2/10/2014

weekly update 2/10/2014

A vacation week. Donna and I went to Gulf Shores Alabama to visit Jan and Fred Waggoner. Donna drove, and it was a long drive - 10 hours each way. We left early Monday morning, and came back Friday. Donna is an excellent driver, and I don't think we took one wrong turn in spite of my horrible navigation skills.

We got in around supper time on Monday, and had time to chat and get caught up. Jan made a delicious shrimp salad with a remoulade sauce that was Fred's mother's recipe. We had lost an hour by changing time zones, and were tired from the driving, so it was an early evening.

Jan & Fred's Gulf Shore Condo

A view in their backyard of Oyster Bay

 

Tuesday was the day that we had tickets for the Kingston Trio concert, and also had made plans to go with Jan to her Newcomers Club luncheon. Donna belongs to the Newcomers of Savannah, so we were rather interested to see how they would compare. The lunch was at shopping / dining / condo / marina complex called The Wharf. The food was good, and since this is where ladies meet to interact with other people who have relocated or are visiting from other areas of the country, we met some nice women. There was a fruit wine bar in the complex, and we stopped for a tasting. Very strange - and I was reminded of Boone's Apple Wine (which I never really wanted to be reminded of again). I bought a bottle of Key Lime Wine and one of Mango Wine. We'd had a big lunch, so we didn't really need another big meal. We had some wine and cheese and crackers before going to the concert. None of the singers were from the original trio (in fact, only one is still alive), but they sounded the same and sang the songs we all remember - Tom Dooley, Scotch & Soda, MTA. It was a great concert.

lunch with the Newcomers Club

Tasting at the Fruit Wine Bar

The Kingston Trio Live

 Wednesday, Jan drove us up to Mobile Alabama. We visited a couple of museums and a historic home. The first museum we went to was Mobile Carnival Museum. Coming from the North, with my Puritan New England and religious Baptist background, partying and having a good time is something that has been frowned on throughout my life. So to have festivals that go on for a month, and include drinking, partying, unbelievably ornate costumes, parades and dancing, this is all something that is not within my own person history, but it's very much a part of this area of the country. Mardi Gras was observed for the first time in the New World in 1703 in Mobile. The first masked parading society was formed in 1830, Many additional societies have since formed. Currently there are over 50 parading and non parading organizations in Mobile. The museum today is housed in a restored mansion, and has displays of majestic crowns, scepters and bejeweled robes. The museum also had photos of some of the early parades, and many of the costumes worn by kings and queens have been donated or are on loan to the museum and the displays go on and on. I've never seen so many beautiful ball gowns gathered together in one place, each seemed to be more fabulous than the one before. And men were not forgotten, with there highly decorated garb as well. Even children will dress up to be attendants, so the were page and ladies-in-waiting costumes on display as well. It's amazing.

One of many gorgeous gowns & capes

If we were on a float, we'd look like this

 

Following that, we went to the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion. The home was built in 1855 for John Bragg, a lawyer who was born in North Carolina. During the Civil War, the Bragg family took all the treasures from this home and moved them to their plantation outside the city to save them from the destruction by the Yankees when they occupied Mobile. Interestingly, the city home was not torched by Union soldiers, but the plantation and all it's contents were destroyed. The Mitchell family bought the property in 1924, and it remained in their possession until it was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The interior is amazing, as many antebellum mansions are. 

The Bragg-Mitchell Mansion

 

We then went to the History Museum Of Mobile. As we walked in, there was a whole room of doll houses. I could have spent the entire time in this room, but there was more to see. There was more Mardi Gras history, some collections about Civil Rights in Mobile as well as the importance of the port and ship building in WWII. I saw the baseball that Hank Aaron hit when he broke Babe Ruth's record. We had to rather hurry through as it was late in the afternoon, and the museum would have been closing soon. We drove back to Gulf Shores, added Fred to our group, and went out for dinner. There was a rousing game of Scattergories played in the evening, and Fred knows at least 15 boys' names that start with the letter J. 

Inside one of the lovely dollhouses

Hank Aaron's 714th home run ball

 

 

Friday Jan took us in the other direction and we visited Pensacola, Florida. There is a Historic Pensacola Village there that, while certainly will never be mistaken for Deerborn, Michigan or Sturbridge, Massachusetts, was an interesting visit. We had a guided tour through an 1805 cottage, an 1871 Victorian house built by an upper class family, a 1890 house built by a middle class sea merchant, and an 1832 Protestant Church. There was also a museum of Commerce and the Wentworth Florida State Museum. Pensacola is known as the City of Five Flags (or Seven, depending on how you count): Spanish (twice), French, British, Confederate, and United States (twice). 

 

The city of Five Flags

Our tour group outside one of the houses

OK, this is where it gets into that It's A Small World category. As we were looking for a place on the street to park the car, I noticed a NYS license plate on another car, and it had a Dick Ide decal, who is a Rochester auto dealer. We bought our tickets for the tour, and were waiting for it to begin when we started talking to others who were also waiting. One couple were the from the car we'd seen, so of course, the first question is: what part of Rochester are you from? I answered Greece; they were from Hilton. I said that I had known the people who lived in the Braddocks Bay lighthouse years ago. He DATED one of the girls who lived in the Braddocks Bay lighthouse years ago - Patty Stone. Patty Stone is Mark's cousin. He knew them all - Patty, Linda, Uncle Walt and Aunt Kay, Shari Weber. How weird is that?

Driving back after the visit in Florida, we stopped at Joe Patty's Seafood Market. I had seen this mentioned often on Jan's fb page, so we stopped there for fresh seafood. Fred grilled for us when we got back to their home. We opened a bottle of mango wine, and spent our last evening there eating and drinking. 

 

Jan ordering 2 of something at Joe Patty's

 

Imagine the terror when Donna had to scrape ice off the windshield of her car before we could leave to drive back to Savannah on Friday morning! Isn't this winter over yet? It was a long drive back. Luck for me, Donna doesn't mind driving, so I could just relax and watch the scenery (or nap). We got back to our condos just before 6 pm. My dvr was almost full, so I watched several programs before going to bed - my own bed!

I had planned to go to the Colonial Muster at Wormsloe Historic Site on Saturday. I've gone each year, and I enjoy it very much. But it was raining when I woke up, and the sky remained gray all day. (I later discovered that the gray skies were not because of rain, but there was a huge fire in a rubber warehouse at the port that spewed black clouds into the atmosphere all day. No one was injured in the fire, but it was specular in it's smoke and flames). So, with very little arm twisting, I just spent then day in my condo, doing laundry, watching more taped shows, enjoying the Olympics. Sunday was a better day, so I drove out to Wormsloe to see the muster then. It was every bit as good as I remembered from last year. General Oglethorpe was there, and he is fascinating to listen to. I had to go early because I was scheduled for a tour at BC in the afternoon. This Sunday was Super Museum Sunday in Savannah, when most places waive the admission fee. It's too bad I couldn't take advantage of some of those attractions, but I've seen most of them anyway. In the evening, I went over to Donna's to have dinner and some Rummikub with her, Lisa & Dave. 

Colonial dancers

 

(This blog took me an incredibly long time to post.   I know I'm old and techno-challenged, but I've done this before.  It should not be this difficult.  Connections suck big time, and I'm really frustrated with it.  Like I said, this should not be this complicated or hard.)