In the late 1960's in California, I lived near the beach. Beaches were a place to chill, play volleyball and wax your board. But the song "Galveston" introduced me to a completely different idea where the beach was a place of poetry, mystery and romance, a beach you must see to believe.

Galveston Island State Park is 'on-the-way' to nowhere but Galveston, a barrier island at sea level with only three roads into and out of the 27-mile long island.

Click the "Continue Reading" button below to read about this beautiful and magical place.

The post Campground Review: Galveston Island State Park – Galveston Island, Texas appeared first on Living In Beauty.

The art of biscuit making is a tender process where contrasting ingredients are gently coaxed into an improbable friendship. No two biscuits are exactly alike, but a good biscuit is something you can give yourself wholly to, even while eyeing the next one. Satisfaction is elusive. There's always plenty and never enough.

Yeah, I'm talking about The Blues.

The Blues sweet-talks electrifying joy and benumbed pain into a soul-satisfying concoction and lays it all out on the table. Come and get it. Blues and biscuits. No one does it better than "King Biscuit" in Helena Arkansas, one of the best Blues festivals in the world.

The post All Hail The Good King Biscuit! appeared first on Living In Beauty.

What took us so long to BRP?

Well before before Day One of this Airstream adventure – in response to one of our earliest posts, Tell The Beaubeauxs Where To Geaux – Living in Beauty followers have advised us to visit the BRP: Blue Ridge Parkway.

Then, for more than seven years, we drove over the BRP, under the BRP and around the BRP, until... Bingo. We finally hit the target and gave the Blue Ridge Parkway the full focus of our attention for the entire month of July.

At last, we understand why the popular Blue Ridge Parkway is called “America’s Favorite Drive."

Don't ask if we saw this or that, just ask us how it made us feel to be there.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a vacation for the senses, a re-boot for the ol' neurotransmitters–

The post Sweet Surrender🪽The Blue Ridge Parkway appeared first on Living In Beauty.

Dad was born in 1919 into a Louisiana factory-working family who barely made ends meet. He joined the navy on his 18th birthday.

Back in the 1950's and 60's, a kid could run loose in Louisiana while visiting relatives throughout the state. Even in New Orleans, I was allowed to go anywhere I wanted except Bourbon Street because my Aunt Marie said, "You stay outta dat mess young man!"

A few years ago while passing through Louisiana after a major storm, we pinned Lake Charles on the Living in Beauty list of places we like to explore. Even in that beat up condition, the region peaked our curiosity.

Our research turned up Sam Houston Jones State Park.

The post Campground Review: Sam Houston Jones State Park – Lake Charles, Louisiana appeared first on Living In Beauty.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. calls Montgomery, Alabama, "The Epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement" in his book, The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song.

In 1955, Martin Luther King Jr. was the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery when, Rosa Parks , just down the street, refused to surrender her seat on the bus to a white passenger.

Rosa Parks bravery – in response to the brutal murder of Emmett Till three months' earlier – activated the Civil Rights Movement.

With so much to learn and see in the Montgomery area, we easily filled two weeks with sightseeing, museums, restaurants and lectures.

Here we will share our visits to The Legacy Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Rosa Parks Museum, Freedom Rides Museum, Civil Rights Memorial and Center, Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Capitol Building, and the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.

The post Civil Rights Trail – Chapter Six: Montgomery, Alabama – The Epicenter of The Movement appeared first on Living In Beauty.

We recently shared the post, The Magic of Number Nine, our completion of 8 years of full-time travel and the start of our 9th year.

Today is another milestone: 3,000 days on the road, as we live in Beauty.

This big day conjuncts with my 70th birthday. Yep, I've hit the big seven-o today, October 4th!

How has traveling 3,000 days changed us?

Click the "Continue Reading" button below to read about our renewed faith in humanity, respect for culture, admiration of the landscape, and appreciation for American languages and dialects.

The post 3,000 Days on the Road appeared first on Living In Beauty.

We could be in New Orleans right now.

Journaling our travels is like a two-fer. First, we get to go there, and later while creating the blog, we kind of get to go there again to say a proper goodbye.

But, whenever we think about New Orleans, it's not about closure, it's about planning our next stay.

Something keeps calling us back to The Big Easy. Each time we return we feel more like locals with a better understanding and appreciation for the cuisine, the music, and the most unique cultural history in America.

The post Civil Rights Trail – Chapter Five: New Orleans appeared first on Living In Beauty.

We're here! We're ok!

You haven't heard from us in a while, but that's because we've been out adventuring. Oh boy, have we been adventuring – but more about that later.

For the next few ... however long it takes ... I will be handling the blog solo. That's right, Living in Beauty will be the "Jim Show" until Carmen writes a first draft of her screenplay.

Living in Beauty isn't just sun-kissed scampering these days.

We've been busy. Beauty is serving as Carmen's writing retreat and my comfort station following a short stint as a camp host.

As we age, we don't want to lose the feeling that every day is a deeper plunge into beauty in every color and dimension, for as far as the eye can see ...

The post Olly Olly Oxen Free appeared first on Living In Beauty.