Florida or Bust--Plantations and Baton Rougle Temple!

 Ever since watching "Gone With the Wind" as a young girl, I have always dreamed of seeing a real plantation.  We visited the Houmas Plantation near Baton Rouge.  It was everything I ever dreamed an old plantation house would be and more.  The inside of the mansion was more elegant than could be described.  I could just imagine Scarelt O'Hare walking down the curved stairs at any minute.

 The gardens around this mansion were fantastic.  Everywhere there were fountains and gardens and flowers.  There was even spanish moss on the oak trees.

 This oak tree was over 600 years old.  It was huge!!!

 It was hard to leave such a beautiful place.  My dream had certainly come true.

This is the Baton Rouge Temple.  A small temple, but so special.

Florida or Bust-Day 5-6

 Being very nervous to head into New Orleans driving our own car, we became very brave, and said, "lets to it!"  We did it and had a great time.  What an amazing place.  This is a bridge across the Mississippi River.

 We took a ferry across the river, and this is the New Orleans skyline.

 Crawfish are really popular down here.  Here is Grandpa, not looking too excited about being attacked by a huge crawfish.

 Yep, we went into the French Quarter and walked a short distance on Bourbon Street. 

 The French Quarter has 90 blocks of narrow, interesting streets like this.

This is the trolley we rode from our parking lot to the downtown area.

Texas, Day 3-4

 We finally made it to San Antonio.  The drive from Dallas there was just a drive through one extended city stretching all the way.  San Antonio was also a huge city.  We found our motel and then very easily found their temple.  It sits on a hill overlooking the city.  We noticed all around the temple there were these huge, beautiful stained glass windows.

 On the inside of the temple, all the rooms, even the dressing rooms, had these wonderful windows.  The celestial room had these floor to ceiling windows on all four walls, adding a beauty beyond description.

 Being born in Texas, and always fascinated by the stories of the Alamo.  This was one of our destinations.  It was really touching to see the place where it all occurred.

 One of the highlights of San Antonio is the Riverwalk.  We loved it.  We felt like we were in another world.  Very beautiful and romantic.

 This is the view of Texas, mile after mile.  Just open, flat land.

The Houston temple is grand and beautiful.  Each of the temples that we have visited have a look of their own, but the spirit is all the same--peaceful and full of love.  Seeing all the temples has truely been a highlight of our trip.
We are ready to head to Louisiana tomorrow.  What an awesome trip this is!

Texas-Day 1 and 2

 Here it is--the Texas Border.  West Texas is very barren and flat, just a few hills, and many oil wells.

 Our first stop over was Lubbock, Texas.  We went to a most beautiful temple there.  It is a small one, but as we visited with the workers, one couple was related to Steve and had gone to high school in Grantsville, and had lived with President Orgill during that time.  Small world.

 Dallas was our next destination. The temple was located in a beautiful, old area  with big homes and big trees.  You couldn't find it until you were right in front of it.  Thanks for the great little GPS we had with us.  Steve noticed that the Angel Moroni seemed to be facing south.  Humm!

Dallas has almost 2 million people and the traffic was horrendous.  This type of interchange was everywhere.  We did see the Cowboy stadium.  Go Cowboys.  We managed to work our way through it all and on to San Antonio.