HOMETOWN LAUREL MISSISSIPPI!

 My husband and I took a driving trip to Laurel Mississippi and later on to Vicksburg!   I've been binge watching design shows on HGTV during the pandemic and Hometown with Ben and Erin Napier has become a favorite.  I love renovating old homes and making them new again and I appreciate their use of old materials instead of throwing them away.  So when our trip to France and Germany fell through because of Covid, we decided to take a drive to Mississippi.  We booked The Blue Rabbithole in Laurel and I blogged about that previously.  

The first morning after a good nights rest, we decided to find a local restaurant to have breakfast.  Well, that didnt work out so well as a lot of things were closed.  One place looked promising but it turned out to be a restaurant turned into a medical clinic.  So we ended up at Waffle House where we had a healthy breakfast and then talked about what we were going to do the rest of the day.  We wondered if there was even anything to do as a drive through downtown the previous evening didn't look very promising.  Lots of empty buildings as you can usually find in a southern town.  

Going to Laurel was my thing so we put on a brave face and proceeded to the Laurel Mercantile which is the shop owned by Erin and Ben in hopes it would be open.  When we got there at 10:00, there was a line to get in!  They were only allowing ten in at a time but there were plenty of like minded folks that were fans of the show lining up.  Inside, a woman gave us a map of Laurel and circled all the places to eat and things to do  and where to go to see some of the homes that Erin and Ben had renovated.  Here I am meeting Erin and Ben.    Carol, Erin and Ben

The shop was super cute and we didn't buy a thing.  My husband was very gracious to let me look at everything because Laurel was my place to visit on our trip.  Afterward we walked through the downtown and visited a few other shops, some we had seen in the show, like Lott Furniture.  When it got near lunchtime, we thought about going to Miss Pearl's as we had seen her in the show and saw her home being renovated.  But I wasn't into another day of southern home cooking so we went to another coffee and deli with the best chicken salad!  After lunch we visited the Scotsman store where Ben had his woodshop.  

Allan and the woodshop! 

Here is my husband sitting on the bench outside of the shop.  Note the filming in progess sign although they weren't filming when we were there.  I made him wear a mask so we could remember the year we were there.  Who could forget!  

For the rest of the day we drove up and down the avenues near our cottage.  We were told we would recognize the homes that we had seen on TV and I did find a few.  They dont share locations due to privacy of the owners which is a good thing.  We had a good dinner at a steak restaurant and enjoyed our last evening, drinking wine and watching Amazon Prime movies in our cottage!  As we headed out the next morning, I looked at a home behind us and thought I recognized the deck!  And sure enough it was one of the renovated homes!  We loved our trip to Laurel and I would recommend it!  

Until next time have a great day!