Cartersville? Yes, Cartersville!

We love traveling and exploring new places, but sometimes we can overlook attractions in our own back yard. Since we had work off on Veteran's Day we decided to take a day trip up to Cartersville, a city of 23,000 people about a 45 minute drive northwest of Atlanta. For a small city it has a surprising and rewarding array of things to see, and despite rainy weather we had a great time.

Our first stop was the Etowah Mounds, which is a Georgia state historic site. Built and occupied from around the years 1000 - 1550, this series of mounds is considered the most intact Mississippian culture site in the Southeast US. The small museum was mostly empty, but for a good reason - all of the items have been returned to the Tribes that own them. The museum will be redone with informative displays. Nice move, Georgia! The main part of the site is two large preserved mounds as well as a reconstructed wattle and daub house. We dodged a couple of school groups and braved the rain to explore the site and the adjacent Etowah River.

A school group climbing the main mound.

View from one mound to another.

Paul walking up the mound.

The wattle and daub house.

Autumn on the Etowah River. There was a nice nature trail here.

From here we drove into town, just a few miles away, and went to the Bartow History Museum. It's a small but surprisingly nice museum in the old Bartow County Courthouse built in 1869. Downtown Cartersville is somewhat nice, but as with many American cities there's too much parking, and there's a very unfortunate and completely unnecessary overpass road. Still, there are a number of little shops and restaurants and historic buildings.

The giant car overpass ruins the atmosphere of downtown.

Inside the history museum.

David checking out the exhibits.

The main stretch of restaurants in downtown.

Cartersville's getting ready for the holiday season!

The 1902 replacement courthouse.

This is supposedly an old slave house, behind the oldest existing house in the county.

Our next stop, and easily the biggest attraction in Cartersville, was the Booth Western Art Museum. This is a huge and impressive museum. In fact, it's the second largest art museum in Georgia, and houses the largest permanent exhibition space for Western art in the country. Of course our immediate question was "why is this in Cartersville"? David asked the employee at the ticket counter, and she informed us that an anonymous local donor funded the entire museum.

The entrance to the Booth Museum.

Paul's favorite painting.

David admiring a large landscape painting.

They even had a stagecoach.

At lunch, we were quickly reminded that rural Georgia is a world away from Atlanta. The restaurant we ate at, Ate Track, had anti-mask signs featuring Nancy Pelosi, and Ted Nugent for president stickers. The food was fine, and the atmosphere had a "1970s basement" vibe.

Ate Track.

Lunch sandwich.

Our final stop was the Tellus Museum, a huge science museum. Many science museums are understandably geared towards children, but this was more of a full museum with informative exhibits. They had interesting sections on transportation, space, dinosaurs, and rocks/minerals. We also saw a show in the planetarium, and stopped by the solar-powered house. Overall this is a great museum - it should be down in Atlanta!

The solar house.

The main lobby of the Tellus museum.

The space section.

Dinosaurs!

David with crystals.

Some very colorful hematite.

Ready for the show! We may have taken a short nap.  :)

Cartersville is a surprising destination, and absolutely worth a day trip. It's amazing a city of this size has such high caliber museums.

Louisiana Thanksgiving

For thanksgiving this year, Paul's mom flew down and we drove to Louisiana to spend the holiday with David's sister's family. Paul's mom had never been to New Orleans, and had just one request - to visit a cemetery. New Orleans cemeteries are indeed unique, since the high water table means all of the graves are built above ground. So on the day before thanksgiving we drove into the city and visited Lafayette Cemetery Number 2. There's nothing particularly special about this cemetery, we chose it because it looked typical and was near the garden district. We wandered around for a bit, checking out the spooky (and dilapidated) vaults and graves. From there we drove a short distance away and parked on first street and walked around the garden district, seeing the elaborate mansions. We walked by the Rosegate House, where author Anne Rice used to live, and the 1869 Italianate Carroll-Crawford mansion. We then had lunch at Atchafalaya, a popular spot in a converted house, with a local menu.   

Overview of the cemetery.

A burial vault in the cemetery.

A mansion in the garden district.

Lots of amazing iron work.

Some neat trees in the garden district.

A cool little restaurant!

Lunch time!

David with his brunch waffle.

We then drove over to the famous French Quarter, parking by Washington Square park in the nearby Marigny neighborhood and walking to the heart of the French Quarter. While incredibly touristy, this part of New Orleans is perhaps one of the best examples of urban design in the country. The architecture, walkability, and lively shops and restaurants all add up to an amazing neighborhood. Yes, Bourbon street is a mess at night. But during the day it's nice to wander around Royal street and Jackson Square.

First stop - the French Market. It's touristy but fun.

Walking through the French Market.

Jackson Square and the cathedral.

A band playing in Jackson Square.

A neat little alley.

There are signs throughout the district labeling former names - here, the Spanish name for Royal Street.

Colorful buildings!

Lots of great architecture to look at throughout the French Quarter.

Balconies and narrow streets. They should just ban cars completely here.

Of course we got some stuffed snowballs on the way home.

The next day was Thanksgiving, and we had a deep fried turkey! It was a relaxing day, hanging out with family, watching TV together, and going back for delicious leftovers.

Ricky starting the turkey.

Classic thanksgiving plate.

The day after thanksgiving we started with some coffee from Haven in downtown Covington. It's a delightful cafe and a good place to start the day. Ricky brought us some bikes and we went for a bike ride down the Tammany Trace to Mandeville. The Trace is a bike/ped trail along a former railroad, and cuts through forest and swamps. The rest of the family drove down and met us at the playground/beach in Mandeville. After hanging out for a bit, we stopped by The Candy Bank, a candy store located in a 1907 bank building.

The cute interior at Haven.

David and Natasha biking on the trace.

Mandeville Beach.

Always have to be careful in Louisiana!

Beautiful old tree in Mandeville.

That wrapped up our thanksgiving trip to Louisiana, and the next morning we drove to Atlanta, of course with an obligatory stop at Buc-ees on the way home. Lousiana, we'll be back!