Stats – 307 miles, 2 states (968 miles total)
Woke up this morning in Vicksburg, MS and ate a nice breakfast at the hotel. We drove about a half mile to the Vicksburg Civil War battlefield site. We went through the visitors center and learned that we really wanted to join the Junior Ranger's program. Mom got to help everybody fill out the booklets as we drove through the tour. We went outside for a real life cannon demonstration. The 7 man crew even managed to set off a car alarm, poor car never saw it coming.
The park is an 18 mile driving tour through the battlefields and all of the monuments. We bought the driving tour CD (if you ever want to borrow it just let me know... It'll save you $12.) and really enjoyed ourselves. Here's one of the monuments we saw in the park, the one for Missouri. (It's on the confederate side of the lines, but dedicated to soldiers of both sides. It's 42 feet tall, and is located where 2 Missouri regiments fought against each other).
Eli and Henry each bought authenticate replica Union hats. Henry really debated on whether he wanted to buy the Confederate hat or not, but he decided that he didn't like slavery so that was his deciding factor. We then left for Jackson, MS
We pulled in to Jackson a little later than we'd planned, but headed directly for the state capitol. We saw a group of people that looked like a tour group just starting. We asked if they were and the man in the front invited us to join in. It ended up that the man was actually MS. state representative Philip Gunn and he was giving his extended family a behind the scenes tour. We got to see the floor of the house from his seat, not just from the gallery above. We also got to see the "secret" governors elevator, and then we saw the access to the capital rotunda. We were not able to see the governors personal office, it had been dead bolted and Rep. Gunn wasn't able to get the governors chief of staff on the phone... oh well. I told him if he ever ran for an office where we could vote for him, he'd have my vote :-)
Then we we drove to Baton Rouge, LA, but by the time we'd gotten there the capitol building was already closed. We got our pictures of the outside of the building, then headed for dinner. We found Boutin's for some authentic cajun food. Dad ordered the fried alligator for dinner. Everybody tried some, and everybody claimed that they would order it for themselves on our next visit.
We then drove to New Orleans, again arriving after we'd planned. We stayed in the garden district and had a very friendly Valet park our car for us. We unloaded all of our stuff, then went up to the sundeck on the roof (13 stories) to get a view of the city at night. It was about 10:00, so the kids all set on the lounge chairs and "moon bathed". Greta pointed out our car parked below us in the nice lot with the 10' wall and razor wire protecting it, we felt better knowing the van was safe :-) Unfortunately we also discoverd that Mom's camera had decided that it was ready to retire, so we'll be shopping for a camera in the next day or two.
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