Yoo Hoo! Hello! Just Checking!

Hello everybody!  Just checking in to see how everybody is doing.  This is certainly surreal, isn’t it?  I don’t really know what to say about it — I am terrified, I am doing a particularly wonderful job of staying in because (1) I am terrified and (2) I am an introvert and staying in is easy for me, I do it all the time.  I am waiting for us to be locked down completely for two weeks soon.  I don’t know that for a fact, I just have a feeling.

But, since I can’t do anything about it, let me tell you what I have been up to for the last couple of weeks.

Last week, spring break here, we went on our annual Girl Scout Spring Break Adventure to New Orleans.  Now my daughter and my husband had been to NOLA before but I hadn’t and, of course, neither had Bean.  So, Monday of Spring Break we traveled by car from DFW to Shreveport and then from Shreveport to NOLA.  I have to say that Louisiana looks a lot like Texas.  When you get closer south, of course, you get more swampy areas and it looks more like the Texas coast but, on the whole, if I didn’t know I was in La. I would have thought I was in Texas.

Lake Pontchartrain is huge.  I mean scary huge.

It looked like the ocean to me.

We visited the unusual cemeteries with their wild and crazy histories and stories.  I am going to do some reading about Marie Laveau — the VooDoo priestess of New Orleans.  I saw her tomb and people would leave things — hair ties mostly — I don’t know why hair ties but, well, ok.  She is buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 — a very old Catholic Cemetery which is built in the style of the area — all graves are above ground because Louisiana is so near sea level.  So, they have this process — But you are going to have to research it yourself because it is gross.  I am sorry but I am having problems getting my pictures to load but Nicholas Cage has a tomb there in the shape of a pyramid.  Look it up — it is very strange and very close to Marie Laveau’s tomb.

We spent two days in the French Quarter which was very interesting to me.  I am from San Antonio, Texas which has a very prominent Spanish/Mexican influence.  I grew up with it, it wasn’t “unusual” to me.  However, upon entering the French Quarter I was struck by how, well, French it was.  The buildings are old, there is wrought iron all over the place, the doors are narrow and shuttered.  The thing that struck me was the ornate vent coverings in the foundations.  I wish I had taken a picture.  They are oval wrought iron and very ornate — but apparently you can buy them at Home Depot but the ones I saw I think were very old.

The first day we were there we went to the World War II Museum and it was amazing.  It is housed in a couple of buildings and  it is huge.  There was so much to see and read and hear — it was sad and grand all at the same time.  My knees were giving me a lot of trouble so I didn’t do as much walking as it required so I didn’t get to the see the Pacific exhibit which was the most interest to me because my dad was in the Pacific. I will go back one day though and do some more looking.  I think I will buy my dad and my father in law a brick for the floor to commemorate them.

The last day the family went to the zoo and I stayed in the hotel room icing my knees and ankles.  I didn’t do well with the walking and I figured I would just hold them up.  They took a lot of photos though and it was an absolutely lovely zoo.  Not sure why I can’t get my photos to load.  I will have to figure that out.

So you are probably wondering how we did with fighting the Coronavirus while we were there.  I drove everybody pretty crazy.  I was the keeper of the hand sanitizer.  I took Bean to the restrooms mostly and I just about annoyed her making her wash her hands and open doors with paper towels.  I was absolutely rabid about it and they all got pretty annoyed with me.  I am sure they were glad I didn’t go to the zoo.  It has been 12 days since we arrived in NOLA and we are all fine so I guess we came out on the good side.

I bought souvenirs but I will take photos of those and show you in