WORLD TRAVELERS IN THE DEEP SOUTH

My graduate school labmate and fieldwork partner in crime came through Vicksburg this weekend. He and his girlfriend have been traveling across the US (and Canada, and Puerto Rico, and soon Ecuador) for the past 6 months, and stayed with us a couple nights in the Deep South to eat some catfish and fried green tomatoes, hike around the military park in the rain, and share some delicious beers (both theirs, from their travels, and ours, to show off some Mississippi brews and Jay's current homebrews). We had a great visit and are so glad Kelly and Valine were able to put Vicksburg on their route - hopefully we'll do it again someday (here or there or wherever they end up) and it won't be 5 years down the road (we last saw Kelly on a Christmas trip to California, when we went down to Monterrey Bay Aquarium for the day, where Kelly was working at the time).

We had intended to take them down to Mint Springs Bayou, but the trail was closed :-(

Jumping out of the dense horsetail to scare Valine :-)

It rained (sprinkled, really) throughout our hike and the creek was cold, but that didn't stop the kids from jumping in and getting themselves (and us) soaked. It's cool, we had towels and changes of clothes in the car.