I can't believe that a month from today is my last day of work! (tears and sobs) Though it feels like I've been gone from home for a long time, in many ways it feels like I just got here to Natchez. It is going to be really hard to leave all of my friends here next month, just as it was really hard to leave home in April, but I'm glad that Mom will be coming down here to travel up to school with me in August. I really don't do well with change once I get into a routine, but I'll just remind myself that there are surely new friends and adventures awaiting at grad. school. When I first got to Natchez last year, I was sure that I was not going to enjoy this place or make any friends, but I was proven wrong--so I hope I can remember that when I head up to Illinois. I'll try to fit as much as I can into these last four weeks here. It's definitely true that time flies when you're having fun!
Today was a good day at work, although I had some people on my 2:00 tour with a little kid who liked to scream and cry. We survived though. The weather has been really weird here today--it will start pouring outside and the wind will blow like crazy; then a few minutes later it's all sunny and the birds are singing outside. Well, I'm off to go grocery shopping, but I will write again tomorrow.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Good Times in Natchitoches!
Hello everyone! Angie and I returned from our totally fun road trip to Natchitoches, Louisiana yesterday, and it was off to work bright and early this morning, so I'm just now getting to the computer. We had an awesome time! Here's a synopsis of the trip:
On Tuesday night, Angie and I went and had dinner at King's Tavern--the oldest structure along the Mississippi River. I had a divine dish: crab-stuffed flounder. It was sooooo yummy! Then she and I went searching for the ghost, Madeline, who supposedly lives upstairs. She was the mistress of the King guy who originally owned the place, and supposedly her skeleton was uncovered underneath the building back in the 1930s . . . with a jeweled dagger next to it. Word on the street is that she still lives upstairs. The hostess lady told us to go into Madeline's bedroom and look for the rocking chair to be moving, or to see if we could see anyone else besides ourselves in the mirror. We were also supposed to run our hands over the bedspread, and if Madeline had recently been on the bed, it would feel hot. Well, Angie and I were unsuccessful in our attempts to find Madeline--probably because we didn't believe we would, although being up there in her room kind of creeped me out. There were two hand prints on the mirror, that I'm sure were supposed to look scary, but anyone could have put them there. There was also a large indentation on the sofa in the room--so it looked like someone was sitting there--but again, not too hard to fabricate that. That evening we watched "Steel Magnolias" and got in the mood to head to Natchitoches.
On Wednesday, Angie and I drove for just over two hours across Louisiana and ended up at our first stop: the Grave of the Unknown Confederate Soldier in Marthaville, Louisiana (shown at the left). This site was a state park, but it was truly the funniest, most cheesy place Angie and I had ever seen. The grave site was adjacent to the Louisiana Country Music Museum, and we had to laugh when we went inside the guitar-shaped building. We were surely the only two visitors the museum lady had seen in several months, and she was quite excited about us being there. The museum tour included a really hokey movie, and it consisted of some very scary-looking country music costumes from back in the day.
We had planned on going to the Alligator Park next, but it was raining pretty hard, and we were both hungry, so we decided to head to Natchitoches (about 25 miles from
Marthaville) and have lunch. Natchitoches is a quaint little town along Cane River Lake (formerly part of the Red River). It has some definite French roots, so everything in town is very French--kind of like a New Orleans that is about the size of Natchez. We decided to eat lunch at this restaurant called the Landing. They're famous for their fried green tomatoes, and I had the best lunch ever: a fried green tomato BLT with sweet potato fries. It was SO GOOD!! (At this point you may be thinking that all I ever talk about is food, so surely I must be putting on the pounds like crazy, but I try to maintain my active lifestyle so as to offset the generous availability of tasty eats here in the South.) After lunch it was raining pretty hard, so we decided to just skulk around the shops there in town until we checked into our hotel: the Church Street Inn (the picture above is of Angie standing in front of our very cool hotel).
After checking in, the rain let up a little bit, so we decided to go visit the Fort St. Jean Baptiste state historic site. The funny thing about the fort though, is that it is not the original French fort, nor was it built on the same site as the original fort, nor are any of the artifacts in the museum original. We wondered why we would go visit a fake fort with fake artifacts, but it was a good chance to learn about the French occupation in the area, and it ended up being kind of a fun place to visit. They had people dressed up like the French settlers there at the fort, including this guy pictured at the left, who was stuck in the stocks. It was really funny because the next day, Angie and I ran into the stocks guy at a shop in town. I said, "Hey, you got out of the stocks!" He thought that was funny.
After the fort, we walked around town some more and had some tasty French bread pudding at this place called Pioneer Pub. Then we went down to the riverfront to await the light show and fireworks. While there we snacked on some chicken and funnel cake--typical 4th of July food in the South. The light show started at about 9:00, and it was hilarious (because it was so cheesy!). Angie and I were cracking up because the "light show" we had heard so much about consisted of a few strings of Christmas lights placed underneath the bridge spanning the lake (which isn't very wide), that changed color along with the beat of several patriotic songs. We decided that they need a little help with the light show--maybe some lasers or something. After the light show, the fireworks started (shown here) which were, especially after the light show, surprisingly good.
After the fireworks, we walked back to the hotel and went to bed. On Thursday, we had planned on going on a carriage ride and things like that downtown, but it was raining really hard, so the carriages were not out. Instead, we headed about 12 miles south of town to visit the Oakland plantation, part of the Cane River Creole National Historical Park. The ranger who took us on tour there was named Dominick Metoyer, and he was soooo nice and handsome, and he was very knowledgeable about history! Angie and I decided that I should marry him, but we haven't figured out how we'll arrange that yet. Here's a picture of him :-) The plantation was really cool to see, and because we were fellow park rangers, Dominick gave us the behind-the-scenes tour. He even took us into the overseers house, which is currently undergoing renovation, and showed us the original oil cloth (like we have at Melrose) on the floor.
There are seriously towns in Louisiana, right by each other, named Natchez and Melrose! We of course had to drive through these two places, and they
were both right on the way to the Melrose plantation--which we wanted to see just because it has the same name as the place where we work. Natchez, Louisiana didn't have much going for it, and Melrose, Louisiana had even less. The Melrose plantation was cool (it isn't part of the National Park), but it was raining when we got there, and the tour, which included walking around outside in the mud, lasted over an hour, so we opted to go get lunch instead. But, we had to at least take a picture while we were in the area! For lunch we went back to Natchitoches and ate at this French restaurant called Merci Beacoup (which the locals pronounce as: Mercy Boo Coop). I had a famous Natchitoches meat pie, and Angie tried the Cajun potato. We topped off lunch with some vanilla bread pudding--yum! We want to write a book about the South's best bread pudding. So far, though, the title for the best bread pudding still belongs to Magnolia Grill here in Natchez. After lunch, we drove home, hung out around here in Natchez, and went to Cock of the Walk for dinner. We were both pretty pooped, so we went to bed soon thereafter, and then it was off to work this morning. It was such a fun trip! Angie really is a great friend, and we saw and learned a lot of cool things during our jaunt across the river.
On Tuesday night, Angie and I went and had dinner at King's Tavern--the oldest structure along the Mississippi River. I had a divine dish: crab-stuffed flounder. It was sooooo yummy! Then she and I went searching for the ghost, Madeline, who supposedly lives upstairs. She was the mistress of the King guy who originally owned the place, and supposedly her skeleton was uncovered underneath the building back in the 1930s . . . with a jeweled dagger next to it. Word on the street is that she still lives upstairs. The hostess lady told us to go into Madeline's bedroom and look for the rocking chair to be moving, or to see if we could see anyone else besides ourselves in the mirror. We were also supposed to run our hands over the bedspread, and if Madeline had recently been on the bed, it would feel hot. Well, Angie and I were unsuccessful in our attempts to find Madeline--probably because we didn't believe we would, although being up there in her room kind of creeped me out. There were two hand prints on the mirror, that I'm sure were supposed to look scary, but anyone could have put them there. There was also a large indentation on the sofa in the room--so it looked like someone was sitting there--but again, not too hard to fabricate that. That evening we watched "Steel Magnolias" and got in the mood to head to Natchitoches.
On Wednesday, Angie and I drove for just over two hours across Louisiana and ended up at our first stop: the Grave of the Unknown Confederate Soldier in Marthaville, Louisiana (shown at the left). This site was a state park, but it was truly the funniest, most cheesy place Angie and I had ever seen. The grave site was adjacent to the Louisiana Country Music Museum, and we had to laugh when we went inside the guitar-shaped building. We were surely the only two visitors the museum lady had seen in several months, and she was quite excited about us being there. The museum tour included a really hokey movie, and it consisted of some very scary-looking country music costumes from back in the day.We had planned on going to the Alligator Park next, but it was raining pretty hard, and we were both hungry, so we decided to head to Natchitoches (about 25 miles from
Marthaville) and have lunch. Natchitoches is a quaint little town along Cane River Lake (formerly part of the Red River). It has some definite French roots, so everything in town is very French--kind of like a New Orleans that is about the size of Natchez. We decided to eat lunch at this restaurant called the Landing. They're famous for their fried green tomatoes, and I had the best lunch ever: a fried green tomato BLT with sweet potato fries. It was SO GOOD!! (At this point you may be thinking that all I ever talk about is food, so surely I must be putting on the pounds like crazy, but I try to maintain my active lifestyle so as to offset the generous availability of tasty eats here in the South.) After lunch it was raining pretty hard, so we decided to just skulk around the shops there in town until we checked into our hotel: the Church Street Inn (the picture above is of Angie standing in front of our very cool hotel).
After checking in, the rain let up a little bit, so we decided to go visit the Fort St. Jean Baptiste state historic site. The funny thing about the fort though, is that it is not the original French fort, nor was it built on the same site as the original fort, nor are any of the artifacts in the museum original. We wondered why we would go visit a fake fort with fake artifacts, but it was a good chance to learn about the French occupation in the area, and it ended up being kind of a fun place to visit. They had people dressed up like the French settlers there at the fort, including this guy pictured at the left, who was stuck in the stocks. It was really funny because the next day, Angie and I ran into the stocks guy at a shop in town. I said, "Hey, you got out of the stocks!" He thought that was funny.
After the fort, we walked around town some more and had some tasty French bread pudding at this place called Pioneer Pub. Then we went down to the riverfront to await the light show and fireworks. While there we snacked on some chicken and funnel cake--typical 4th of July food in the South. The light show started at about 9:00, and it was hilarious (because it was so cheesy!). Angie and I were cracking up because the "light show" we had heard so much about consisted of a few strings of Christmas lights placed underneath the bridge spanning the lake (which isn't very wide), that changed color along with the beat of several patriotic songs. We decided that they need a little help with the light show--maybe some lasers or something. After the light show, the fireworks started (shown here) which were, especially after the light show, surprisingly good.
After the fireworks, we walked back to the hotel and went to bed. On Thursday, we had planned on going on a carriage ride and things like that downtown, but it was raining really hard, so the carriages were not out. Instead, we headed about 12 miles south of town to visit the Oakland plantation, part of the Cane River Creole National Historical Park. The ranger who took us on tour there was named Dominick Metoyer, and he was soooo nice and handsome, and he was very knowledgeable about history! Angie and I decided that I should marry him, but we haven't figured out how we'll arrange that yet. Here's a picture of him :-) The plantation was really cool to see, and because we were fellow park rangers, Dominick gave us the behind-the-scenes tour. He even took us into the overseers house, which is currently undergoing renovation, and showed us the original oil cloth (like we have at Melrose) on the floor.There are seriously towns in Louisiana, right by each other, named Natchez and Melrose! We of course had to drive through these two places, and they
were both right on the way to the Melrose plantation--which we wanted to see just because it has the same name as the place where we work. Natchez, Louisiana didn't have much going for it, and Melrose, Louisiana had even less. The Melrose plantation was cool (it isn't part of the National Park), but it was raining when we got there, and the tour, which included walking around outside in the mud, lasted over an hour, so we opted to go get lunch instead. But, we had to at least take a picture while we were in the area! For lunch we went back to Natchitoches and ate at this French restaurant called Merci Beacoup (which the locals pronounce as: Mercy Boo Coop). I had a famous Natchitoches meat pie, and Angie tried the Cajun potato. We topped off lunch with some vanilla bread pudding--yum! We want to write a book about the South's best bread pudding. So far, though, the title for the best bread pudding still belongs to Magnolia Grill here in Natchez. After lunch, we drove home, hung out around here in Natchez, and went to Cock of the Walk for dinner. We were both pretty pooped, so we went to bed soon thereafter, and then it was off to work this morning. It was such a fun trip! Angie really is a great friend, and we saw and learned a lot of cool things during our jaunt across the river.Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Road Trip Time
Today is my last day of work before the road trip with Angie to Natchitoches! She and I are going to eat at King's Tavern for dinner this evening (it's the oldest building in Mississippi and is supposedly haunted by the ghost of a lady who was killed there back in the day), then we're going to watch the movie "Steel Magnolias," which was partly filmed in Natchitoches. Then tomorrow we'll get up and drive 2.5 hours across Louisiana and will visit various sites including the Louisiana Alligator Park! It will be soooo much fun! I used some birthday money and bought a GPS navigator for my car, which I have been thinking would be nice to have, so now Angie and I will surely not get lost. So, I probably won't post anything for the next couple of days, but on Friday I'll be sure to catch everyone up on the trip--and I'll for sure have some good pictures.
Yesterday afternoon something funny happened--I was scheduled to give the 4:00 tour, but the people who had bought tickets at 3:40 didn't show up on the front porch at 4. So, I was walking around the grounds trying to find them, but they were nowhere in sight. Finally at about 4:25 I gave up, but then Angie and I saw them walking towards the house from the parking lot. I went out there, and they said that the ranger told them the tour started at 4:30 (which I knew wasn't true because I heard Angie sell them their tickets and tell them that the tour would be in 20 minutes at 4:00). Anyway, we only had time for a quick run-through, but I think we hit all of the highlights. Well, I'm off to tend the visitor center, then I'm going to take pictures of the Southern belle hoop skirt dresses upstairs this afternoon. I hope that everyone has a happy 4th of July, and I'll let you know how things go in Natchitoches!
Yesterday afternoon something funny happened--I was scheduled to give the 4:00 tour, but the people who had bought tickets at 3:40 didn't show up on the front porch at 4. So, I was walking around the grounds trying to find them, but they were nowhere in sight. Finally at about 4:25 I gave up, but then Angie and I saw them walking towards the house from the parking lot. I went out there, and they said that the ranger told them the tour started at 4:30 (which I knew wasn't true because I heard Angie sell them their tickets and tell them that the tour would be in 20 minutes at 4:00). Anyway, we only had time for a quick run-through, but I think we hit all of the highlights. Well, I'm off to tend the visitor center, then I'm going to take pictures of the Southern belle hoop skirt dresses upstairs this afternoon. I hope that everyone has a happy 4th of July, and I'll let you know how things go in Natchitoches!
Monday, July 2, 2007
Rockin' Award!
Thank you to Jenn, my dear friend Emily's cool sister, for the Rockin' Girl Blogger award! I was flattered when Emily notified me of Jenn's mention of my blog on her blog :-) You can click here to see Jenn's fun blog, and click here to see Emily's fun blog! I'm super jealous of Emily who got to visit Gettysburg and Nauvoo on her way back from Washington D.C. where she and her husband Nick were for the last few months! Emily even took a picture in front of our old room there in Nauvoo--#310--at the Joseph Smith Academy. Blogs are a fun way to keep in touch with people and keep track of everyone's exciting adventures.This morning I had to use my authority as an employee of the Federal Government to reprimand some park visitors. When I arrived here today, there was a car parked out past the large DO NOT ENTER sign, with some people sitting there fishing back in the bayou. It's fine if people fish in the bayou, but hello--just park your car in the parking lot instead of out amongst the vegetation. You'd think that the DO NOT ENTER sign would have given them a clue. I tried to be kind and tactful in my chastisement, but then I overheard Jessica giving them an earful when she pulled up after I had already talked to them. So I guess they got a double-whammy.
Angie and I have been planning our trip to Natchitoches, Louisiana (it's the place with the weird name--pronounced "Nack-a-dish") where we will be heading on Wednesday. We're going to have a rocking time!! We are scheduled to visit a bunch of fun places (including the Grave of the Unknown Confederate Soldier in Marthaville, LA), and we're excited about the 4th of July fireworks on Cane River Lake Wednesday night. Good times are sure to be had by all. I'm covering the visitor center this morning, then it will be house tour time this afternoon. Tonight I need to do some laundry and things to get ready for the big road trip. :-)
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Warning: Ranger May Bite
Here are some pictures of the birthday fun here in Natchez. The first photo is of the exciting birthday cake Mary made for me in her microwave. You can see Angie's reaction of surprise as she listens to Mary explain the process of making a cake using a rice cooker. Speaking of Mary, she's the one in the center of the picture with the fun birthday flowers that the Barretts sent to me. On the left side of the picture, you'll see Melissa--one of my new favorite people--who took me to lunch at Mammy's the other day. The next picture was taken yesterday of Angie and me as we prepared to eat the tasty lemon cake that Mom had delivered on Friday. It is an awesome cake! People say that Angie and I are kind of like twins--especially when we're both wearing the same clothes (which is every day).
Yesterday some funny kids came into the visitor center--they were probably all about six years old or less, and they were incessantly asking questions. I was in the back room of the visitor center eating my lunch, and I could hear them up there asking Angie if we store dead people in the cleaning closet and other things like that. One of them then asked what was in the back room. She said, "That's where we keep all of the bad rangers who get in trouble and have to go to time out." The wide-eyed little kid then peeked around the corner and saw me chomping on my Cajun po'boy sandwich. He then quickly turned back to Angie and asked, "Does it bite?" At this point we both broke out laughing, and Angie said, "Yes, of course it bites." The kid then turned to his sister and, very seriously, said, "It bites." Then we told them we were just kidding, but did we ever have a good laugh.
This morning Angie had to take Matt to the airport in Jackson at 5:00 a.m., she decided that instead of heading back to V-burg and then driving down here, she would just come straight to Natchez. I told her that she could come have breakfast over at my place, so she showed up at about 7:30 and we ate cereal out on the veranda. Catherine and Everett have been at the lake, and Miss Betty is out of town, so I thought that as long as I have the whole place to myself, I might as well make use of the outside patio. It's really nice in the morning--there's a ceiling fan out there, and usually there's a bit of a breeze out there. Since my July work schedule has changed, I now have Wednesday/Thursday off, so I needed to work today. It's been a pretty busy day there at the park so far. We'll see how the afternoon goes.
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