My youngest sister Roni,
(real name = Rachel... but has too many nicknames for her own good... courtesy of 5 older siblings)
came to visit last week!
I picked her up in Houston and then we headed over to Mississippi to enjoy some heat and humidity with my other half.
The road trip was 6 hours...
and once we finally got into town, we were SOOO happy to get out of the car and see Jon!
(It had been 10 days apart... gross.)
We'd been in Mississippi 2 minutes and this girl found a lizard.
She looks so happy!
We did some wandering around downtown Vicksburg...
We dipped our toes into the river...
careful not to get eaten by man-eating catfish.
Rumor has it they exist.
And because we were wet with sweat and dying from the heat-
we HAD to get some frozen yogurt.
I have a slight obsession.
The next morning we headed over to Vicksburg National Military Park.
My little sister's comment as we walked into the visitors center...
"So... is this actually where the civil war battle took place?"
"Yep!"
"So... are there relics still lying around in the forest? Like bullets?"
"Umm... probably!"
"Sweet! It's always been my dream to find a Civil War bullet."
What 18 year-old girl says that?
She's so cool.
I'll keep her around.
Most of the park is made up of monuments to the different states that helped fight in the "Battle of Vicksburg",
but this is the one structure inside the park that survived the battle.
It's been restored- but most of it is the real deal.
Lots of monuments...
Statue of General Grant
The best part of the park-
is this beauty.
An ironclad boat that sank in the Mississippi during warfare was lifted out and restored 100 years later.
Maybe I'm a nerd- but I think it's pretty cool!
Park Cemetery
Vicksburg sits on a bluff up over the Mississippi River...
thus why the Union spent 47 days trying to take the city of Vicksburg in the Civil War.
It was a hot and sunny day!
We went to a movie...
went shopping...
We went blueberry picking...
And of course-
had to have her taste the local cuisine.
Fried chicken, fried catfish, fried pickles, fried cornbread, hushpuppies, french fries.... talk about heart attack!
We had to drive back to Houston for us to dance in our recital...
Yeah- I realize we are almost 30 and are still dancing in recitals.
We just love to dance and it's a hard habit to let die!
And I think the week was successful-
because we found her like this many times.
We done wore her out.
We were SO sad to drop her off at the airport-
it went by TOO fast!
Thanks for coming to see us Roni!
Miss you already.
