Our Journey Continues

Our journey continues - still in Alabama at Elderhostel

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
After breakfast, we boarded the bus for Ft. Conde’.  We arrived with a dozen school buses full of laughing, screaming kids.  I’m sure glad I toured the fort on Sunday. No photos allowed inside. I walked around the neighborhood and took pictures.  Downtown Mobile has lots of boarded up buildings, but many have been restored and more are in the process. 

 

Our next stop was the Richards-DAR House.  The docents are older Southern ladies, members of DAR, I’m sure.  I’m surprised they’re from the Revolution instead of Daughters of the Confederacy.  They were so charming and served us tea in real china teacups and saucers from a silver tea service under the Baccarat chandelier which Tom cleans.  We were also served cheese straws (a Southern thing), cookies, mints and nuts.  The tea was delicious.  I thought it might be orange-spice tea with a touch of lemon, but it turned out to be a concoction of instant tea and Tang, known as Russian Friendship Tea.  I have that recipe.  It’s in every cookbook put out by an organization.  I’ve never made it, because it sounds terrible.  I’ll have to try it, for sure.

I usually don't show photos of people on my blog, but these ladies seemed pleased to pose for me, and I wanted to show you the setting without beheading the group, as I've done before in other posts.

Hours and hours of work. I have so much respect for our Southern Belles.

Azaleas grow so well here, they can even be formed into hedges.

 

We had lunch downtown at Wintzells, a restaurant established in 1938 (just as I was and showing its age just as I am) and the walls are covered with quotes, each printed on different colors of paper.  A week wouldn’t be enough time to read them all.  I had deep-fried fish, shrimp and oysters, fries and Cole slaw.  The servings were small, so I didn’t feel stuffed.  Much better than Elderhostel food.

 
Our afternoon tour was the Conde’-Charlotte House.  Lots of handmade bedspreads, quilts, etc.  Now I’ve seen a gout stool for the first time.  The garden here is beautiful and the kitchen equipment interesting.  Now I’ve seen a beaten biscuit bowl – another first.  Charlotte had twelve children.  For a time, Ft. Conde’ was called Ft. Charlotte after her – small reward for having all those kids.  She should have had the whole city named after her. 

You can read about it here: Click

I didn't take a photo of the gout stool, but there's one in the Richards-DAR

House photos.

We were back by 3:00, so I had a couple of hours to sort papers, make calls, and work on my journal.  We had a decent dinner – Southern fried chicken.  Guess they wouldn’t dare screw that up – it’s the specialty of the South.
 
The Azalea Trail Maids came to visit.  Each year, fifty girls from the county who are in their senior year of high school, are chosen to be Trail Maids.  They wear ruffled pastel-colored antebellum dresses and hats and carry ruffled parasols.  Only the queen wears pink and the rest of the girls choose their first, second and third favorite colors.  Eventually, there are an equal number of blue, yellow, green, lavender and peach dresses.  The designs vary, but must follow certain guidelines.  Their gauntlet-mitts seemed to be standard – pointed over the back of the hand and embroidered with the initial of the girl’s given name.  They were eager to show us their pantaloons, which are embroidered with designs and words of their choosing.  They have patch pockets so the girls have a place to carry their combs, cell phones, etc.  Cost to papa - $2,500 to $3,000 average.  The Maids make appearances throughout the Azalea Festival, as well as in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and Disneyworld’s Easter Parade.  They sell calendars (with pictures of Maids) and cookbooks to raise money for their trips.  Most have extra-curricular activities, so sandwiching in their appearances (like at Elderhostel), along with school requires a lot of time management.

Lots more photos of the Maids when we go to the flower show.

To be continued. . . . .

I'M SO GRATEFUL TO BE AN AMERICAN

250 YEARS - PRAY FOR OUR CONTINUED SUCCESS

I HOPE YOU GOT OUT ON THE GRASS

WITH ONLY A LITTLE SUN DUE TO THE HEAT ADVISORY

PLENTY OF SUMMER LEFT FOR GOING TO THE LAKE

BUY A WATERMELON

NO MORE SEED SPITTING CONTESTS AS THEY'RE SEEDLESS NOW

WILL CANTELOUPE SEEDS WORK?

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE