While the girls were away

Hello everyone, while Lexi and Jessica are enjoying their California trip, I thought I'd make a blog on my road trip adventure with dad.

On Thursday, dad met me in Pensacola and we headed west to drive along the Mississippi River and get a taste of the Old South and our first stop was Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Of course we had to visit the Civil War battlefield site. It was pretty amazing to see how that whole battle unfolded.

Then we started south and followed the River Road to Natchez, Mississippi. There are more pre-Civil War plantations there than anywhere in America and we tried to visit as many as we could.

We visited Longwood, the largest octagonal house in America. Only the first floor is finished because the craftsmen were from Philadelphia and they dropped their tools and went home when the Civil War broke out.

Stanton Hall in downtown Natchez

We enjoyed nice views of the mighty Mississippi throughout our trip.

After Natchez, we headed into the small town of St. Francisville, Louisiana for, you guessed it, more plantations.

This is the road leading up to Afton Villa, which burned down back in the 60's, but it still has some impressive gardens. We just missed the azaleas blooming. About two weeks ago this entire half mile driveway was covered with multicolored flowers under the Live Oak trees.

We visited Rosedown, also in St Francisville and walked through the gardens. I almost stepped on a 4 foot snake that was sitting on the pathway. I have no idea what kind it was but it spooked both my dad and me pretty good.

On our last day, we drove down to Baton Rouge and explored Louisiana State University as well as another plantation south of town.

Houmas House was the most impressive home we visited and my favorite. It sits right on the Mississippi River and someone still lives in it.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention that I checked two more state capitols of my list. We stopped in Jackson, Mississippi and visited the capitol in Baton Rouge Nice view from the 27th floor of Louisiana's capitol