I'm back y'all - I know it's been ten days but they felt like they absolutely sped by! When I left work on Thursday the 12th, it seemed like ages of time off stretched out before me and now all those days have sped by! I wanted to share about our vacation and so I'll start with the days we spent in Mississippi!
We picked my little sister up from Dulles on Thursday evening - and ya'll - they need to do some work on customs, because she was in line for over an hour. They have 50 gates and only 3 were open! Not exactly the most stellar service - but needless to say, she got into the country and vacation began! We drove all 12+ hours to Mississippi all on Friday and arrived around 6 PM on Friday evening.
We stayed at the Threefoot Hotel in Meridian - the hotel is in the completely renovated Threefoot building that was originally opened as an Art Deco office complex in 1929 by the Threefoot Family. The building was; at the time it was opened, the tallest building in all of Mississippi - and it's still the tallest building in East Mississippi. My Dad went to the dentist in the Threefoot Building when he was growing up in Meridian and while it say vacant for years, it finally reopened last year as a fully restored Art Deco Hotel. Our room(s) were on the 10th floor - so they had some pretty lovely views, including some graffiti on the abandoned parking garage, ha-ha!
Friday night we met my Aunt & Uncle for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then turned in for the night - driving almost all day long can really wear you out! Saturday was sunny and WARM. Mississippi really rolled out the heat wave and the temperatures hovered around the mid-90's while we were there. The Threefoot Arts Festival was taking place on Saturday right outside the steps to our hotel and my Dad had a booth for the East Mississippi Veterans Foundation. I had a quick breakfast at Cater's Market with my Mom and sister, then we perused the Atrium and met back up with my Dad and Ryan in time for a quick late lunch at Weidmann's!
We only grabbed soups and appetizers since we had dinner plans Saturday night with my Dad's side of the family - everything was delicious as usual - and then we perused some of the awesome shops that have popped up in downtown Meridian: Crooked Letter and Magnolia Soap, the name just a few! Ryan, Lindsey and I enjoyed some downtime at 601 Local - the restaurant at the Threefoot Hotel that offered tapas and cocktails for the afternoon! Lindsey and I both enjoyed the 11th Floor Daisy before we all went upstairs to change for dinner!
We stopped on the way to dinner to show Lindsey the pedestal for the F-4 Phantom that my Dad will soon be bringing to Meridian as part of the Veterans Memorial he has designed and is raising money to build in his hometown! Then it was on the Fish Camp for all things fried and delicious: dill pickles, slaw, hush puppies, chicken tenders, catfish, oysters and of course - all the sweet tea! We were joined by my Uncle Greg and Aunt J'nette, my Aunt Shelia and my cousin Alex, his wife Alexa and we finally got to meet their sweet baby boy - Kasen!
Kasen was the sweetest little guy - chatty and wanting to be constantly on the move - his legs were going 100% of the time! He ended up being passed around the table and entertaining everyone in the process! We enjoyed our delicious food, although Ryan thought his first sampling of fried oysters were horrible and I have the picture to prove it (don't look here - I didn't share it, ha-ha). It was really nice to catch up with family and have some good ol' Mississippi style cooking! Once we got back to the room, for whatever reason Ryan and I were exhausted and ended up asleep before 9:45!
Sunday was another scorcher of a day and after falling asleep so early, Ryan and I were also awake early and ended up dressing for church and heading down to the restaurant to have coffee together! After our coffee, it was off to the morning service at the church I grew up in - First Baptist Collinsville. We saw tons of familiar faces and enjoyed the new pastor - it was his first time preaching as the newly appointed pastor - so that was interesting! After the service was over, we snapped some pictures - including a snap with my brick paver installed when the new church was built after a tornado destroyed the original building some years ago. We grabbed a quick lunch at Backyard Burger and then it was off to our first wedding shower - which I'll share more about on Wednesday!
After our wedding shower we managed to load all our gifts into Ryan and I's car and take it to my Uncle and Aunt's house to park it for safe-keeping overnight! We changed clothes and met up with family and friends at Newk's for a final dinner together. Ryan and I spent time cuddling and snuggling with baby Ford and Ryan even got Lemar to finally give him knuckles... when he took the time to slow down, ha-ha! During dinner a huge storm blew through and so we waited just a wee bit before saying our goodbyes and heading out into the rain!
We had a wonderful 48 hours in Mississippi and we were up and on our way to Tennessee bright & early on Monday morning! See y’all tomorrow for some Watson snaps and later this week I’ll share all about my (our) very first bridal shower!
What a great weekend!
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