A Wedding, WWII and a Haunted Hotel

Hi everyone!!!!

I hope your summer is going well! This post is going to be all over the place because I am going to talk about a wedding, WWII, and a haunted hotel. LOL!!

To start, my family and I went to a wedding of a family friend in Texarkana,Texas. We had so much fun! During this wedding it was my job to babysit the ring bearer. He was ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!  He was a busy little guy and so smart.  He loved the cake and managed to get pieces from several different people. It was funny to watch.  The venue for the wedding was absolutely stunning. It was in a huge barn with a large outdoor porch.  White lights were draped everywhere.  The bride was beautiful and the groom was handsome.  One fun thing they had at the wedding was a photo booth.  My parents and I enjoyed dressing up in goofy props for the photos!!

My parents and I had some time to kill on the day of the wedding so we went to the downtown area of Texarkana. When my parents were in their 20s they would go to see my great grandfather and grandmother who lived in Texarkana. My Pawpaw would tell them stories about the town. My mom has always told me these same stories, but I was never that interested. I guess I was too young to appreciate stories from the past. This time I was very interested. One of the buildings that we came across was the Union Station. According to my parents my great grandfather (Pawpaw) left for WWII in this exact station. When they told me this, I thought that was pretty neat. The Union Station was built in 1929 and it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The train station sits on the state line of Texas and Arkansas. When we saw the station it was very worn out, old, and rusted but still had its original antique beauty.  It was just hard to imagine my Pawpaw walking up to this station to head off to war.

Another place my parents and I saw was the Hotel Grim. This hotel has been abandoned for years and is in very rough shape. When we got to the hotel, there was a gate in front of two stunning, but crumbling  French doors. We peeked into the gate and we were able to see into the back lobby. We saw crown molding, marble floors, antique railings, and beautiful swirly woodwork on the ceiling. We could also smell the very old, antique odor that came out of the door. Seeing the shape that this hotel is in now does not hide how breathtaking it was at one point. An interesting fact about the Hotel Grim is that it is said that Bonnie and Clyde stayed there at one point which I found fascinating. Yesterday I watched a video on YouTube about the Hotel Grim where two guys are videoing walking through the hotel. Here is the link if you guys are interested:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6PuWZxW2dg. I am not sure if it will work so here is the name of the video: Exploring the Abandoned Hotel Grim.

This trip was definitely an adventure and I hope to go again and discover more things in Texarkana!!!!!!!!!

Love this little guy!!

Fun in the photo booth with my parents!!

 

Photo booth with family and friends!!

 

 

Union Station where my Pawpaw left to serve in the Navy in World War II

 

 

 

 

Standing in two places at once! The Post office on State Line.

 

 

 

 

 

Hotel Grim

This is a picture of the Hotel Grim on the inside that I found on the internet. I could not get a good picture of it when we were there because the hole that we were looking through was too small. In this picture you can see the details of the hotel that I was talking about. Isn’t it just beautiful!!!