Southern Retreat Part 2

We then took the carriage tour. It was very nice. We got all the inside information about Natchez. Well, at least we thought we did. We got to see the old jail house and the old fire house. A house where Miss America had lived, and then we got to the City Hall. This is what is in their front yard.

This is a head stone for the city cat. He only had three legs, hence his name. I guess the city really loved him. He got his own funeral and "they" say that it was the most attended funeral ever. Now, does that say something about this town or what!! We got to see the Dentist's house.

Here it is. Not a very good picture of the Dr.'s house, but all I could think of was OUCH. How horrible to have had a tooth ache back then. Yuck. It was just painful to even think about it. They have a bunch of churches there. This one had three doors.

The large main door were for the Boss Man and the smaller doors were for the slaves. They were not aloud to go in the same door. I think that is funny. Not funny ha ha but funny weird. I am sure glad that all changed. I think all churches, even back then, should have had only one door. I don't think God cared who walked in what door to go to church. But that is just my opinion. Then we passed the Straton Home. Talk about a beauty.

The original owner of the Straton home planted a lot of oak trees on the property as saplings. You can now see how huge those trees are now. I think the house dates back to 1790 something. It's amazing. Those trees were beautiful! So, was the inside of the house.

Here is the house from another angle. You can see how far back it goes. It was so very impressive. The inside was very posh. There were a lot more beautiful sites on the tour. I loved it. After the tour we headed back to Dunleith to go for a swim. The pool was located behind the Castle. That is the old stable turned into the fancy restaurant where we ate. But first the pool.

This is the Castle. Where everyone eats. And then located directly behind it is the pool. I was a bit nervous about swimming where everyone eating could be watching. They might all loose their appetite when I come walking by with my bathing suite on. After a quick scope of the pool Mr. Cowboy and I decided that it would be okay. There was only one window over looking the pool and nobody was sitting at it. We went to our room and changed. Upon our arrival back at the pool we came across a shocking event. When we opened the gate there was a man, in his late forties, with is back to us and standing in the corner. He was peeing in the bushes. I could not believe it. I expect that out of my country farm boys, but not a 40 plus man at a public pool. He wasn't the only one in there either. There was another couple swimming there too. I was shocked. That bathroom challenged coupled left shortly after we arrived and then we had the pool all to ourselves.

We sat in the hot/cool tub and in the pool for about an hour. Then we walked back up to our room. On the way up we passed the old milk house. It is now a small condo type building.

It would have been fun to stay there. It was kinda back in the woods a bit and out of the way of everything else. It looked so cute. We also passed by a cat that I insisted was dead. The cat was just laying on the porch. It did not look like it was breathing. I told Mr. Cowboy, "I think its dead." Then Mr. Cowboy started to meow. He can do a really great meow. You should hear him. I think he can get cats from miles around to come when he meows. This cat didn't jump up but he did perk his ears and kinda rolled to one side a bit. We found out later his name is Mr. Precious.

Then it was dinner time. We got to dinner and told them we had a reservation. The dinning room was beautiful. A double sided fireplace, high back comfy chairs, white table clothes, oil lanterns at every table. It was picture perfect.

It was very nice. But guess where we sat? We sat behind that brick wall. In a small room with three tables and one long buffet table. It was way out of the way and we got to sit on stiff wooden chairs and our table rocked back and forth. I was a bit sad. But nun the less we ordered and got our food.

This is Mr. Cowboy and what was left of his shrimp salad. He really liked it. Then he tried to take a picture of me.

My salad was good too. You can see the buffet table behind me. Nice right! We laughed about it. Well kind of. Not really, I was sad we were not out in the dinning room with all the other fancy people and their fancy chairs. But, as you can see, I made it through the night and am still here to tell about it, so I guess life goes on. Then we had our main coarse.

Mr. Cowboy had veal with some sauce, shrimp, and noodles. I am sure it had some fancy name but heck, us here country folk don't recall dar dings. It was really good. I tried some. Then I got my steak. It was still mooing when it hit my plate so I had to send it back to make sure it was "killed dead". I like my meat cooked. This slab of meat was still kicking.

There were fried onions on the top and my mashed potatoes look toxic here but they were so good. I can honestly say that looks totally disgusting. But it was a bad picture. What can I say, my photos of food will never make it into a Food Magazine. Then we got a dessert. It was good.

The way the plate was done up made it look so fancy. It was really tasty. I think I am drooling just looking at the picture. The brownie was a cheese cake brownie that was hot with home made vanilla ice cream on top. Yum. We then left from dinner and went to the movies. We never get to go to the movies. After the movie was over we headed back to Dunleith and hit the sack. We were tired. The next day we got to eat the wonderful breakfast buffet. We knew exactly where that buffet was!

We loaded up our plates and rushed to get our seats in the comfy part of the dinning room. Those chairs were so comfy. I didn't get as much food as Mr. Cowboy did.

I am not a big southern breakfast kind of gal. I don't like grits or biscuits and gravy. But it was really good. We took a few Plantation Home tours that afternoon. I wish we would have taken one haunted tour. But I am a big dork. When Mr. Cowboy suggested we do that I said, "No, way, how do you expect me to sleep in this attic if we go on a tour like that!!" I am not afraid to admit I am still afraid of the dark. To this day I run to my bed when I turn the light off. We took a few more pictures of us. One was on a huge Magnolia tree. This tree was planted in 1783, or something like that. It was a huge tree.

I hung my camera from a branch and set the timer. The things I do so I can get us both in a picture. I had to try it three times before I got a shot where I wasn't running, or half way sitting. We had a wonderful weekend. It was so great to be able to relax and enjoy some time together. It has been a very long time since we have had the chance to be together, just us. On Sunday when we were getting ready to check out I clapped my hands at Mr. Cowboy and said, "Come on now let's go!!" Just like I would have said it to the kids. He just sat in the chair looking at me like I was crazy. He said, 'Dear, there aren't any kids here. You don't have to clap and you don't have to sound all excited to leave!" Oh how I need more adult interactions!! I am so grateful to have such a wonderful man! He did a great job planning a super surprise anniversary weekend. I can't wait to go back.