Summer 2013

For our 2013 summer holiday I got to pick where we flew into.

We flew out the day of my 50th birthday on 17th June and we flew into Newark, New Jersey. We travelled down to Richmond Virginia, Charleston North Carolina, Savannah Georgia then drove to the house in Aberdeen Mississippi.  We took around a week to get to the house. It was amazing to see these wonderful cities.

Once at the house we made plans to visit our friends Bernie and Archie in McAllen/Mission Texas. So we set off on the 2000 mile round trip via New Orleans.

We went over into Mexico at Progresso and we visited South Padre Island. We drove back via San Antonio, Dallas, Shreveport to the house. At the end of our holiday we set off early and stopped in Washington DC taking time to visit Arlington Cemetery and the Smithsonian Museums. We didn't get as far as New York City on the way back but we did make it to Liberty Park New Jersey.

I loved this narrow house we spotted in Charleston, North Carolina.

Savannah, Georgia in one of the beautiful squares.

Buggy ride passing us in Charleston, North Carolina. Loved the houses on the left.

We saw a sign for the Bonnie and Clyde Museum when we were driving from Shreveport, Louisiana back to the house in Aberdeen, Mississippi.  I

was reading a book on Bonnie and Clyde so we decided to stop.

This is the marker in the road where the ambush took place on 23rd May 1934.

I went into the museum whilst Colin talked to the owner. He said to me that I would find out who he was after I'd visited the museum. Turns out his father was one of the Sheriffs who shot them during the ambush.  What an interesting old gentleman. And an interesting museum to visit as it is located on the site of the café that Bonnie and Clyde stopped to buy a snack at prior to them driving along the road that the ambush took place.   It is in Gibsland, Louisiana.

We stopped to visit the Ground Zero Blues Club, owned by Morgan Freeman. It is located in Clarksville, Mississippi.

Street mural of Clint!  in Clarksville, Mississippi.

we stopped in Oxford, Mississippi and if you know me by now, I always find a cemetery to visit. This is the gravesite of the American author William Faulkner.

New Orleans in the Bubba Gump Shrimp co. Shop at Decatur Street, NOLA.

Driving along St Charles Avenue in New Orleans. It is full of very beautiful properties.

We stopped at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch! Chocolate-style.....

This is the LaLaurie Mansion in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was previously owned by Nicholas Cage until 2009.  The mansion home was owned by Delphine LaLaurie. 

Defintiely a story worth reading. The house was the scene of horrific acts. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphine_LaLaurie

Riverfront in New Orleans.

A visit to New Orleans is not complete without a visit to Johnny's Po-Boy restaurant. 

It's amazing!

This is the riverfront in New Jersey. I am looking across at the site of the former World Trade Centre.

The monument is in Liberty Park, New Jersey and was constructed from some of the fallen girders from the World Trade Centre. It is called the Empty Sky Monument.  Situated on a berm the parallel walls engraved with the names of victims are oriented to face the former World Trade Center site. Designed by architect Frederic Schwartz, it was dedicated on September 10, 2011, commemorating the tenth anniversary

Standing at the John F Kennedy gravesite looking up at the former Robert E Lee mansion house in Arlington Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

Sandra at Lincoln Memorial  - this is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument.

At the spot where Martin Luther King stood when he made his famous speech  "I have a dream"

In Washington DC - on the pavement

Colin at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC

Chippewa Square in Savannah, Georgia. This is where Forrest Gump sat on the bench eating his famous box of chocolates waiting for the bus.

On the Savannah riverfront at the famous monument the Waving Girl.

One of Savannah's favorite stories involves the life of Florence Martus (1868 -1943), who was known well by Savannahians and sailors of the sea as the Waving Girl. The daughter of a sergeant stationed at Fort Pulaski, Florence later moved to a cottage along the river near the entrance of the harbor with her brother George, upon his upstream transfer from the Cockspur Island Lighthouse to the Elba Island Lighthouse.

Burger in Mission Texas. As they say in Texas, everything is bigger! 

Well the hamburger definitely was.

A visit to Bernie and Archie in Mission, Texas. This photo was taken at South Padre Island when we stopped for dinner.