Level 4.1 Notes from the Southeast
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
AMERICAN JOURNEYS: Notes From the Southeast Written by Justin Williams Ideas That Matter Paddlewheel riverboat Cruising on the mighty Mississippi River AMERICAN JOURNEYS: Notes From the Southeast Written by Justin Williams American Journeys: Notes From the Southeast © 2014 Success for All Foundation. All rights reserved. ISBN: 9781941010013 Developers: Robert E. Slavin, Kate Conway, Alli Hoge, Wendy Fitchett Editors: Meghan Fay, Jodie Littleton, Janet Wisner Designers: Deb Branner, Susan Perkins Image Credits: Library of Congress morguefile.com NARA NASA NPS.org PDPhoto.org Shutterstock.com: Anton Balazh, Cheryl Ann Quigley, cvalle, Daniel M. Silva, Dave Allen Photography, David Davis, David Lee, Dustie, Ffooter, Greg Amptman, iofoto, Joyfnp, John A. Anderson, Jorge Moro, Karl R. Martin, KennStilger47, kurdistan, laszlo, Mike Bauer, spirit of america, Stephanie Rousseau, Travel Bug, Warren Price Photography, Zack Frank The mission of the Success for All Foundation is to develop and disseminate research-proven educational programs to ensure that all students, from all backgrounds, achieve at the highest academic levels. These programs were originally developed at Johns Hopkins University. 300 E. Joppa Road, Suite 500, Baltimore, MD 21286 PHONE: (800) 548-4998 FAX: (410) 324-4444 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.successforall.org Table of Contents The Sunshine State................................................... 2 All That Jazz ................................................................... 4 Sweet Home Alabama.............................................. 6 Mighty Mississippi ..................................................... 8 Life’s a Peach ............................................................ 10 Walking in Memphis ............................................... 13 The Bluegrass State .............................................. 16 The Carolinas ............................................................. 19 Mercer-Williams House Museum Southern Exposure ................................................. 21 Savannah, Georgia Glossary ....................................................................... 23 Index ............................................................................... 24 iii New River Gorge Mt. Vernon Williamsburg West Virginia Monticello Norfolk Lexington Virginia Louisville Nags Kentucky Duck Head North Cape Nashville Asheville Carolina Hatteras Tennessee Outer Memphis South Banks Atlanta Carolina Charleston Birmingham Tuscaloosa Georgia Vicksburg Montgomery Savannah Alabama Mississippi Mobile St. Augustine Louisiana New Orleans Florida The Everglades The Southeast iv Home Meet Justin Contact Notes From the Southeast Community About This Blog News Hey, y’all! That’s how we say “welcome” in the Southeast, where I live. follow My name is Justin, and in this blog I am going to tell you about some of the wonderful things I’ve seen while traveling with my parents around Archive the Southeast. The Southeast includes Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, 2013 • Life’s a Peach Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North • Walking in Memphis Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and • The Bluegrass State West Virginia. Join me as we explore our • The Carolinas southeastern states! • Southern Exposure 2012 • The Sunshine State • All That Jazz • Sweet Home Alabama • Mighty Mississippi 1 The Sunshine State Sunday, May 27, 2012 Florida is a land of beaches and swamps, culture and history. It’s the peninsula at the southeastern tip of the United States. If you look at Florida the photo at the right, you can see how close Florida is to Cuba and the Caribbean and understand why they influence the state. Cuba Many people from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Central America, and South America live in Florida, so the music you hear in places like Miami has a Latin flavor. I even learned how to salsa while I was there. During the day, I relaxed on the beach because Miami is hot! St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest city in America. I didn’t realize The Caribbean that Florida was home to so much of our country’s history. We visited the Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest fort in the United States. This aerial nighttime photo shows how close Florida is to Cuba and the Caribbean. Castillo de San Marcos Alligator looking at you 2 We also went to Everglades Ernest Hemingway National Park in Florida. People Search go there to camp, hike, canoe, Endangered Species in the Everglades Home Links Contact Forum and explore. I was most excited to see some wildlife. The park is home to more than fourteen endangered species! People call the Everglades the “River of Grass,” but I call the part that we visited a swamp. There are eight other habitats within the park, and maybe we’ll get back to explore them one day. You want to know the coolest part? We went canoeing in Nine Mile Pond. While we paddled, Archive I kept a lookout for eyes popping out of the water. Sure enough, I saw some! There were alligator eyes looking right back at me. So cool. 2013 • Life’s a Peach If you ever go to Florida, be sure to get a glass of orange juice for • Walking in Memphis breakfast. Tons of oranges are grown in Florida and sold around the • The Bluegrass State country. Florida oranges make delicious juice! • The Carolinas • Southern Exposure Does anyone have any favorite Florida hotspots? 2012 • The Sunshine State 1 COMMENT: • All That Jazz • Sweet Home Alabama Julia | Tuesday, June 5, 2012 • Mighty Mississippi We went to the Florida Keys for vacation. We visited Ernest Hemingway’s house. He’s a famous author who lived in the Keys and wrote about the waters off Florida in The Old Man and the Sea. 3 All That Jazz Saturday, August 25, 2012 Bienvenue! Did you know that France used to own Louisiana? When Thomas Jefferson was president, the United States bought justin’s dictionary Search the Louisiana Territory Home Links Contact Forum from France. Words I learned while in Louisiana: Louisiana is full of Cajun andouille: Spicy sausage used in Cajun food. and Creole culture. beignet: Square doughnuts covered in powdered sugar. You can see French and bon appetit: Enjoy your food. Spanish influences in the architecture and food and cayenne: Hot pepper. hear it in the language. Check out my dictionary etouffee: A type of tomato sauce used on seafood, such as crawfish. of words that I learned in Louisiana. Most of them po’ boy: Submarine sandwich made with different types of meat or seafood. have to do with the great food there. back to Notes from the Southeast > Louisiana sits on the Gulf of Mexico, so many people work on the water. The Mississippi River empties into the Gulf in southern Louisiana. So while we were there, we ate a lot of seafood! I couldn’t bring myself to eat alligator after visiting the Everglades, but restaurants serve it. I stuck to po’boys, jambalaya, and crawfish. Louisiana produces the most crawfish in the country! Crawfish boil is a delicacy in Louisiana. Satellite view of the Mississippi River delta 4 We liked crawfish so much that we beignet thought we’d try catching them. We took a small boat out on a bayou. It reminded me of the Everglades, so I was on the lookout for alligators. We dropped baskets into the black water one day and came back the next to see what we caught. Our basket was full of crawfish. They looked like tiny lobsters! One of my favorite parts of our trip was Louis Armstrong, famous jazz trumpeter going to New Orleans to see my uncle’s band play in a parade. Their style of music, called Dixieland jazz, is big in New Orleans. It made me want to jump in the parade and march along! Archive They were influenced by Louis Armstrong, a famous trumpeter. I loved it so much that now I’m taking trumpet lessons. One day maybe I’ll play at the 2013 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. • Life’s a Peach • Walking in Memphis Did I leave anything out? • The Bluegrass State • The Carolinas 2 COMMENTS • Southern Exposure Steven | Sunday, August 26, 2012 2012 • The Sunshine State I’ve been to Louisiana and I noticed that a lot of the signs are written in English and French. Some of the people I met spoke French too. My dad said it’s because • All That Jazz of Louisiana’s French heritage. Also, a lot of French-speaking people came from • Sweet Home Alabama Canada to Louisiana. I bet they liked the winters better in Louisiana! • Mighty Mississippi Wendy | Saturday, December 8, 2012 The capital of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, is fun. My grandmother moved there after her house flooded during Hurricane Katrina. 5 Sweet Home Alabama Decatur Monday, September 17, 2012 Day’s Gap Sand Mountain Atlanta We went to Tuscaloosa for a football game at the University of Alabama. Birmingham Football is a really big deal in Alabama. Their team is called the Crimson Tide, so there were people wearing red and stickers that said Columbus Ebeneezer Church “Roll Tide” everywhere! You might think that football is all there is to do in Alabama, but it isn’t. Selma Montgomery One thing you can do is visit the U.S.S. Alabama, a huge World War II battleship, in Mobile. Mobile is a big port on the Gulf of Mexico. Mobile While in Alabama, I found myself imagining what it would be like to live long before Europeans ever came to America. Many Native American Ft. Blakely tribes lived in Alabama and other areas in the Southeast. I like to Civil War Trail in Alabama explore their history. We visited the Oakville Indian Mounds where some tribes lived and hunted. It was pretty cool to see petroglyphs carved into rocks that told stories left by the Native Americans. I bought an arrowhead at the gift shop. Alabama is also home to a Civil War trail because some of the battles of the Civil War were fought in Alabama. In fact, the Confederate States of America began in Alabama, and that government’s version of the White House is still there. We also went to a Civil War reenactment. Men dress up in Civil War uniforms and act out the different battles. Many Confederate soldiers are buried in Alabama.