Montgomery: home of Civil War and Civil Rights

After a brief visit to the Atlanta Zoo, itwas down the road towards Montgomery, Alabama. We stayed outside of the city in a little town called Talassee (accent on the first syllable), in the Hotel Talisi (said exactly the same way, just spelled differently). It is a quaint old style hotel, looking like something out of "Gunsmoke" except it has a bathroom. Actually ours has two because it used to be two rooms! The lobby has an old bathtub/shower which the owner suggested could be used, but I couldn't see any pipes. I knew he was kidding around with the Yankee. The hotel has a restaurant that closes at 3 p.m., so dinner on Sunday was at a Hudde House. Our room, on the second floor, is off a lobby that has several arm chairs, tables, a piano, several cases containing Hummel-like knick-knacks, and an old-fashioned phone booth. In fact I'm writing this from the hallway because the wi-fi doesn't carry into the rooms.
We had a fabulous (albeit hot - it's closing in on 100 in town) day in beautiful downtown Montgomery, under the guidance of our good friend Phillip, who spent 17 years here as a teacher before he left for the slightly cooler (in all senses of the word) New Jersey. Anyway, it was fun to get a hometown boy's tour. It began with breakfast at Chappy's, a "NY style deli", that makes you buy the milk for your coffee if you don't use cream. Then, it was on to town.
Montgomery was the capital of the Confederacy and is the current capital of the state. Driving around town, there are a number of historic markers explaining the beginnings of the Civil War: the vote for secession was taken in the House of Representatives' room in the Capitol; the telegram that OK'd the bombing of Fort Sumter was sent from here. Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, lived and ruled here, in what is affectionately called "the Confederate White House". It is white and it contains a large number of artifacts and belongings from the period. One room holds the furniture that was in the NY hotel room occupied by Mrs. Davis at her death in 1906 and the chair that she sent to him when he was imprisoned by the North. Ironically, just down the street is the Baptist Church in which Martin Luther King was pastor in the 50s, and the place where the vote was taken to begin the bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in 1955. The march for civil rights took place on the very street we drove on, heading up "goat hill" toward the Capitol.
We visited a few other churches before enjoying lunch in the Davis Cafe, a primarily black dining establishment which Phillip used to frequent while employed nearby in the Booker T. Washingon Magnet School for the Arts. We had fried pork chops; Patty tried some turnip greens and brown beans, and we feasted on a sweet "red velvet" cake for dessert. Very tasty.
The heat took us back to Talassee, after bidding goodbye to our tour guide. And the heat in the hall is sending me back into the air-conditioned room.