Exploring Natchez

We hung out in Natchez today. It was sunny, but windy. We happened upon a group setting up in a park near the river. The sign said Empty Bowls (which was obvious) but we had no clue what that was all about. There was another group right next to them mixing big vats of gumbo and ladling it into individual styrofoam pints.

Turns out if you bought a ticket you could choose one of 400+ pottery bowls and then receive a large cup of gumbo to take with. The proceeds all went to support serving the needy and seniors at their local “stew pot.” One lady told me that they serve 180 people a day. Apparently, the event is very popular and Warned us that at noon when it opened people would be scrambling to get their bowl. I think I was 5th in line. 😜

The town of Natchez is very quaint, but unfortunately like many downtowns we’ve seen there are a lot of closed stores. It seemed that on Sunday the area with the most activity was the area known as Natchez Under the Hill.

After walking around town we drove out of town a little ways to tour an antebellum style mansion, Melrose. It was very impressive with 17’ ceilings. The size of the rooms was massive. I was expecting something along the lines of Grant’s house in Galena or Lincoln’s in Springfield. This made those houses look like doll houses. The entryway was huge. I guess you’d need that for those hoop skirts alone. The tour guide really made the tour quite enjoyable. He was funny, engaging and loved history. Fun excursion!