Perks of the South (finally a post with pictures)

One of the perks of living in the South we have discovered is how early spring starts. How does mid-February sound? I'll take 2 short months of gray skies and humid cold and ice if it means an earlier-than-everywhere-else spring. We've taken advantage of the last couple weekends to get away and go camping.

First, we went to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Vicksburg was the sight of a long and important siege which took place during the Civil War. It's right on the Mississippi River and is (mostly) very beautiful. We spent quite a bit of time at the National Battlefield Park which was very impressive. I've visited several battlefields in my days and this one is particularly interesting to me for a few reasons: 1) I have an ancestor who fought for the Union Army here; 2) The armies dug trenches that are still there; and 3) You can clearly see the Confederate line and the Union line and how close they were to each other.

Daniel with the Mississippi River behind him. Pretty cool. That's Louisiana on the other side of the bridge. We went there.

This is the USS Cairo, a Civil War iron clad ship. The Union sailed this down the Mississippi to shoot canons at Vicksburg. It's pretty cool. Most of it is original. The hole in the hull on the right was caused by a torpedo. The ship sunk and was resurrected after the war.

On the levees in Vicksburg the city commissioned artists to paint murals depicting significant events in the city's history. This is a mural representing the start of the 20th century. The dedication of the Illinois Monument at the battlefield park. My relative's name is in there. I saw it in real life. :-)

A canon at the National Battlefield Park. There was a beautiful sky and sunset that day.

Here I am in one of the Union trenches. My relative might have helped dig this one.

Fixing hot chocolate in the morning at our campsite. Yummy!

We drove down to Natchez and rode/walked our bikes up this hill along the Mississippi River. It was really cool.

In Natchez we saw this house. It's decorated for every holiday at the same time. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Mardi Gras, Easter, 4th of July, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day. It was crazy!

The next weekend we went to Pensacola, Florida. The more time I spend in Florida the more I like it. We camped at the Naval Air Station there for $6 a night (can't beat that!) and had an awesome time exploring the beach, the National Museum of Naval Aviation and this fort used for hundreds of years, most recently in the Civil War. Basically, Pensacola has everything my family believes in: Civil War stuff, airplanes, lighthouses, forts, beaches, boats, camping.

The Naval Aviation Museum. Free admission and REALLY cool stuff inside! Everything from kites and blimps to the F-14 and Skylab capsules. AWESOME!

This is Daniel at the Fort. He's standing where there used to be a canon that would shoot at enemy ships coming into the bay.

Really cool view of the inside of the Civil War fort. Beautiful arches and craftsmanship. Built by slaves. The light is coming in from the little gun slats.

This is the only picture of the two of us on either trip. We did not bring matching shirts on purpose, but it looks cute. This is at Pensacola Beach. GORGEOUS!!

I love this picture because it shows what Daniel looks like most of the time now. He got this awesome camera surgically attached to his face as a birthday/graduation/Christmas present. He's taken some awesome pictures with it. Email me or leave a comment if you want me to send you a link to his photography website with Shutterfly.

We took our fish kite for walks with us along the beach. Perfect! We wondered if our kite would fool the seagulls and they'd try to eat it or something, but they didn't.

Beautiful sunset.

Fixing hot chocolate in the morning. We brought our bikes but when we tried to use them we discovered a hole in one of the tire tubes. We were very disappointed.

We've had a great time exploring so many new areas!