Southern Charm!

We're back! My family had a glorous week traveling through the south! There's so much to see and do, we definitely want to go back! My husband, the hibitual historian, has only 1 battlefield left to meet his goal of seeing them ALL. I was able to find a marker where my ancestor, General Oglesby, fought at Corinth, MS. He was wounded and thankfully recovered to become governor of Illinois in 1865. I also found some fabulous antique malls, antebellium homes, and primitive little cablins like this one, (be still my heart...) And of course, my son was thrilled to find awesome skateboard parks every day! He keeps a US map on his wall and adds pins to every place he skates. After this trip he's able to add 5 more states! Planning a trip now, compared to even 10 years ago, is much easier to gather information on your specific interests, thanks to the Internet! We had a week to soak up the warm weather and sunshine, and it was hard to come back home to our snowpiles! Trees were blooming, the hillsides were covered with wild daffodills and even the mint in the herb garden at the Hermitage was fragrantly poking through the ground. Now that we're back, we're trying to adjust to that long period between "not winter and not spring". Or as my son says, not enough snow for snowboarding and too much snow for skateboarding. We've tapped a few maple trees, and the sap is just starting to trickle out. Last night was a very still and dark night. I stepped out on the deck and could hear sap dripping into the buckets in the back yard...Now that's what I call a stress reliever, a calming and peacefull end to a busy day.