkway - all 444 miles of it, from its end near the Loveless Cafe in Nashville to its beginning in Natchez, Mississippi. 

A few days before leaving Howard found and ordered this book, which proved to be an invaluable 'tour guide'.  We had to read the book backwards since we started at the end of the trail.  It was easy to follow though because the book locates sites on 'The Trace' by the convenient mile markers.

At mile marker 438.0 (six miles into our Trace journey), we stopped to admire this double-arch bridge.  You can see how massive the bridge is when compared to the people walking across it.  It's pretty scary for pedestrians because the rails are so low.  One false move and splat - you might end up being vulture vittles, like the deer we saw below.  I'll spare you the close up.

404.7 Jackson Falls (Tennessee)
It was more like Jackson Dribbles, but we haven't had a lot of rain lately.  It was nice and cool down there though.  It reminded us of a miniature Fern Grotto, the one in Kauai.

401.4 Tobacco Farm (Tennessee)

We had to take a picture of me with the barn, since we were 'born' in the same year.  I think that I'm holding up much better than the barn - I keep my gray covered!

I wonder if this is new 'old' tobacco or old 'old' tobacco.  Near the barn there was about a mile of 'Old Trace' that we were able to drive on.  It's an unpaved road surrounded by dense forest.  You have to watch out for critters and varmints, like turtles and stuff.

Why did this turtle cross the road?  Because Howard rescued him.  After a photo shoot, he encouraged this 6-inch-ish long snapper to cross the road with a long stick.  This is actually Howard's second turtle rescue.  The first one took place on a two-lane desert road near St. George, Utah.  He got out of the car and carried that one back to where it came from.  Then we decided the turtle might try to cross again, so Howard picked him up again and carried him to other side of the road where he had been heading.  We hopefully saved his life and saved some driver from a hefty fine for smashing a turtle.  Okay, back to the Trace.

330.2 Rock Spring (Alabama)
This stop included a 20-minute nature walk.  Check out the pictures to see what was a very pleasant surprise for us.

The book says 'you might see beavers or herons, if you are lucky.'  I'm glad I'm reading that for the first time, because discovering a beaver dam (and a beaver) on your own is really cool.  Our first day on the Trace definitely was amazing and full of pleasant surprises.

What They Didn't Teach Me in Thistle School

Gorgeous, right?

So, I harvested thistles for the first time today.  This video makes it seem pleasantly easy.  But, here's the real story.

All the thistles we found were growing in ditches along busy narrow roads.  Speeding cars and semis constantly whizzed past us, making this not a kid friendly activity.  Next time I think I'll wear a neon orange reflector vest.  Passersby might think I'm a prisoner picking up trash, but in this case I think it's probably better than looking like a plant.

I laughed out loud when a friend suggested wearing falconry gloves for this, but after today it doesn't seem like such a bad idea.  Check out the spines on those things.  By the way, this is my accomplice, Nancy.  She wore rain boots which was really a smart idea.

 I hope Nancy's arms didn't get all scratched up!

Here's our haul for the morning.

Here are some other things you should know about harvesting thistles:

• There are lots of big bumble bees buzzing around doing their bee pollinating thing.  If you don't like bees, this is not the project for you. 
• You'll find lots of other little critters crawling around in your bag of harvested thistles.  When it's time to leave, they'll infiltrate your car if you don't have a way to contain them.
• Don't even think about spreading these out to dry in your house, due to the bugs and...
• When the thistles dry, they burst.  You can put them outside but your neighbors will probably not be happy with you if you've got exploding thistles on your deck, especially if it's a windy day!  I'll tell you tomorrow if it was a good idea to put them on the garage floor.

A few thistles burst after drying for just half a day.

Here's a close-up of another one bursting.

Howard took this close-up.  The colors are amazing!

 
I can now say that, "I am a thistle farmer."

Finally, I'm happy to report that no one shot at us for trespassing and that the local police didn't pursue or arrest us.  I was worried about both of those things.

P.S.  It's the next day.  The thistles seemed to do well in the garage - especially now that it's raining!

The Biltmore

For years my sister has been telling me about the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.  A friend came to visit from California and since visiting the Biltmore was on her bucket list, we had to go.  My sister met us there since it's only a few hours from her house.

The Biltmore has 250 rooms - a mere 135,000 square feet or 4 acres!  It's the largest privately-owned home in the United States.  The Vanderbilt family has owned the home ever since George Washington Vanderbilt II built it between 1889-1895. 

The amazing thing about this house is that the rooms are fully furnished and decorated just as they were when the family lived there.  The family spares no cost when it comes to restoring fabrics and wallpapers.  A weaver in France still had the same cards (patterns) that had been used to weave custom fabrics decades earlier and they were able to reproduce some of the original fabrics with those cards.

My favorite room was the atrium.  In the first picture (above) you can see its conical glass roof to the right of the front door.  It's an amazing sight as you enter the house.  It's like a rainforest with a tiled floor and smattering of paired chairs for conversation.  Here's a list of some of the other features of the house:

• 43 bathrooms, in a time when indoor plumbing was almost non-existent
• 65 fireplaces
• 3 kitchens
• 34 bedrooms
• a grand banquet hall
• a huge two-story library with thousands of books
• a two-lane bowling alley, the pins had to be set manually
• an indoor swimming pool

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside so I guess you'll have to take a tour if you want to see the inside, or google it - there are lots of bootleg photos out there.  The grounds were immense and gorgeous.  This is a picture of the conservatory with its unique masonry.  I didn't take pictures inside but you can go here to take a peek.

Below you can see the remains of the wisteria in bloom.  If only we had been there a week earlier!

Here's a gnarly old wisteria trunk.  If only gnarly old wisteria trunks could talk.  It almost looks like it could!

Here's a wisteria imposter, equally as beautiful.  Anyone know what it is?

We thought this Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar would work well as inspiration for a Dr. Suess illustration.

This was a fun lattice tunnel with portholes.  The sun-seeking vines were just starting to weave their way up through the lattice maze.

Look what's blooming in the tunnel!