• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Nashville Wife

Lifestyle Blog | Recipes | Home Decor | Money Saving | DIY Wedding Planning

  • Home
  • Meet Ellie
    • Mr. Handsome
    • Wedding & Early Marriage
    • Vlogs
    • Contact Ellie
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Soups/Salads/Sides
    • Main Dishes
    • Desserts/Baked Goods
    • Drinks
    • Breakfast/Snack
  • Travel
  • DIY Home
    • Decor
    • Projects
    • Organization
    • Party Planning
  • DIY Wedding
    • Ceremony & Reception
    • Bridal Showers
    • General Planning
  • Thrifty Living
    • Money Saving Tips
    • Homemade Products
  • Nashville
  • All Posts

Birmingham

Santa Rosa Beach with a Toddler

July 17, 2021 by 15 Comments

Earlier this summer, we took a long weekend vacation to the Florida Panhandle. Over our six years of marriage, we have fallen in love with Santa Rosa Beach. It’s just under seven hours from Nashville, and the drive isn’t bad. Traffic can get busy between Birmingham and Montgomery, but that depends on time of day. After passing through Montgomery, you jump off the interstate and begin a leisurely jaunt through the small towns of Southern Alabama and Northwest Florida. We stopped and bought fresh peaches from a family-owned roadside stand.

When you arrive at the coast, you are greeted by white sand beaches and blue water. Not quite as picturesque as the Caribbean or Hawaii, but I can’t imagine that anywhere in the continental United States could have a more beautiful shoreline than the Emerald Coast.

This time, we stayed for three full days, which was perfect. We spent the entire time “chilling” and enjoying a slower pace of life. Even with a toddler, we managed to leave feeling just as relaxed as we did after our trip to Hawaii three years ago.

We booked a tiny, one bedroom condo with a fully equipped (but very small) kitchen. It met our needs perfectly, and the best part was that it was within walking distance of the beach. With a toddler, that made all the difference in the world. We didn’t have to find parking, deal with a hot car and an unhappy child, or cover our seats in sand.

Each day, we enjoyed the beach for a few hour-long stretches, which worked great for all three of us. Neither Mr. Handsome nor I are “sit on the beach all day” type of folks, so we didn’t mind having to go inside for naps and snack breaks.

Aside from the beach, we indulged in fresh smoothies, short walks (it was pretty hot and humid, so we couldn’t go far), and that’s about the extent of it.

On the way home, we stopped in Destin so Mr. Handsome could rent a jet ski for an hour. I stayed on the beach with Little Buddy, and I honestly was not the least bit bummed. We went jet skiing together before having a child, and let’s just say that it wasn’t a pleasant experience for either of us. I was terrified the entire time and did not enjoy it one bit, and my poor husband almost lost his hearing from all the screaming. After that adventure, I decided that I prefer watching from the shore.

Filed Under: South, Travel, U.S. Tagged With: Birmingham, Florida Panhandle, Montgomery, Santa Rosa Beach

Our Encounter with MLK

May 26, 2017 by 34 Comments

Last week, I posted pictures from the few hours we spent in Birmingham while on our way to Florida. That same day, we also spent a short time in Montgomery.We toured the Dexter Parsonage, the home where Martin Luther King, Jr., and his family lived while he was a pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (now Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church) from 1954-1960.

There were only a few of us on the tour, and I was the only female, so the tour guide allowed me to unlock the very same door that MLK would have unlocked hundreds of times. (Those who live in the South know that it is common Southern etiquette for men to allow women to walk through doors ahead of them. Even in high-rise office buildings in downtown Nashville, men will kindly insist that women exit the elevator ahead of them.)

The parsonage housed pastors and their families from 1920-1992 and then sat vacant for 10 years before it was renovated to look as it did when it was home to MLK and his family. The foundation was even able to recover many of the pieces of furniture (and even the gas stove and Melmac dinnerware) used by the famous civil rights activist and his wife and children.

We were honored to sit at MLK’s kitchen table and listen to the famous speech he gave shortly before his death. He spoke of the epiphany he had had at that very kitchen table, late at night on January 27th, 1956.

Only 27 years old and the leader of the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, MLK was receiving 30-40 death threats each day. On the night of January 27th, he was particular shaken by a caller who threatened to blow up his house if he didn’t leave town within three days. Frightened, MLK made himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the kitchen table. Praying earnestly, he heard the still, small voice of God instruct him to stand up for truth, justice, and righteousness.

Almost every item in the home has significance, right down to the vase of artificial red carnations sitting on the kitchen table. In March 1968, MLK sent his wife, Coretta Scott King, an artificial bouquet of her favorite flowers, red carnations. Coretta, who usually received fresh flowers from her husband, asked him why he had sent fake ones, to which MLK responded that he had wanted to give her something she could have as a keepsake. Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot and killed just three weeks later in Memphis, Tennessee. Coretta cherished the flowers until her death in 2006.

Just a few days later, a bomb exploded on the front porch and blew through the living room window. Goosebumps crept up my neck as the tour guide pointed out a gash in the concrete in front of the porch swing.

After the tour, we were thrilled to meet Vera Harris, a lovely woman in her 90s who has lived down the street since MLK and his family resided in the parsonage. Her husband was a Tuskegee airman, and the two of them housed freedom riders in their home. Vera enjoys sitting on her front porch and greeting tourists. She gave us both a hug and held our hands as she asked where we were from and what brought us to Montgomery. Before we left, her daughter had us sign a guest book.

We also learned that there is a barber shop just down the street where Nelson Malden, who gave Martin Luther King, Jr., his first haircut when he moved into the parsonage and his last haircut before he died, still cuts hair a couple days a week.

Before leaving town, we stopped by the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Unfortunately, it was closed, but we filmed a short vlog (below). If you ever have a chance to visit Montgomery, be sure to visit the many sites of the Civil Rights Movement. The city truly is bursting with rich history!

 Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church

Filed Under: South, Travel, U.S. Tagged With: Birmingham, Civil Rights movement, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dexter Parsonage, Freedom Riders, Martin Luther King Jr, MLK, Nelson Malden, Tuskegee airman, Vera Harris

Primary Sidebar

RSS
Follow by Email
Facebook
Facebook
fb-share-icon
YouTube
YouTube
Pinterest
Instagram

Meet Ellie

Mr. Handsome and I married six years ago and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Between recipes, photos from our travels, money saving tips, DIY suggestions, post about our daily life with our son, and more, our lifestyle blog features a little bit of everything. Read More…

Past Blog Posts

DIY Wedding

Recipes

DIY Home

Travel

Footer

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework