USS Cairo Battleship

Part of the Vicksburg National Military Park is a fantastic museum on the USS Cairo Battleship. The battleship is displayed under  white tents and you can walk on board and get a great feel for what it must have been like to sail on her. Next to the battleship display is a great museum that has artifacts from the ship. This museum is new and built in a way that makes you feel like you are on board the actual ship while you look at the displays. No pictures are allowed in the museum so you will just have to visit to see the clever museum.

 

The U.S.S. Cairo, a noted Civil War ironclad,
is now preserved as part of a special display
on the northern edge of the battlefield. Once
a powerful Union vessel, she is remarkably
well preserved and offers visitors a unique
opportunity to actually step aboard a warship
that is more than 140 years old.

A "super weapon" of her time, the Cairo was
constructed as part of a plan by the Union to
develop a flotilla of ironclad gunboats that
would be used as both defensive and
offensive weapons on the Mississippi and
Ohio Rivers.
http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/vicksburg2.html

 

Vicksburg National Military Park

On the drive from Corinth, MS to Natchez, MS, we stopped at Vicksburg National Military Park. We watched the movie at the visitor's center then took a drive through the park. This park is under major renovations and is removing dense woodland cover to restore the grounds to the appearance of when the battle took place in 1863.

The Battle of Vicksburg took place on May 18, 1863, when General Ulysses S. Grant attempted to take over Vicksburg, MS, from the Confederate Army.

The drive through the park takes you by State Memorials. One half of the drive is the Union Memorials and the other half of the drive is the Confederate Memorials.

The National Park Website is very informative:

http://www.nps.gov/vick/index.htm

 

 

 

Pickwick Landing Dam

We took an evening drive up to Pickwick Landing Dam.

Pickwick Landing Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Hardin County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The dam is one of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the 1930s as part of a New Deal-era initiative to create a continuous navigation channel between the river's mouth and Knoxville, and bring economic development to the area. The dam impounds the 43,100-acre (17,400 ha) Pickwick Lake and its tailwaters are part of Kentucky Lake. Pickwick Landing Dam is named for a community situated near the dam site at the time of construction. The community had been named after the title character in the Charles Dickens novel, The Pickwick Papers. Wikipedia

Contraband Camp Corinth Mississippi

Contraband Camp Corinth Mississippi

We went to visit Ed's Grandmother in Corinth, MS and she took us to see the Contraband Camp.

This is a historic site where freed slaves sought refuge. Here was a place of refuge and a new start for thousands of former slaves where they took their first steps on the long road to full citizenship. The camp featured many homes, a church, school, and hospital. During the camp's time over 1,000 African Americans learned to read through the work of the American Missionary Association.

Today the site of the camp is peaceful park surrounded by mighty oaks and honeysuckle vines. Six life-size bronze sculptures depicting the men, women, and children who inhabited the camp. A quarter-mile walkway connects the statues. (bobbysmithdailycorinthianvisitorguide)

Mardi Gras parade in Destin Florida

We went to a Mardi Gras parade in Destin Florida.

Mardi Gras is a celebration beginning after the Christian celebration of Epiphany and ending the day before Ash Wednesday. It is a time of enjoying yourself before Lent.

This was the a ton of fun, watching young and old having fun acting crazy for some plastic beads :) including us.

The traditional colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold. These colors are said to have been chosen by Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch Romanoff of Russia during a visit to New Orleans in 1872, per Wikipedia.

Navarre Beach Florida

Here are some pictures of the area around the Navarre Beach area.

Sunset at Navarre Beach Florida

Here are some pictures of the sunset on Navarre Beach and the Navarre Beach Pier. Doesn't get much more relaxing than this.