The traveling sisters - day 1 & 2

My oldest sister is adventurous.   She's in her late 50's and a couple of years ago, decided to go back to school and get her doctorate degree (something to do with journalism) at Southern Mississippi State University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 

She has now finished school, is working on her dissertation, and applying for jobs teaching on a college level.  With any luck, she will be moving soon.  My sisters and I decided that before she left, we needed to pay her a visit. 

This is the account of that visit.   

Day one

Travel day.  We flew out of Salt Lake City to Atlanta, Georgia, and then hopped another plane to Gulfport, Mississippi which is about 90 minutes from where she lives.  We got there pretty late, just in time to go to bed.

Day two.

Mobile Alabama

Drive Time

Around two hours each way.

My oldest brother, Boyd, and his wife Nancy (who live in Detroit) were visiting my sister as well for a couple of days.  While he was there, we hopped in her mini-van and drove to Mobile, Alabama, about 2 hours away.  My dad's youngest brother lives a couple of hours away from there and agreed to meet us at the U.S.S. Alabama Battleship Park.  Uncle Ray served in Vietnam, flew a helicopter and spent his career training our military to fly them.   He doesn't get to Idaho often, so I hadn't seen him in about 20 years.   He was a GREAT tour guide and told us all kinds of stories from his military days, including the time his buddy's mother was moving so they borrowed a helicopter and moved her.  His response when we asked him if he got in trouble, he said, "What were they going to do?  Send me back to Vietnam?" 

The battleship was HUGE and HOT.  

The submarine was SMALL and HOT.

I gained a lot of respect for our military who lived, fought, and died on these vessels.

 Mississippi is very green and lush.  The highways are lined with trees so thick you can't see past the first few feet, even down the middle of the highways (this is the closest I came to taking a picture of it... driving made me SO tired).  We'd drive along and see nothing but driveways and small roads for miles and then out of nowhere would be a dollar store.  Every time I stepped out of the car, I was taken back by the humidity.  Every time.

 The humidity wasn't actually too bad in Mobile, nor was the heat, but that's probably because it was blowing so hard.  Reminded me of home.

Uncle Ray wanted to take us to lunch, but he ran out of time and had to head back home, so we went without him - to the place he wanted to take us.  Lunch was at a most fabulous seafood restaurant next to the Memorial called "Felix's".   I had the crab cakes with fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, and crab soup (thanks dad - he paid for our meal, even though he wasn't there).  My second favorite meal of the whole trip.  So yummy!

 After lunch, we drove to the Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, Alabama.  It had the most beautiful lush gardens, elegant water features, and flowers I never knew existed.  We were hoping to see an alligator in the swamp, but the best we could do was a turtle, darn it.  If it wasn't for the 700 mosquito bites, I think I could have moved right in.

We arrived back in Hattiesburg just in time to go to bed.  Right after a quick trip to the local Walmart... this is one southern delicacy I will not be tasting, thankyouverymuch.

Click here to see all the photos from our grand adventure...