trip to Mississippi

Here is an excerpt from our kindata letter about our trip:

We went on a fun family trip at the end of October--a journey down south to Mississippi with the civil war band. It was about an 8 hour drive…not too bad. On the way we had fun looking at the cotton fields that were being harvested. I'd never seen cotton fields before. We stopped in Memphis to see Graceland. We loved it! We saw the pink Cadillac, his jet, the Lisa Marie, toured the home and saw all his gold records and jump suits, etc. Now every time we hear an Elvis tune the kids perk up their ears.
Vicksburg, Mississippi was really fascinating. The band played at the 100th anniversary of the Illinois monument. The monument itself is a big marble domed building. The band sang and played in there--and the echoes were incredible! Beautiful! It was like history resonating all around you with the names of the soldiers on all sides. The 33rd regiment fought at Vicksburg, so that was especially meaningful. We toured the court house museum and saw a lot of interesting artifacts, including some things from Jefferson and Varina Davis. A real highlight was the Cairo ship that had been found in the Mississippi and restored. The artifacts were incredibly well preserved. Bottles that still had their original liquids in them, etc. That ship was sunk in only 12 minutes, but everyone on it survived. We learned that most civilians survived the siege of Vicksburg by living in caves. I bought a book that was a journal account of one such lady and her son, and was really touched by it. We also enjoyed some good Southern cooking at a round table restaurant. Catfish, fried okra, biscuits, corn bread, black-eyed peas, etc. It was interesting how many of the locals had trouble understanding our northern accents! We also squeezed in a moment to visit the coca cola museum where coca cola was first bottled to deliver to customers who couldn't visit the soda fountain in the local drugstore.
An interesting side note to the trip was that in the evening as we relaxed in the hotel, we were able to watch our beloved Cardinals win the world series! It doesn't take long living in St. Louis to catch Cardinals Fever. Go Cards!