Natchez Pilgramage Trip Report and photos
 

We(wife, daughter, mother n law, niece, sister n law, myself) spent 3 nights in Natchez.

Antebellum homes we visited
Rosalie
Dunleith
Melrose
Ellicott's On The Hill
Monmouth (did not actually tour this one)
Magnolia Hall
Stanton Hall
Longwood

All of these were very good tours. I do think the homes that are done individually are far far better tours than those offered by the Natchez Garden Club. Melrose is operated by the National Park Service. Ranger Barney was our guide. It was easily the best job of any ranger activity I've done(and I've done plenty of them). It seems to me the Garden Club members really don't know that much about the homes and it shows. While all of the homes were very good, my wife, daugher, and myself all liked the homes on the River Road at New Orleans better.

We started out buying our tickets at the Visitor Center. This is a very very nice place. However, their system or lack of system and getting tickets to the houses you want to see is really a huge huge mess and very confusing. Certain houses are only open certain days/hours. They really are trying to get you to see the lesser known houses, in my opinion.

We did the Stone House Concert and it was nice.

We ate at Mammy's Cupboard and thought it was really great. Chicken Salad Sandwich is good. The bread is amazing. We split a Banana Carmel Pie and Lemon Meringue between the 6 of us. Both were very good. My daughter had the Red Beans & Rice and we all agreed it was the best we had ever had. While the blueberry lemonade was good, I don't get all the hype it receives. I imagine it's Country Time mixed with blueberry flavoring.

We ate at Pearl Street Pasta and thought it was disgusting. I think the waiter was high or heavily intoxicated. The bar tender(we didn''t order drinks) came to our table first and offered to take our drink order(we didn't realize he was the bar tender). When we ordered all non-alch. drinks, he just shook his head and said he couldn't take our order. Kindof unusual. The food was very very bland. Just no taste.

We also tried Natchez Coffee Company, this too turned out to be bad. Both coffee's were cold and the strangest tasting frozen green tea I've ever had.

Had brunch at The Castle at Dunleith. It was ok, but I don't think I would go to it again.
On Sunday, nearly all of the restaurants are closed. I didn't realize how small Natchez was and how few decent restaurants they have. We finally gave up and just ordered pizza from Pizza Hut(I hate to be somewhere and have to eat at a national chain like that). We were going to eat at Ruby Tuesdays, but after reading TA and Yelp horrid reviews, we didn't chance that.

I think they need to do something with Forks in the Road site as well. Not sure who runs this, but all that is there is a couple of small signs and a grown up mess that needed to be mowed.

We did go in St. Mary's Basilica and it is very beautiful.

On the way, we did stop in Monroe, LA at Cormeirs. Super super busy, but managed to find a table outside and had very speedy service. The Pig Sandwich and Crawfish Boil were really good as was their BBQ Po-Boy. Their version of red beans and rice left a lot to be desired though. We would for sure return to this place--very good!! The place is dirty, just look at the sink where my daughter is washing her hands afterwards in the photos below. But, get past that and its a jewel.

The azaleas were blooming, so that made all the properties gardens look very nice.

Over all impression--We were very happy to visit Natchez and enjoyed it. Nearly all of the restaurants there are lacking. All of the homes(most of them run by the Garden Club) seem to be on the downhill run. It wasn't that busy at all and this is supposedly the busiest time of the year. If you want to see it go now. It just seems like something in 15 to 20 years might not be around, IMOP. I have a feeling a lot of the houses will be closed by then.

Photo link below. The first few pics are at GIgi's cupcake in Little Rock. None of the homes allowed photos inside with the exception of Melrose.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...0IatW7FqybsWjt

OK, so I'm topping my on post. Maybe I posted at the wrong time or Natchez has very little interest. O well.

Looks like a nice trip. The ice cream pictures were mouth watering.

Believe it or not, those were cupcakes. The Coconut Macaroon was really good(others were too). Gigi's Cupcakes

As many people as have been asking about Natchez lately, it's nice to see a trip report!

We enjoyed Natchez and loved staying at Monmouth, the dinner there was wonderful! Thanks for your report.

I've always had an interest in visiting Natchez, but I must admit, it doesn't sound like we should go out of our way to visit. Thanks for the trip report. I found it interesting.

I enjoyed the pictures. Some the bldgs are quite interesting, but I can see the dilapidation you refer to.