March 16, 2011
Dad and I recently found ourselves in Summerdale, Alabama. We’re members of the Escapees RV club, and the Escapees campground in Summerdale was on our way from Florida to Louisiana. We didn’t expect much from small-town Alabama, but were pleasantly surprised at how much there was to do in the area. We spent most of ...
March 16, 2011
New Orleans’ Jackson Square is a study in contrasts. Tourists surge through on their way to dinner reservations at Muriel’s on the Square as homeless kids known as gutter punks huddle in a doorway. Balloon artists delight children with intricate balloon animals as a young man painted silver stands motionless on a milk crate, a ...
March 15, 2011
New Orleans’ history is dotted with violence, disease, natural disasters and mysterious disappearances. Paranormal experts claim that the veil between the living and the dead is thinner in New Orleans, giving explanations that range from ley lines to voodoo curses. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, in New Orleans the truth is often stranger ...
March 14, 2011
Before we decided to travel full-time in our RV, Dad and I lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Living in the Quarter is so much different than visiting, as I would imagine is true for any extremely popular tourist destination. For example, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop is a hugely crowded tourist bar on Bourbon ...
March 14, 2011
New Orleans Mardi Gras is known world-wide for its rowdy debauchery and anything-goes attitude for adults. Certainly no parent would want to take their child into the middle of such a scene, right? In reality, this perception, fueled by the popular media, reflects only the tiniest bit of what Mardi Gras is all about. At ...
March 4, 2011
Mobile, Alabama was always one of those places we just drove through on Interstate 10, on the way between our former home in Central Florida and the new life we had created in New Orleans. What we saw of Mobile out the car windows looked interesting but we always had a schedule to keep, so ...
March 4, 2011
New Orleans, Louisiana has become synonymous with Mardi Gras. People from around the world make the annual pilgrimage for beads, parades, musical performances and king cake. But Mardi Gras actually got its New World start 150 miles down the road in Mobile, Alabama. As long-time New Orleans residents, Dad and I were eager to find ...
March 4, 2011
The USS Alabama, a World War II battleship docked in Mobile, Alabama, has been on my bucket list for some time now. Dad saw it several years ago with my then-husband, but as the day was snowy and icy, my mom and I elected not to go. When Dad and I found ourselves in Mobile ...
March 3, 2011
Located at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, the National Naval Aviation Museum is impressive in every way. Packed to overflowing with military aircraft from the early years through today, the museum offers two floors of displays in the main building, a second hanger out back and a trolley tour of the flight line. ...
March 3, 2011
Located high on a bluff on the grounds of the modern-day Pensacola Naval Air Station, Fort Barrancas was one of three forts built to protect Pensacola’s deep water port in the early 1840s. The site has been home to forts of three nations–Spain, England and the United States. Dad and I decided to visit during ...
