Tuesday, Jul. 01, 2003 - 1:23 p.m.
Greetings,
I think it just might not rain today. That would make it the first day in 20 days that it hasn’t.
We got enough yesterday for 20 days of rain, but luckily I was home at Crescentwood reading on the sofa and snuggling with Stela and Agatha.
I didn’t even know there was a Tropical Storm in effect until about 4:30 when I called the vet to check to see if I could pick up Meow and got voice mail saying that due to flooding the office was closed.
Oblivious, thy name is Mina. I just thought it was a particularly lovely rainy day.
Of course I was very tired yesterday. I only got 15 hours of sleep between Sunday night and Monday morning. I was going to go meet friends in the Quarter Sunday night after we returned from our Oak Alley/Laura Plantation weekend, but I ended up falling asleep at 6:30 and not waking up until midnight whereupon I thought “What the hell am I up for now?” and promptly went back to sleep again until 9:30 a.m.
Luckily, I did tell the friends in the Quarter that I might not be there and that they weren’t to wait for me if they switched bars.
I made the mistake of coming home Sunday afternoon and eating pizza and then stretching out on the bed t read a book. Big no no. I should have gone directly to the Quarter without passing Crescentwood. And then waited there.
Oh, well.
I was actually packed and ready by 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The house was clean, the shopping was done, Kharis was cleaned out. I even had my nails done.
We left for Oak Alley about 2:30 or so and were there before 4.
Austin and I followed the lady in the golf cart to our cottage so she could ceremoniously unlock the door and give us the grand tour, even though we’ve been there twice already before. Jaye, Kristen and Tom stayed at the gift shop where they apparently consumed much sugar via ice cream.
40 minutes later Tom came babbling through the front door with a motor mouth that wouldn’t quit. You could not shut him off. Of course everything out of his mouth was riotously funny so we didn’t want to shut him off anyway.
We had a blast Saturday afternoon, we really did. Sitting around on the back porch while it rained, drinking chilled white wine and ranking on Jaye. But it was all in good fun. And I think we all came in for a bit of ranking. I think. ;)
For dinner we made baked beans, salad, broccoli with cheese sauce, grilled chicken breasts and cheeseburgers. I made the cheeseburgers, Jaye made the chicken, and Kristen supervised, warmed up, assembled and served everything else.
Austin took a nap since he’d driven 7 hours from Houston and Tom sat out on the porch reading Harry Potter and probably shaking like a leaf from all the sugar animating his body.
The sun set as we consumed our meal and talked about things like ass clowns, sexy chicken and shit monkeys. Everyone at the table had a near death experience choking at some point.
After dinner, we cleaned up and dressed up for the Working and then spent the next couple of hours walking around the moonlit grounds of the plantation, star gazing, reading and listening to our wonderful dark little short stories.
Hands down, the best stories made their appearance this year.
We’ve decided to go for two nights next year. A night of black magic and stories and just a night of hanging out drinking and relaxing. Perhaps a day trip to Destrehan, but definitely some just plain hanging out at Oak Alley.
With just the overnight excursion, it seems like just when you start to really unwind, it’s time to go.
It rained pretty heavily off and on during the daylight hours, but it was clear and cool after dark.
On Sunday we had a lovely breakfast before hitting the gift shop one last time and then we took the tour through the Big House.
In prior years we’ve taken the plantation house tour the afternoon we arrive, but we put it off until morning this year. I’m extraordinarily glad we did because just as we got to the part of the tour where the front doors on the second floor are flung open and we’re invited to stroll around on the gallery and look down the alley of oaks to the river, the sky opened up and a perfect deluge of rain cascaded down. Thunder and lightning too.
It was incredible. I’ve always wanted to be on the gallery in a thunderstorm and it’s never happened until this time around.
After the tour we sipped mint juleps on the front porch and I walked up the alley by myself in the rain. (Until I got to a deep puddle and figured my $12 Target sandals and a puddle = falling on my ass and so turned back.)
Then we traveled up the River Road to Laura Plantation. Every year there are more improvements/additions to the tour. This year was no exception. The garden out back is growing up and they’ve outfitted one of the slave cabins so you can walk through. I’m sure next year the slave cabin will be on the tour, or at the very least there will be more things inside of it.
We sat on the porch of the slave cabin talking for a while and then the clouds gathered ominously overhead and the sky opened up again and it was time to hit the gift shop.
Main purchases this year were two plantation house prints, one framed, one not. Our dining room walls are going to have prints of all of our favorite southern Louisiana plantations. We lost our favorite print of Oak Alley in the fire – it was one of the side of the house taken at dawn on a misty morning when the house was still in private hands. Tommy bought it as a honeymoon remembrance because we honeymooned at one of the Creole cottages. We found the same print, same frame, on sale this year and so we scooped it up.
The print of Laura plantation is a back view, which makes it rather unique.
Next month when we go to Nottoway for our anniversary, we’ll find a print of that plantation that we like.
It’s fun owning a house!
After Laura we headed home and had to drive through a downpour over the Causeway. The kind where you can’t see two feet in front of your windshield.
When we got to Crescentwood Kristen and Austin took off for her mother’s house while Jaye, Tommy and I shared some Papa John’s pizza before Jaye left for work in the Quarter.
That’s about the time I decided to read a book in the bedroom and then fell asleep instead of venturing back out for drinks.
But as weekends go, it was everything I’d anticipated and then some.
Yearly traditions kick ass.
Until next time,
Olrun
