In a Nutshell {a Large, Large Nutshell!}

My parents came to visit last month, did I tell you? We had a great time but none of us were smart enough to remember to take a family photo since it was the first time we were ALL together in one place at the same time for several years. Both my Mom and Dad have visited previously but because one or the other was working (usually my Dad) they couldn't both come at the same time. So this was a special treat. I'm just now sitting down and writing about our adventures- I really hate goodbyes and after someone leaves I have to get out of the blues before I can write about all of the fun happy things we did. So here goes...

We did the usual touristy thing of going to the French Quarter and window shopping one afternoon after lunch, but we also did some new things too.

I had never been to the Oak Alley Plantation and had been dieing to go ever since it had been featured on Ghost Hunters. My Mom, Dad, Peyton and I all hopped in the truck and drove to Vacherie to visit it. We had lunch first at the restaurant located on the property and I have to admit that I was a little sceptical if the food would be up to 'Louisiana' par or if it would be mild for the tourists palate. Peyton and I shared the Red Beans and Rice and it was pretty good! After walking around for a few minutes, we met at the front door to begin our tour.

It was interesting to me that the house had sat abandoned for the space of several years until the current owners bought it. It was open to the elements during that span of time and cattle and other wild animals had trampled the floor on the first level. Apparently, there used to be marble floors throughout the bottom level and the only remnants of it that you can see is in front of the hearth of the fireplace in the dining room. If you look at it closely at an angle, you can see it is indeed broken up.

Back then, rich plantation owners prided themselves on being different so although marble fireplaces and mantels were readily available to them, it was too "common" to have something that everyone else could acquire. The mantle and outer fireplace in the sitting room was actually made out of wood hand painted to look like marble {and it really looks like the real deal!} Of course today people don't buy imitation, they buy the real deal, but back then this would have been considered special and rare.

I forget a lot of times that the people in the 1800's were shorter than most of us are now. Most men back then were no taller than 5'4. So to have these huge soaring ceilings which are impressive to us in these times must have been out of this world for them back then. If you pay close attention, you can see that the doorknobs on the doors are fairly low and that the banister railings going up the stairs are also mounted low to accommodate the height of the people back then.

An interesting {and an apparently Creole tradition} was that the wealthier you were, the larger your silverware was to boast your wealth. This is pretty amusing since everyone was pretty short and they have these huge shovels for their silverware. Something else that was unique was that the silverware was all placed face down {spoons and forks included}.

There was no air conditioning back in the grand old 1800's so it had to be pretty stifling wearing the corsets and tightly fitted dresses with yards and yards of flounce underneath that were the common fashion back then. Imagine sitting in the dining room with 20 other couples how hot it must have been. To aid in this, they would place a large block of ice on the table and a large fan mounted from the ceiling would be pulled by a slave from a rope that was connected to a pulley system. By continually pulling the rope, it would create the fan to swing back and forth across the whole table and the cool air from the ice and the movement of the air from the pulley would create some semblance of air conditioning for them back then.

When family members died they also did something similar, in that they would remove the mattress from the bed, lay the coffin in it's place and underneath the bed skirts they would put a large block of ice to keep the body cold and to help prevent it from decomposing faster in the hot heat. It made sense when the tour guide said it but I had never thought that that was how they kept the bodies 'fresh' throughout the wake until it was ready for burial.

I didn't get many pictures partly because I was trying to wrestle my unruly squirrel into behaving but also because they don't allow pictures on the inside. We all enjoyed it although my Dad made an interesting point that the rooms didn't seem as large as they could have been maybe owing to the thick brick walls {painted over to look like plaster walls}. I think that this was a pretty common trend though, because Myrtles Plantation also had smaller rooms as well. It's interesting that high ceilings were a given for a plantation home back then but overall space wasn't a prerequisite.

Once Troy was off of work for the weekend, we hit the road again to go to Folsom and visit the Global Wildlife Center there. It took awhile for the tour to start because they were trying to fill the wagons, but once we got started, it was a lot of fun. Peyton wasn't really a happy camper on this trip so Troy had to keep a strong arm wrapped around him. This boy loves outside so it just about killed him to be outside but restrained from jumping out of the wagon and running free with all of the wild beasts. He would calm down intermittently, especially when an animal got close enough for him to pet.

One of my favorite animals were the zebras even though you're not allowed to pet or feed them. According to our guide, they are "...black and white and mean all over."

I also really liked the Axis Deer. They have these lovely speckles all over their backs and they just look majestic.

Here are some baby Axis Deer. Aren't they cute?

Sally the camel was acting pretty snooty when our wagon rolled by. She was looking at all of us sideways through her long lashes.

I was tickled to be the first person to coerce her into coming over and getting a bite to eat from my cup.

My parents spoiled all of us while they were here. They got all of us some much needed new clothes and my Mom {and Dad in spirit- he was back home and working again the second week my Mom was here} sent me on a shopping spree to get some new maternity clothes since I wore what few clothes I had from Peyton down to holes (literally!). Sometimes I fell going UP our stairs so my maternity pants had to be discarded after Peyton was born. I was so grateful that they both thought of me and wanted to do this for me. Thank you again guys!

After our shopping spree, my Mom and I caught a movie in Baton Rouge. We went to see The Secret Life of Bees.


All of the girls from B.R. book club, remember how good the book was? The movie was just as good and the whole cast did a wonderful job. I highly recommend it to you. My Mom hadn't read the book and she was able to follow it because they did such a good job portraying the novel. There were a few things that were different but they were little and didn't affect the story at all. Go watch it and tell me what you think!

Thanks for coming to visit us Mom and Dad! Hopefully soon we will only be a few hours away so we can visit you often. Love you guys!