Dixieland I: Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina

O, I wish I was in Dixie! Hooray! Hooray! In Dixie Land I'll take my stand To live and die in Dixie Away, away, Away down south in Dixie!

Okay, so I wasn't born in Dixie, but my childhood summers in Auburn, Alabama, and the way fresh cornbread tastes with real fried okra and "brown sugar water" tea and that gaaahjios southern accent have long made me sweet on the place. After a trip to visit my granny, I took off across the South visiting Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama (again) and Louisiana. Give me a car and a map -- or for that matter a bus ticket and no map -- and I'll gleefully trek all over the place. It's not so much that there are so many stories to tell since I was just enjoying my travels and taking everything in, but I hope you'll enjoy the pictures above!

Georgia
Hanging out in Atlanta proved to be a little tougher than expected thanks to the traffic, but we managed to have a good time despite the delays. History nerds that I am, my first visit was to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum. It was nice to see how the "worst president in American history" actually got the country through a major oil crisis, brokered peace in the middle east and set forth the nation's first comprehensive education agenda. I know that many of you disagree with my politic beliefs, but Carter's accomplishments create a striking parallel to the failures of the current administration.

From Atlanta I visited the historic homes of Roswell, Georgia, where I was warned to beware of walking under the trees: "Falling Fruit!" The hiking in the Chattahoochee River Valley proved to be as beautiful as it was cold, and Savannah was enchanting despite being conspicuously touristic thanks to the popularity of the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston's colonial architecture was absolutely breathtaking! The pictures above cannot replicate the experience of seeing it firsthand or the feeling of being surrounded by so much history.

Mobile, Alabama
There was a lot of family that I hadn't seen in a very long time, so stopping by my aunt and uncle's in Mobile was a welcome treat. What was meant to be a one-night affair turned into several days of serious fun and eventually a trip to New Orleans with my cousin, Wes.