Road Trip: South - Capitals Tour
Day 7: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - Jackson, MS
Weather: 85°, partly cloudy
Steps: 11,406 (Steve); 10,922 (Linda)
Drove: 288 miles
Jackson marks our third capital visited so far this trip. The forecast for Baton Rouge, which we just left, was 4-6" of rain, so we got out of town just in time.
Today's breakfast was the first with hot eggs (these were sort of like pancake shaped, folded in half, with cheese in between). And sausage. And waffles. So we decided to have a heavier breakfast and then have a late lunch / early dinner.
Today we visited the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science.
When we arrived, there were two - yes two - school buses unloading and the kids were getting on line to go in. Well...
hey! let's walk around the outside first! We saw some local flora.
By the time we were done outside, the line had disbursed. But another bus was arriving so we
quickly made our way inside and looked around at the displays. Here are some fossils.
And fish and other reptiles including four aligators laying on top of each other, an aligator using a turtle as a pillow,
a river cooter (the weird looking turtle), paddle fish and a French angelfish.
After being inside, there is a set of trails outside to walk. We could have walked the really long one (the red followed by the
purple), but chose not to as we had no bug repellent. Plus we were concerned about the condition of the trail due to the amount
of rain. And it was a long mile and a half round trip. So we just did the blue, yellow and green.
There was one section that was on the water.
And a video clip to enjoy the sounds of silence. Oh, sorry, didn't mean to get that song
stuck in your head. Probably should have said the sounds of birds.
After the museum, I surprised Linda with a visit to the Eudora Welty House. She's an author. Linda reads. A
lot. Linda had no idea who Eudora was. Oh... Um, OK, shall we move on? "Yes." OK then, onto the capitol!
Of course we had to get our book stamped.
Here are the book pages:
And of course we had to get our shot glass.
This isn't marble. It's a sort of plaster painted material, called pavanazzo scagliola.
Back when it was installed, it was less expensive to make this than use marble. Now, it costs
more to maintain than to use marble. And if it gets wet? Forget about it.
The architecture of the building was amazing (and remember, the marble-looking columns aren't marble).
And of course we visited the senate and the house. (The domes in these
images are domes of the chambers - the dome above is the building dome.)
This bench, outside the senate, is one solid piece. It is very long too.
This image may look unusual. It is a floor. It is a floor with glass blocks in it. On this level there are skylights above.
The glass blocks in the floor allow natural light to enter through the ceiling of the floor below. Pretty neat.
The list of House of Representatives, 1984-1988, includes one particular name (look at the lower left-most name).
It's John Grisham (the author), in case you can't read it.
At the top of the stairs in a picture above are three stained glass windows (you can see of the full windoows and pieces of
the other two). The left one represents the Native American; the middle one, Justice; and the right one, the Settler.
But this stained glass is a little different than the usual stained glass. The little sections of a stained glass
window is usually a different color. However, for this stained glass, each little panel is blended.
Do you recognize this guy? (Click on it before you read who it is beneath the image).
It is Anslem McLaurin.
Who the heck is that, you ask? It is (the late actor) Robin Williams' great-great-grandfather.
Yes. Now go back and click on it again and you'll see the resemblence if you didn't the first time.
Our original plan was to eat lunch at Two Sister's, which is another buffet restaurant, but changed the plan since we
had a buffet yesterday and looked for somewhere else. I had alternatives on my schedule for just such an occasion.
So we headed to Bully's Restaurant
for some BBQ for late lunch / early dinner. Linda had the baked chicken, okra and tomato stew, and macaroni and
cheese. I had the fried chicked (I wanted white meat but they had to cook fresh and it would have taken 20 minutes and
I didn't want to wait), okra and tomato stew, and fried corn (sort of a mix of regular and creamed corn).
We then headed to the Garden of
Mynelle Hayward. It was a nice and secluded garden area. While not nearly as nice as Bellingrath.
Or Longe Vue. It was still pretty nice. Here are some flora pictures.
And some of the other sites including trails, a pond, bridge and sculptures (the sculptures were donated by the Ford Foundation).
I don't know what it is with major sites - like captiols and museums - not carrying city marked souveniers. But they don't. So we went to, where else, Wal Mart. The first clerk was saw we asked, "Do you have post cards?" The response we got was "What type of post cards?" Seriously? Isn't there only one type of post card? We eventually found someone who could point us in the direction of the souveniers.
Off to Montgomery we went with our sights set on the Garden Inn. On the way, we caught this sign.
There happens to be a town called Philadelphia outside Jackson, Mississippi.
It was pouring rain when we arrived. Fortunately, they had a portaco. The room was connected to the front so we unloaded the car, Linda walked in and around, outside and met me after I parked the car. We went upstairs, into the room, got ready for bed and went to sleep.
FUN FACT: Jackson holds the distinction of being one of four cities that The International Theater/Dance Committee has authorized to host the International Ballet Competition (the other three being in Bulgaria, Finland and Russia).