Beauvior....

....was built in 1852 and was the last home of Jefferson Davis: a US Senator, Congressman, Secretary of War, & the only President of the Confederate States of America. 
We left the hotel about 7:30 this morning and drove just a short distance to Biloxi, Mississippi to go down to the beach, as they have a small Lighthouse there that I wanted to see. I had to laugh, as it sits in the middle of a boulevard in the middle of the lanes of traffic, but it was pretty. We spent time walking along the beach and out onto the pier, then headed 5 minutes west to Beauvior where we had a private tour of this lovely old home. ("Private" only because no one else was there for the early tour"! Ha! ). We strolled around the gardens for a bit, then walked back to the Confederate Veterans' Cemetery to wander around. Also on the property is the "Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Museum", which I felt bad for practically running through, as I didn't want to miss it but we'd already been there almost 3 hours and still had a 7 hour drive ahead of us so we needed to get on the road!   On the way out, we saw a tattered looking horse statue sort of mounted next to the exit gate, so I asked the ticket lady about it. In her polite Southern way she told me the whole story was listed right under the horse on the sign (OK-I felt really dumb, but I'd been looking up at the horse--not at the stupid sign) but, being the genteel lady she obviously was, she relayed it to me anyway. (Probably thought I couldn't read! Ha! )  It seems the horse that Jefferson Davis rode during the war was named "Tartar", and when the original museum was built, a replica of Tartar was made and put in one of the exhibits.  When Hurricane Katrina hit it ripped the exhibits in the museum apart & pulled the horse out into the gulf. Whenever the tide went out, Tartar, resting on all fours, would rise from the gulf! Whenever the tide came back in he slowly disappeared under the waves. There was such an uproar from the public about the "drowning horse" that the estate  had to go out and rescue it--- for lack of anywhere else to put it, they mounted Tartar on the fence! I've included a picture of Tartar, as well as the Lighthouse, in the extras. 
(We arrived safe and sound outside of  Houston around 6 this evening & were relieved that the area the kids are in has had no flooding, thank goodness!)