Made It!!

Well y'all we made it to Knoxville! And they were so kind to welcome us with some severe weather. I haven't had to worry about that since we left Texas the first time and it was pretty scary to say the least. Pearl especially hates bad weather. She shakes so hard it's visible from across the apartment. We really like our new apartment, it feels smaller than our San Antonio place but it comes with other perks like a "resort style" indoor pool and jacuzzi AND a washer/dryer. You never realize how great it is to be able to do your laundry in your apartment until you have to live without.  I would say on average this is about the size unit we're usually placed in. Ryan and I are actually the first people to live in this unit after it was remodeled, so that means new kitchen appliances, new flooring, new granite counters, and a new washer/dryer. It's a little mini one that is the washer AND dryer in the same small machine. It's pretty neat, I haven't seen anything like it before.

So rewinding to our trip here. We made a stop in New Orleans, Montgomery, Alabama and Birmingham, Alabama. We were supposed to stay the night in NOLA but once we found out that the hotel we were going to be staying at had been held up at gunpoint more than once we decided to keep on down the road. Also, multiple people had been shot out front of the hotel. Uh, Ryan, did you even read the reviews!?! The answer is no. So we ate and drank on Magazine St, then walked up and down Bourbon St. and drove on to Montgomery.

Aaaanddd...this was the extent of our stay in NOLA.

We did a little more sightseeing in Montgomery and Birmingham. In Montgomery we went to the Hank Williams Museum, the Alabama State capitol building and got to see the church that MLK Jr. preached for in the late 50's. The Alabama State capitol building is where the Selma march ended. It was really moving to see so many places from the Civil Rights Movement in person, to walk where MLK Jr. walked. We then moved up the road to Birmingham where we learned even more about the movement for Civil Rights and were taken on a tour from a local who was a young boy at the time.

MONTGOMERY

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church

Alabama State Captiol

The First White House of the Confederacy

Hank and Audrey Williams grave sites-this was kind of awkward because Hank and Audrey weren't exactly together when Hank passed.

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BIRMINGHAM

This park is beside 16th Street Baptist Church, in the back you can see MLK Jr. looking toward the church. This memorial is called "Four Spirits" and it's to honor four little girls who died in a bombing of the church 1963. I think I can say quite confidently that we learned more in this short trip to the south than we did in school.

16th Street Baptist Church

Birmingham City Hall

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So here we are! Settled in our new place, excited about what's in store for us the next few months!