The Wilson Suite

This is the main sleeping area in the Wilson Suite, named for Victor and Jane Wilson who purchased the home in 1840. Unfortunately, none of the home's original furniture survived the Civil War, but the owners have scoured the markets for period antiques and replications to give the home an authentic feel.


The Eliza Room is part of the Wilson Suite, it's named for the Wilson's daughter. The rooms share a lovely bathroom complete with an old fashioned claw-foot tub. It's the perfect place for a family or romantic getaway!

Christmas at The Anchuca

The owners of the Anchuca welcome guests into their home year round, but staying during the holiday season is something special. Their tree was splendidly decorated and they offer special Thanksgiving and Christmas buffets.

Tomorrow I will show you one of the guest suites.

The Happy Home

We finally did find a house to visit - The Anchuca Mansion which means happy home in Choctaw. I'll show you the inside of the Anchuca tomorrow. It is just gorgeous and has a lot of historical appeal!

Cedar Grove

We packed up for a tour of historic Vicksburg during the Thanksgiving holiday. We originally wanted to visit the McRaven House, but it is already closed for the season. Cedar Grove was our second choice, but unfortunately they were having a wedding that day and were not touring.

We did walk around outside a little bit. Perhaps my husband will treat me to a night in one of the guest rooms sometime. They look sumptuous!

The Mississippi Story

The Mississippi Story is the permanent collection at the Mississippi Museum of Art. My family and I toured the museum during the Thanksgiving holiday. We saw an exhibit of Audubon prints, but I really found the Mississippi collection more interesting.

Bye Bye China!

Our last day in Shanghai was sunny so we took a boat cruise up the river. It was a nice way to see the skyline and the reflections on the water.

Tomorrow your regularly scheduled Jackson photos will return.

Dim Sum

Yummy yum yum! Who can resist tasty dim sum?

And these were purported to be the best in Shanghai! Unfortunately, we did not try them as the queue was more than 50 persons long and there are limits on how long I can wait - even for the best dim sum.

Cloisonee

While we were in Beijing, we visited a cloisonee factory. The tour was actually quite interesting and informative. We saw these vases just coming out of the fire - quite impressive. It takes 10 - 15 layers to fill up the spaces on a vase, that's pretty tedious work. But the results are worth it, the works are quite beautiful. We took home two Christmas ornaments. Funnily enough - there was even a Mississippi State Bulldogs ornament all the way in China. I should have taken a picture of that!

PS: This is my 365th post - one full year's worth of pictures.

Yu Yuan Bazaar

The Yu Yuan Bazaar is just next to the famed Yu Yuan Gardens in Shanghai. Although everything may look old, this is actually a small section of streets which have been restored to former Chinese glory. It's filled with tea shops, souvenir stands, department stores and restaurants. It's a lovely place to visit in the day, but it definitely gets more magical at night.

Spectacle

My husband and I went to an acrobatic show in Beijing. It was actually quite disappointing. I don't know if the performers were tired from the show just before ours or if they weren't very experienced, but there were quite a few mistakes. The costumes were beautiful though and I got a few good photos.

I will continue posting China highlights until the end of the week. Next week Jackson will be back!

December Theme Day: Circles/Spheres

This is the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai. When you go up to the observation deck, you can look down on the Shanghai Grand Hyatt. It's pretty spectacular.

Take a look at how others across the world have interpreted today's theme.

Terracotta Soldiers

These are the terracotta warriors of Xian. Archeologists have uncovered around 2,000 men so far - they believe there are more than 8,000 in total. They are believe to have been commissioned by China's first Emperor - Qin - to protect him in the afterlife, although there is no written record of the project. Amazing!

The Great Wall

It is pretty great... even magnificent!

The Forbidden City

On our first evening in Beijing, we took a stroll around town. The entrance to the Forbidden City by night is quite impressive. It is guarded constantly - most of the guards don't look like they could be over 15 years old.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I'm thankful I don't have to rely on crickets and scorpions as a food source.

Crabs

These are the famous green crabs of China. They are purported to be quite a delicacy. I saw these for sale at the airport. Surprisngly, quite a lot of people would buy food and pack it in dry ice to transport on the plane in the cargo hold. I'm not sure that would fly with Homeland Security.

Gardens

I don't know what the name of these gardens is, but they were somewhere in Wuxi. The driver from the factory was instructed to take us here, but he didn't speak any English. The signage was mainly in Chinese - the only English near the entrance stated "Natural Site of Beauty" or something like that.

It was a lovely place to spend an afternoon. We didn't have enough time to explore the entire garden, but we saw plenty of beautiful things. There were rock gardens, water gardens and, of course, flower gardens. Each was surrounded by pavilions dedicated to Chinese arts - music, calligraphy...



Thanks to D at Tuscaloosa Daily Photo for tagging me!

The rules of this Meme are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.


Six Random Things About Me:
I speak French fluently and am pretty good at German.
I've been to almost every continent - my next conquest is Australia.
I have a 29 handicap at golf, but I'm working on getting it into the teens.
My favorite color is red.
I am a Kansas Jawhawks fan through and through.
I drive a blue diesel Volkswagon New Beetle.

Tagged blogs:

Crittoria in West Paris

Brian in Terrell

Chris in Nashville

Hilda in Manila

Sally in Sydney

Per in Stockholm

The Big Buddha

This is the Big Buddha of Wuxi. Wuxi is a city about 3 hours northwest from Shanghai. My husband's company has a factory there, so that was our first stop. One of his colleagues helped us organize the rest of our trip and also arranged the company driver to take us to the Buddha and a local park.

The Buddha was really impressive. I'm not sure of the actual dimensions, but I'm sure he could give the Jesus of Rio or the Statue of Liberty a run for the money. My husband and I were the only western tourists there. It's apparently a big draw for Chinese people, but outside of China Wuxi is virtually unknown. There was no mention of the Buddha in our guidebook - even though the city has 7 million inhabitants! I'm glad we got to see this treasure.

Protection

When I opened the closet in our first hotel, I found two gas masks. I'm not sure what their purpose is - to save us from a nuclear war? in case of fire? to avoid the air pollution? I'm not sure if it's comforting to find a mask in your closet. Is there a good chance we'll need one?

I have around 1,000 pictures from my trip - it's going to be difficult to choose which ones to post, but I hope you'll enjoy them!

Madison Fire Dept

I live in Madison which is a "suburb" just north of Jackson. I hesitate to really call it a suburb because there really aren't any residential areas in downtown Jackson. And the actual city of Jackson is only a mile south when you cross County Line Road. But on that one mile journey you have to cross the city of Ridgeland. So when people ask, I usually say I live in the Ridgeland/Madison area.

But I digress... the Ridgeland fire station is actually closer to my house than this one. But I bet if there was a fire, these are the trucks that would head to our home. There's one reason I like this station better - the red fire trucks! In Ridgeland they're yellow. There's just something wrong with that. Fire trucks should be red. Period.

Madison County Art Colony

This place certainly does look welcoming. I imagine places like this abound in Willits. One of these days I'll have to take a peek inside. My husband and I are still looking for something nice to hang as a centerpiece in our living room. You never know when, or where, you might find something nice!

Let the Sun Shine In

I am guessing that right now I'm on a plane from Shanghai to Atlanta. I hope you've enjoyed the trip to LeFleur's Bluff. This skylight highlighted the perfect blue sky we enjoyed while visiting the park and its environs.

PS: I'll be back from China tomorrow, but I'm leaving the automatic post on until the end of the week. I might be too tired to even turn my computer on!

Mississippi Natives

These stuffed animals were in the foyer of the Mississippi Natural Science Museum. I'm not a big propenent of hunting. But I believe if you do kill something, you'd better eat it. Who knows what happened to these deer, but they certainly do look lifelike. Luckily they were very well-posed. Usually game heads and things like that give me the creeps!

Creepy Crawly

I'm actually not really afraid of spiders. Not to say that I'd want one of this size around my house. But I can peacefully cohabitate with the smaller variety.

Kid Zone

LeFleur's Bluff also has a giant wooden fort for kids to jump and play on. In addition to the fort with it's swaying bridges, secret passageways and slides, there were also monkey bars, swings and all kinds of fun stuff for kids to spend their energy on.

PS: It's also fun for adults!

Pearl River

We hiked all the way down the Pearl River. We had a really nice view and the weather was perfect. I don't think the sky could have been bluer. It created a beautiful reflection.


Happy Friday everyone!

Liberty Garden

The Liberty Garden is just outside the Museum of Natural Science. As it is now late in the fall, there weren't any flowers in bloom. But I'm sure it's lovely in the spring. Another reason to come back and explore further!

Mississippi Museum of Natural Science

My husband and I didn't take the time to visit the museum on this trip, but it looked like there were some interesting exhibits there. I'm sure we'll be back to take a more thorough look.

LeFleur's Bluff State Park

This is one of the official entrances to the Park. Entrance is $3 per car, up to six people. There's an extra 50 cent surcharge per person over that. I think that's a pretty fair price. The park has camping facilities, boat docks, a lovely playgound, tennis courts and even a golf course!

My husband and I just wandered the nature trails on this trip. It was a lovely walk. Check back tomorrow for more.

LeFleur's Bluff

Jackson was not always known as Jackson. The city was first known as LeFleur's Bluff in honor of the French-Canadian trader, Louis LeFleur, who settled the area. The name of the city was later changed to Jackson in honor of President Andrew Jackson after he won the Battle of New Orleans.

You can still visit the original bluff at LeFleur's Bluff State Park. It's just off I-55 and there are many things to do - there's a natural history museum, nature trails, a park for the kids and other recreation activities on the lake and the Pearl river.

My husband and I visited the park last weekend to see if it's worth a visit when my family comes for Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed our day there, so it looks good for bringing the fam. Check back tomorrow for more on the park!