As usual after
recovery from New Year’s Eve, the beginning of the new year for us is spent on
prepping for grandson Jaxson’s b-day on 04JAN.
First up was the main party for family & friends on Saturday,
02JAN. As was done for the last couple
of gatherings, it was held at a local gymnastics training facility.
Monday (04DEC –
Jaxson’s actual b-day) there was a family birthday “dinner” at Chuck E Cheese. When we lived in Ann Arbor, MI, Corrie &
other moms would meet once a week at Chuck’s because of the almost free food
& tokens for the kids if you were a “member”. Apparently they realized they were losing
money & discontinued the program.
Dan was glad to see the “costumed” Chuck E character has undergone a
make-over & is not as scary as before.
Thursday, 07APR,
evening Dan headed to a local sleep clinic for a Sleep Apnea test. Why, you ask?
Because apparently he has started snoring quite loudly over the last
several years; & Corrie is convinced that his snoring cannot be natural
& must be a serious medical issue. The
test shows he does not have sleep apnea, but he does snore.
Saturday, 09JAN, Dan,
Rebecca, Jaxson & Mason head out exploring the bayou. First stop was a local car/hotrod show in
Matthew, LA (not great). Then it is off
to the cement sculpture/folk art garden in Chauvin called the “Kenny Hill
Sculpture Garden” – Hill arrived around 1990 & worked on the sculptures
before just walking away without warning in 2002. Now Nicholls University maintains the
sculptures & has a small art museum across the road.
Then after lunch at
Sportsman’s bar/restaurant we visited the one hundred year old Lapeyrouse
General Store in Cocodrie.
The last stop was LUMCON. - “The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) was formed in 1979 to coordinate and stimulate Louisiana's activities in marine research and education. LUMCON provides coastal laboratory facilities to Louisiana universities, and conducts in-house research and educational programs in the marine sciences. LUMCON's primary facilities are located at the DeFelice Marine Center in Cocodrie, approximately 85 miles southwest of New Orleans. This location, situated within the estuarine wetland complex of the Mississippi River delta plain between the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers, provides ready access to the most productive estuaries in the United States, to a variety of coastal environments, and to the open Gulf of Mexico.”
Tuesday, 12JAN, we
moved the RV to Joe’s, to give Rebecca & Raymond a break, & to help Joe
w/some small projects. Wednesday Joe
decided Dan needed to grill lots of fish Joe had in his freezer for about nine
people at dinner. But he doesn’t bother
to tell Dan until the afternoon, so Dan madly scrambled to thaw the fish &
marinate it. That evening it was dinner
for Joe, Rebecca, Raymond, Jaxson, Mason, friend Travis, friend Ben &
daughter Eve, & us. Thankfully
everyone loved the fish.
On Sunday, 17JAN,
Joe treated everyone to our first crawfish of the season at Cajun CrittersJ!
The rest of our time
at Joe’s was spent cleaning up his back yard, while he was working
offshore. The biggest project was
clearing all the junk around the shed we built back in Sept 2013 & covering
the mud with four inches of pea-gravel.
While Dan was at it, he also fixed Joe’s back gate that was no longer
level & scrapping the ground.
Saturday, 30JAN, Dan
went kayaking w/Rebecca, Jaxson & Mason.
That evening we rejoined them to catch the Krewe of Aquarius mardi gras parade. The second mardi gras parade of the season
for Houma.
Sunday, 31 JAN, we
woke up to find Joe had returned early from his offshore job. So a little after noon we three met Rebecca,
Raymond & the grandsons to catch the Krewe of Hyacinthians mardi gras
parade. After that it was back to
Raymond & Rebecca’s for spaghetti dinner.
