Silver Springs, FL

This area is located in the rolling hills of Northern Florida and is home to more than 1,000 horse farms and training centers.

We enjoyed a full day at Silver Springs where they have glass-bottom boats, jeep tours, river cruises, wild animal shows and exhibits.

We saw many animals, both in cages and while on the boat rides, such as alligators, crocodiles (even white ones) fish under the water, and jumping from the water.

Turtles sunning themselves

Probably the most exciting thing to watch was the alligators being fed.

We now move to Kissimmee to spend the next eleven days with our son and youngest daughter, their spouses, and our grandchildren.

White Springs, FL

Our “home” for the last three days has been Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park in White Springs, Florida. The campsites are very large and there are many trees with Spanish moss hanging ~ very southern! Unfortunately it is 102° and it feels like 102% humidity so we can’t take advantage of the hiking trails. We feel like we are taking showers from the inside out.

This park is dedicated in memory of the man who made the Suwannee River come alive for millions of people throughout the world and devoted to the preservation and presentation of Florida’s cultural heritage. It is nestled in the midst of towering pines and moss draped oaks on the banks of the Suwannee River.

The Stephen Foster Memorial Carillon completed in 1958 is the centerpiece of the park and is the world’s largest tubular bell instrument. It has 97 bells, one of the largest musical instruments ever produced in the Western Hemisphere and the world’s largest tubular carillon in number of bells. Concerts are played three times a day featuring the music of Foster. The music resounds throughout the park’s beautiful grounds.

The Stephen Foster Museum is housed in an antebellum-style mansion typical of those that existed in Foster’s era. Several dioramas depicting interpretations of scenes from Foster’s best loved songs and the desk on which “Old Folks at Home” was completed are among the items displayed in the museum.
He wrote two songs in his lifetime that were later adopted as State Songs, “Old Folks at Home” (Florida) and “My Old Kentucky Home” (Kentucky.) Some of his other famous songs are Beautiful Dreamer, Camptown Races, Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair, Oh! Susanna, Old Black Joe, Old Folks at Home, and many more. What a talent!

Theodore, AL

We are in Theodore, AL, just south of Mobile. The big attraction is Bellingrath Gardens, one of the top public gardens in the U.S.

Walter Bellingrath, president of Mobile’s first Coca-Cola bottling plant; and his wife Bessie purchased a former fishing camp on the banks of the Fowl River in 1917. The property was overgrown so it was pruned and cleared for a grand expanse of gardens and opened to the public in 1932. The gardens cover 65 acres and boast a bloom every day of the year.

In 1935 they built a lavish home on the grounds, for which his architect salvaged materials from 19th-century Mobile. The home is framed by oaks dripping with Spanish moss. There are many dining rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms with tile, sitting rooms, etc. The home has become a modern-day museum, filled with fine art, treasured antiques, furniture, silver, china, crystal and cut glass, and the country’s largest collection of Boehm porcelain.







They also had an Oriental American Garden with huge flowers on the lily pond, a butterfly garden, conservatory, many brick patios, fountains, terraces and a boat dock.

Breaux Bridge & Lafayette, LA

We’ve had an enjoyable stay at Breaux Bridge which is called the Crawfish Capital of the World. It is a great location to work out of as it is located between Lafayette and St. Martinville. Like so many of the towns, Breaux Bridge has preserved the old buildings. We were here four years ago and visited the Longfellow Evangeline State Historical Site, took an Atchafalaya swamp tour, toured a rice mill, and visited Mcilhenny’s the maker of Tabasco sauce.

Our campground surrounds a huge stocked fishing pond.


The Cajun cuisine is fabulous here. We’ve been on the Cajun See Food Diet. If you see it – eat it. We had Pork Boudin and Crawfish Boudin (a Cajun breakfast sausage that is sold everywhere). It’s a mixture of either cooked pork or crawfish mixed with rice, onions, and secret special seasonings. We’ve also tried alligator, catfish, crawfish etouffeé, crawfish pie, shrimp, Andouille sausage, jambalaya, and cracklins. The only place you can get this cuisine in Bakersfield is at Merv’s Primecut at Brimhall and Calloway. Almost all of the restaurants have a Cajun band playing in the evening.


We visited Vermilion Ville in Lafayette, LA. It is a Cajun/Creole Heritage & Folklore Park, which is a living history museum with the purpose to preserve and interpret authentic elements of folklife and cultures of the time between 1765 and 1890.

We met a Black Creole gentleman in the French Creole style home built in the 1840s. He majored in music and played a fiddle for us after explaining the differences between Cajun and Creole music.


Spinning, weaving, quilting and textile crafts were demonstrated.

We were entertained by a gentleman playing a squeeze box inside the schoolhouse. His had only one row of buttons, which is the original way they were made. The student desks were original and they learned English, since French was spoken at home. In the classroom and the playground, speaking French was forbidden.

We then visited The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, one of the prominent churches in Lafayette. It is a Dutch-Romanesque Cathedral completed in 1916. It is huge and very attractive.


Since the water table is so shallow, coffins are placed inside above ground crypts. It is not an unusual sight to see a cemetery in the middle of a downtown area or a residential area.

Eunice, LA

Today we are resting after spending a hectic fun filled two days in Eunice, LA. This friendly agricultural community lies amid rice fields and crawfish ponds. It is Louisiana’s hub and incubator of Cajun music. The music originated with the Acadian settlers who migrated to southwestern Louisiana during the late 18th century and is almost always sung in French.

Friday we visited the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center where we learned about their music and heritage. That evening we enjoyed a boiled shrimp dinner with potatoes, corn on the cob and salad at D.I.’s Cajun Restaurant in Basile, LA. They had a live band playing which was very enjoyable.


Mike went to the Savoy Music Center Jam Session at 9:00 Saturday morning. Marc Savoy, a world renowned accordion maker and musician pays back his customers by having a jam session and providing boudin (Cajun sausage made from the other white meat, rice, and spices), donuts, and coffee. He has been doing this since 1966. Nothing is rehearsed and everything is spontaneous. Everyone plays together. There were about fifteen musicians jamming. His goal is the preservation and perpetuation of Cajun music. He greets everyone at the door, and if you’re a stranger he welcomes you and makes you feel right at home. What a great experience.

Saturday evening we headed for The Liberty Center for the Performing Arts where we saw two groups play. The center’s main goal is to preserve and celebrate the culture indigenous to the Acadians with most of its events taking place at the theater. Weekly Saturday shows have been going on since 1987. Admission for the 1½ hour show is only five dollars. It is a live radio and television show called “Rendez Vous des Cajuns”. The emcee spoke mainly Cajun French with very little English.
As the bands played, people got up and danced in front of the stage. They don’t talk with each other as they dance, nor do they look at each other very often! They looked like zombies, all dancing in a counter-clock-wise oval.

St. Francisville, LA

What a lucky surprise, we found the neatest off the beaten path little town of St. Francisville, LA. It is the state’s second oldest incorporated town and maintains a quiet dignity and old-fashioned character. Established in 1785 atop a bluff above the port, it prospered during the 19th century, as shipping captains and industrialists built grand homes and plantations.

The historic district preserves many of the most beautiful homes and churches. There are all sorts of Victorian buildings on streets lined with magnolias, crepe myrtles, and other flowering trees. Spanish Moss hangs from many of the trees. There were many inns and B & Bs.

We toured two of their most prominent attractions. Our first stop was the Audubon State Historic Site, home of Oakley Plantation. This plantation was established in 1806 by the Pirrie family in the area that was part of Spanish West Florida. It wasn’t until after the West Florida Rebellion of 1810 that it became part of the U.S.

Oakley Plantation was a very large and wealthy cotton plantation. At its peak it was 3,200 acres and around 230 slaves worked here. We were greeted by a domesticated turkey named Gus who was more than happy to show us his feathers and was thrilled when we took his picture. He has been here for about 2 years after someone dropped him off.

Do these tour guides look like someone you know?

In 1821 the Pirrie’s hired the artist/naturalist John Audubon to come to Oakley to tutor their 16 year old daughter, Eliza. John only stayed for three and a half months, but he painted 32 of his Birds of America during his time at Oakley.

We toured the Oakley House and it is the only home in the area to boast both three stories and louvered galleries for air circulation.

It has a formal English garden which in its center housed the family’s in-ground cistern. The kitchen is behind the house which has in it the original brick hearths and they have been in working order for 200 years.

Our next stop was Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site.

At the time that Rosedown construction was started, Daniel Turnbull was one of the richest men in the nation. He and his wife Martha built this immense cotton plantation (3,455 acres) and filled the 1834 neoclassical manor house with museum quality antiques from the North and from Europe. It is much more ornate than the Oakley Plantation. During the peak years of cotton production, as many as 450 slaves worked here.

The contraption hanging over the dining room table is called a "shoo-fly". It was one of the most sought after slave jobs. Instead of working in the hot cotton fields, the slave would stand in the corner of the room and pull the rope that moved the shoo-fly back and forth while the family was dining to keep the flies off them and the food.

The formal gardens were begun around the same time as the house. The gardens were the province of Martha Turnbull throughout her entire life. They grew out from the house over a span of several years, covering approximately 28 acres.

Currently the main house, historic gardens and 13 historic buildings and 371 remaining acres are preserved as a state historic site by the Office of Louisiana State Parks.

We had a very enjoyable day touring these two plantations and the homes on them. Although it was very hot and humid, the homes renovations included air conditioning! Yay!