The wrap up of Ashlyn's internship

Many of you know that Ashlyn has been working as an intern at Drake and CO. Part of what she does is write blog entries. Here is her lastest, the subject was what has she learned through the internship. Hope you enjoy.
http://blog.drakeco.com/ Scroll down to the July 21st, it is the entry with her picture.

Yes a proud momma.

Jean's Quilt

Jean finally got around to taking a picture of her quilt. Zander just had to get in the picture. But my Great Niece Ericka Rose is even cuter. She is Jean's second grandaughter. Jean's room is light purple, the the purple color.

Kara's quilt

I finally got a picture of my niece Kara and her quilt. She loves it as it matches her room.

July 16

Off for Missouri after we had donuts with Uncle Larry. Jean and I enjoyed sleeping in his new bedroom. We had a nice visit.

July 15

July 15

Today we toured Montgomery, Alabama’s capital city.
The Capitol is very traditional being built about 1850. It has 2 canter levered stairs rising 3 stories.
It once held all 3 branches of government but now only the Governor’s office is there. In 1985 they built a Legislative building that is where they hold their sessions.

On one level they have the crests of the countries under whose rule they have been Britain, Spain, France, and Confederate. But no United States seal.
The Confederate White House is located on the capital square. Also in the Senate area was where they drafted the Confederate Government. Then they moved the confederate capital to Virginia.

Next we visited Rosa Park’s Museum. She was started the Civically Rights movement. One day she was tired and she refused to get up and give her seat to a white person. Seems the bus drivers have been misinterpreting the law all along. It really said they only had to get up and move back if there was room. Boycott lasted over a year but they won the right to first come first sit.

We had lunch at Shoney’s. Brought back old memories, when they were in St. Louis I loved their Hot Fudge Cake. It is still a great dessert.

We drove on to Huntsville. Today we visit the Space Center and an unclaimed airline luggage store. Don’t quite know what to expect but should be interesting. Jean always finds interesting places to visit. Check out the picture of Karen on the hover craft.

Tonight we will be back in Bowling Green at Larry’s house and to drop Karen off. Then tomorrow we will head back to Missouri. As they say all good things come to an end.

Hope you have enjoyed the travelogue, as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Janet

July 14

July 14

Today we arose early and were on our walk down to the Café De Mum to have Bennets and café-du-latté by 7 am. It is warm in New Orleans so we try to get out early.

We enjoyed a carriage ride around the French Quarter. Our driver was very knowledgeable.

We did some shopping on our walk back to the hotel. We left by 10:30, via the Lake Ponchacrain Causeway which is a 30 mile bridge across the lake.

We headed east on I-10 looking for a beach so Karen could collect a tar ball for her classroom. At Bay St. Louis destruction from Hurricane Katrina was very evident. The beach was beautiful and we stopped. We noticed all the shade shelters and porta-pottys. Plastic bags were setting everywhere. Next we noticed the workers cleaning the beach. They were at work all along the beach to Gulfport, when we turned back toward I-10.

We have our final seafood lunch at Gulfport. We returned to I-10 and headed to Montgomery, Ala.

Near Evergreen, we were traveling along with Karen as the driver, Jean as the navigator and Joy and I in the back seat. I was looking ahead and noticed something black across our lane. I said, “Karen, look-out”. She severed and almost missed it. She said her first thought was that it was an alligator. Seems no one saw it because Jean was playing a game on her phone, Joy was dozing. Now Karen says she was looking far ahead. Karen has been stuck on looking for an alligator. There was much discussion about our reactions. Needless to say we stopped at the next exit for a restroom break. I took over the driving.

I have a funny story, 2 of us are mid-age and seem to be warm at night. So they turn the temp to 65. The first thing, Jean does each night is fold the bedspread up and put it in a corner. One night I work up about midnight feeling cold. So knowing that there was a cover over in the corner, I went to get it. Well this time it was almost off the end of their bed. So with one small pull, I had it and back I went and snuggled under it. About 3 in the morning here comes Jean and crawls in too. Seems she had gone looking for the cover too. We had quite a laugh about the disappearing cover.


Tomorrow we will sight- seeing here in Montgomery, and Birmingham and spend the night in Huntsville.

July 13

We stopped and visited an Arcadian Cultural Center and learned all about Cajun life. We had lunch at a local place and I had a Po-Boy crawfish. That is a first for me. They have a taste between shrimp and crab. The girls had catfish chips which were cut as thin as fried clams.

We arrived in New Orleans at 4, rested and relaxed awhile. We are staying near the French Quarters.

We walked through the French Quarters doing some shopping on our way to dinner at the Court of 2 Sisters. What a lovely place to have dinner. We had dessert and one had cheery jublie and another had Banana foster. So we ended the evening with a walk along Bourbon Street.

Tomorrow it is off for Montgomery Ala.

July11 and 12

July 11
July 11, 2010

I forgot to start with a very funny story about Karen and her purse.
Since some of us have been known to bring 2 big suitcases on a trip, Jean gave specific direction on what we could bring. She even suggested a packing list.

Jean had told us that we could bring a medium suitcase and a purse. Karen showed up with a red suitcase and a black duffle bag. When she put it in the car she assured us she was putting in her suitcase and her purse. It took us a few seconds to realize the size of her purse. When she tried to put it in the back of the car, she was told that her purse had to go with her in the back seat. We all laughed and as we traveled along her purse had lots of snacks and reading material.

This morning we left Little Rock for Vicksburg.
We headed south via Pine Bluff. We drove through many small towns. Every yard had a least 1 Crepe Myrtle bush, well they really are a tree down here. They are trimmed up to look like a tree and I saw some taller than a house.

Southeastern Arkansas is an agricultural area. We observed cotton in bloom. The girls saw rice growing

Since we are driving we stopped to refill our cooler with soda and bottled water. What a savings to have your own.

We crossed into Louisiana near Tallulah, LA then across the Mississippi River to Vicksburg.
We tried to go to the buffet at the Amerastar but we were too late. We had lunch and then headed to the Vicksburg National Military Park. We spent the next several hours at the Museum and taking the audio tour of the park. If you are a history buff especially of the Civil War you would enjoy this place.

Tomorrow it is off to Natchez, Baton Rouge ending the day at Madewood Plantation.



July 12

Today we left Vicksburg and drove to Natchez.
The drive was through agricultural lands.

In Natchez, we visited the visitors center which very informative.

There we also visited the world’s largest octagon House called Longwood.
It was 6 stories tall, floor 1 offices, floor 2 family rooms, floor 3&4 bedrooms, 5 game area, and 6 a solarium with windows. Only the first room was ever finished.
It has been started by a cotton planter just before the Civil War.
He had all the furnishings order and they were confiscated by the North and sold to help the War effort.

He died and the house was never finished. His wife and 8 kids lived in the basement.

It had 9 rooms and because the house was built in a dry moat the basement had windows. It was a very unique house with an unusual story.

We crossed over into Louisiana, and we discovered sugarcane growing everywhere,

We arrived at Madewood Plantation about 4. We were greeted and shown around the first floor.

It has 21 rooms on 2 floors. It is truly unbelievable. The ceilings are 12 foot high. It was all furnished with period furnishings. You were free to wonder around the house and grounds.

Our 2 rooms opened out on to the Galley (front porch). We had wake- up coffee there this morning.
We relaxed and got dressed for dinner. Wine and cheese were served at 6 in the library, with dinner at 6:30 in the main dining room. The food was very tasty. We ate by candlelight and was served .

We did some more looking around before we returned to our rooms. There was no TV so the girls turned in by 8:30 and I read until 10.

We had morning coffee on the Galley and a delicious full breakfast at 8:30. Surprisingly the girls ate the cheesey grits.

We said our goodbyes and were gone by 9:30. We were headed to New Orleans.

Little Rock July 10

We left Memphis at 8 am and arrived in Little Rock at 11. We headed to the Clinton Library. I had been there before, but it was wonderful to watch them revisit events that happened in their life time. It is a beautiful setting for a Library and is loaded with technology. We left at 3pm and went to the National Park at Little Rock’s Central HS. We closed up the place at 4:30. I lived thru this saga and the Park Service has done a great job on the Museum.


We then drove by the Capitol with its beautiful gold doors. After our big day, we returned to the hotel for a little rest. Joy rested in the reclining chair, Karen on the bed by the window and ac. Jean is busy looking at the itinerary for our next day and mom was reading. There was a problem with the curtains, Karen with the sun streaming in is hot so she closes them. Jean then gets hot since the ac is being blocked. Open then closed and opened again. It took Jean 2 times opening the curtains to figure out someone is coming behind her closing them again. We all had a good laugh.

Then it was off to dinner at the Flying Fish down on the river front. Great place to enjoy seafood. It is so popular that you stand in line to give your order. The line snaked out the door. You could catch a breeze of ac as the door just kept opening. Jean and Karen had the steamed shrimp 1lb special. Karen actually needed help polishing hers off! Mom and Joy had the catfish. Joy was so happy the fish didn’t taste muddy, but sweet and tender. The day ended with showers, reading and blogging. Off till tomorrow.

Go South Ladies July 9

This diary is being written from my mom's perspective. So she is writing in her first person while the girls aqre Jean, Kaaren and I. We hope you enjoy our little quips of the trip.

Go ! South Ladies Go South

One winter Sunday, I read all about Madewood Plantation near Napolean, LA which had been turned into a Bed and Breakfast.

Now that is not the thing, that appears on Jack’s to do list.
So I asked my 3 daughters if staying in a Southern Antibellum Mansion interested them.
They graciously agreed that that would be our girl’s trip in 2010.

So I gave the travel agent job to Jean, which she loves to do. We decided to make it a driving trip, since we had to go to Kentucky to pick up Karen.
She asked each of us what we would like to see on the way there and back.
With those wishes in mind, she designed a trip.

Since Karen’s summer class was finished at noon on Friday July 9th, we left Imperial at 6:10 am.
I drove until Cape, and by then my hip was hurting. I pulled over to let Jean drive. We exchanged places and then could not find the car keys. See at home I throw them between the seats, well I did that but this time since there were fewer coupons and such, they fell all the way to the floor. Well after 2 searches of my hand bag and the back of the van, I spied then. So had a good laugh about my losing the keys before we got out of state.

Arriving in Bowling Green at 12:30, we had lunch with my brother Larry before leaving at 1:30 for Memphis. Our trip to Memphis was uneventful except of 2 rain showers. We arrived at 6 pm
Karen picked Shoney’s for dinner, and Jean said good choice and pulled in a Perkins. By then we had been driving for 12 hours and she was tired. Well Perkins still has delicious pie.