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| French Quarter Balconies |
Our first long winter trip was a sampler, giving us a taste
of seeing different locations and being gone for five weeks. After spending two
weeks in Texas our southern swing took us through New Orleans to Clearwater
Florida, then a stop in Nashville before heading home. We spent two days in New
Orleans, staying just a couple blocks off Bourbon Street so we could easily
explore the French Quarter. New Orleans has great southern food, live music, beautiful
historic architecture, and of course, quite the nightlife! We enjoyed scrumptious
beignets and chicory coffee at both Café Du Monde and Café Beignet. Other food
highlights were the shrimp po’boys and jambalaya which were delicious. The
weather was beautiful as we strolled through the French Quarter and Jackson
Square with the amazing St. Louis Cathedral, street artists and musicians, and
shopping at the French Market. Bourbon Street at night is quite the experience
with crowds of people walking down the street, vendors urging you to come into
their drinking and dining establishments, jazz and rock music coming from all
the bars, and of course, basic and fancy beverages galore!
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| Laurel Mercantile Home Goods Store |
We took an unplanned but fun side trip to Laurel Mississippi, just two hours north of New Orleans. Laurel is the home of the HGTV show “Hometown”. Ben and Erin Napier renovate homes and businesses in this small town, making it a tourist destination for all of us HGTV lovers! We shopped at the Scotsman General Store which also has Ben’s workshop, where we met the store manager, Mike. We later discovered that he and his wife were featured on the next Hometown episode! We also visited Laurel Mercantile with a variety of home goods and the new Scent Library, a candle store housed in a beautiful old building set up like a library. Lunch at Pearl’s Diner featured delicious southern fried chicken with various sides including candied yams, cornbread, purple hulled pees and more. After a drive through town to see a few buildings that had been renovated on the show and the many murals, we were back on the road to Florida.
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| A "Shell" tree on the beach at Honeymoon Island |
In Clearwater we rented a house for the week, which was in a
nice neighborhood, but was a drive to the beach. Staying right at the beach is
our ideal, but not always possible or in the budget! Clearwater Beach seems to
be always busy, with parking impossible to find. However, we found parking at
Sand Key and Honeymoon Island State Parks and had a couple great beach
days. The beaches are beautiful with fine white sand and a gentle slope into
the water. A highlight when we are in Florida is to buy fresh shrimp and boil
it at home for delicious dinners. The shrimp we found in Clearwater did not
disappoint.
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| The interior of the Ryman Auditorium |
On the way back to Minnesota we had a fun two day stay in Nashville although the weather decided to turn COLD! The first night there it was 32-degrees, so it was quite a shock after our 70- and 80-degree days the past few weeks. We stayed at a downtown hotel only four blocks from Broadway, but it was a chilly walk. We enjoyed strolling through many of the famous singers’ bars and listening to the live music. Kid Rock, Luke Bryant, Blake Shelton’s Ole Red, Miranda Lamberts’s Casa Rosa, and Jason Aldeen to name a few. More expensive drinks, but the food was good including Hattie B’s Hot Chicken and breakfast at the Sun Diner, an old diner. A highlight was a tour of the Ryman Auditorium which contains so much music history. On the way out of town we drove down Music Row with all the production companies and studios, and made stop at the life size Parthenon in Centennial Park. Who knew Nashville had a Parthenon reproduction!! Another area we had not heard of was Printers Alley which is a couple blocks north of Broadway. It was once home to 20th century printing companies but now has dark and mysterious looking bars and live music venues. We were there on a Monday night, so there weren’t many people and we opted not to investigate any of the establishments!
As we headed north to home we had a few fun final stops along the way -
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| Wooden pits in Mammoth Cave used to make saltpeter for gun powder |
At Mammoth Cave National Park we took the Gothic Avenue tour.
This historic cave features names and dates of visitors from the 1800’s and
1900’s that were written on the ceilings with the smoke from tallow candles. It
has a rougher stone interior than other caves we have visited, with fewer cave
formations but it had large caverns and evidence of visitors since the late
1700’s.
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| One of the buildings at Makers Mark Distillery |
We enjoyed the drive on narrow, winding roads through the
countryside of Kentucky to arrive at Makers Mark Distillery. The grounds were beautiful
with dark buildings, red shutters, horse statues scattered about, and lovely
landscaping. Our tour guide was terrific at telling us the history of Makers
Mark and the distilling process. And we came home with a few bottles of
bourbon!
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| The Lego Dinasaur at Toppling Goliath Brewing |
Our last hurrah was a stop at Toppling Goliath Brewing
Company. We drove the scenic route through eastern Iowa to Decorah with a stop
for lunch and a beer at Toppling Goliath.
It was great to get out of the winter weather, but we were
glad to get back home. We enjoyed exploring new destinations in warm weather
with great friends! Now to plan for next winter’s trip!
