This past june Zekey Zoo flew down South to get a taste of where I grew up. Before I get into our little excursions, I have to applaud my mom with how well kept the grounds of our home is. She puts forth a lot of effort to have it stay beautifully green & lush. Our backyard is like a secret garden with a vegetable garden of her own. In her garden she has been growing cucumbers and tomatoes. In her fruit garden she has watermelon! Aside from the fruits & veggies shes got mint, cilantro and more. She's a southern wonder woman! I love to sit on our back porch and lounge while having a great view of her backyard. It's a beautiful place, and one of my favorites.
One side note : One thing that I absolutely adore about my favorite cities, Savannah & Charleston is that the ceilings of all the porches are painted a light haint blue. Due to the large amount of bugs, this haint blue resembles the sky and extends day light in the porch which kept bugs away. Also, this is my favorite fun fact of the haint blue ceilings : Southerners believed that the blue color was to keep away more than bugs or "Haints" but they also kept away ghosts! For this reason, if you visit Savannah or Charleston you'll also notice a lot of doors and shutters are painted this cornflower blue color as well! Makes sense when Savannah is one of the most haunted cities in the United States and Charleston is haunted as well! This tradition to keep Spirits away came from the Gullah or Geechee culture in Georgia & South Carolina. The Gullah & Geechee came from African tribes who were brought to the South during slavery & with them came the tradition of superstition of the color blue and how it drove away evil spirits. Interesting little facts eh? With all of this said, my parents thought it would be fun to keep the southern tradition and paint our porch ceiling a haint cornflower blue! I must admit, the bugs now swarm more in the uncovered area of the porch & we havent had any ghostly encounters! Not kidding, we've had some strange and eerie / unexplainable events take place in our home before the ceiling was painted! boo!
Zeke wanted to go somewhere well known in Atlanta so I took him to the Georgia Aquarium! The largest Aquarium in the WORLD! He had a blast, probably just as big of a blast as my nieces Goldie & Annie. He was like a child perched up along the glass windows looking into the "sea."
And of course I had to fill the Zoo's belly with everything fried. That's just how it's done down here! He's a very healthy eater and came to Georgia in pretty good shape, and I felt a little naughty ruining everything he worked out for. rut-row. BUT you can't come to the South and NOT eat like a Southerner. So we fed him fried green tomato sandwiches with tomanto jam, fried cajun pickles, fried chicken, fried oreos, hushpuppies, Minnie's Chocolate Pie (from 'The Help') red beans & rice, gumbo, jambalaya, jalapeno cheesy grits & shrimp, beignets (one of my favorite southern treats) collard greens, homemade mac n' cheese, ribs & brisket you name it, we pounded it. poor guy wanted to explode when he went back to the wild west. He didn't know he could eat that much! Sadly, Im proud that I was able to expand his waistline. Its just proof that he really enjoyed himself and our grub! My family is a eatin' kind of family. We just really enjoy food. Zeke got a kick out of the fact that half of our plans were based around when and where to eat. I just HAD to have him try all of my favorite little joints : The Fickle Pickle, Roux ( A cajun creole joint) & Swallow at the Hallow ( a bbq joint located in an old barn.) The only let down was that Roux's FRIED ALLIGATOR BITES were not in season... BOO. But they will be come October for our little mini wedding reception!
side note : I was able to take zeke to the trinity of plantation homes. He was in awe, and I was proud to show them off! Also, I took him to this horrible, but very interesting store in Kennesaw, Georgia which is located right by Kennesaw Mountain. Kennesaw Mountain was the site of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in 1864 during the American Civil War. That's just a little rundown history of the area to understand how eeehhh uncomfortable this one store is that I took Zeke too. It's called Wildman's Civil War Surplus. Let's just say its on the tad bit'o racist end of things. Selling civil war weapons and uniforms and well KKK cloaks too.... yeah. The man who owns the shop looks like your typical Willie Nelson with a beard braided down to his chest and a bandana wraped around his forehead. He's got every kind of gun wrapped on his belt loops & an assortment of every silver ring you could imagine on ever finger to the very top knuckle. He is the wildman. People say this place is meant for history. They say, "Its what the South Loves to Hate." I for one am a little uncomfortable over some of the items sold in the shop, but the South is a different world, and I wanted Zeke to see bits and pieces of it. It's pretty crazy.
