Is this the Amazing Race?

Many of you know that I've been creating my own Amazing Race.  This past week Phil and I traveled to New Orleans for a fun vacation.  In the past all the legs I've counted as my Amazing Race have had something to do with serving in some type of ministry.  I've had to make a decision about if trips for fun count as legs of the race, and  I've decided they do (especially since I'm just making this up as I go along).  So here's a run-down on our fun little trip.

On Tuesday we spent the afternoon at Oak Alley Plantation just outside of New Orleans.  To step into such a place is quite an unsettling experience.  It was a beautiful place with lovely grounds all around.  But there was no escaping the reality of all the suffering that took place there.  This was a sugar plantation, and the work was hot, dangerous and brutal.  In peak season slaves worked 18-hour days, seven days a week.

Oak Alley Mansion

The pathway leading up to the mansion was lined with spectacular live oaks.

Several slave cabins were on exhibit.

In the evening we walked down Bourbon Street and heard a lot of live music along the way.  It was not very crowded, and I think I wouldn't have liked it at all if it had been.  But it is quite an experience.  We visited an art museum and the huge WWII museum, had coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde, walked along the Mississippi and just took in the sights and sounds of NOLA.

We had lots of good food and this
is one of the places we ate.  Here
I had shrimp and grits Napoleon.

You just see how little it would take to flood this city.

Phil with one of the museums in the background.

Andrew Jackson

On our way home we stopped in Montgomery and took in the Legacy Museum and the Peace and Justice Memorial that pays respects to all the people who have died by lynching.  It was a somber place to be on the holiday weekend, and great to walk the streets where the bus boycott that really started the whole civil rights movement took place.  

Every county in the United States that had a
lynching had one of these markers and the names
of the victims engraved on them. This one is
for Hamilton County.

Bledsoe County

Rhea County

The man behind this monument is Bryan Stevenson.  I learned about him and his work through his book, Just Mercy.  I have great respect and admiration for this man, and I highly recommend this book.