Jonelle and Stacey here. Just finished another great day at the Thensted Center--today we went to Pompeii, Italy, where we learned about the Vesuvius eruption of 79 A.D., exploded our own volcano, and did a plate tectonic experiment with graham crackers and vanilla frosting! Just a day in the life of a world traveler...
The big win this Wednesday marked the end of our sports fanatacism--this family probably thinks all we do up north is watch sports, because between Final Four lacrosse and the Stanley Cup Finals, it seems like we're always eager to flip on a game. Through it all, though, we've converted the Comeauxs into Blackhawks fans :)
This weekend we attended a few family events, including a pizza party where we had Deano's Cajun Pizza--spicy pizza with crawfish or shrimp, veggies, and lots of jalepenos on top. We met the rest of the family members, including Meme and Papa (the grandparents) and Mandy and Dave's brother Scott. We still can't really understand how one family can have this many awesome, loving people! We had a barbecue on Saturday afternoon with the family, too, where we got to try dirty rice and some delicious sausage, which went with some beef and chicken shishkabobs. People in Louisiana absolutely love their food--they'll all tell you that whenever they're eating, they'll always talk about a different kind of food!
Another thing we've learned about people here is that families (at least this one) like to stick together...we live on the same road as a bunch of Mandy's relatives, and Papa, who is a grandfather, lives right next to his sister, who lives next to his other sister, who lives three doors down from his OTHER sister!
On Saturday, we got to walk down the road to our neighbors' house that really looks like a castle and swim in their pool. The owners offered for us to come swim whenever we want, which is awesome because not only does that mean we have a pool within a few minutes of our house, but there's a 14-foot waterfall that you can jump off of into the pool! (see picture). The people here are unbelievably nice--the neighbors with the pool first turned on the fountain water for us, then brought us out an ice bucket full of cold drinks! Just when we thought this couldn't possibly get better, she comes out again--"I made y'all some plates!" Pork chops, noodles, and salad. Where are we?!
After the pool we went to look at some of the old plantation houses. At Magnolia Ridge in Washington, LA, a cute town with tons of antique shops, the owners have opened up the grounds of their plantation house to the public. We got to see the house from the outside and walk around on the three miles of trails. Now, even though this blog is called "Blondes in the Bayou," we created the blog before we found out that the real terminology is "ON the Bayou." Too late to change it, I guess, but we took a picture of ourselves IN the Bayou at Magnolia Ridge just so we could actually be IN it (even though we're standing on a tree, Stacey fell in, so it counts).
Another thing about Louisiana is that the rules of the road are practically non-existent. The speed limits are outrageous, ranging from 55 at a MINIMUM to 70 on side roads. Jonelle is constantly leaning over to check the speedometer when Stacey is flying through residential areas at 59 mph--only 4 over! At the same time, every turn is taken at about .4 mph; even though everyone on the road is going 70, Louisianians find it all right to slam on their brakes and make turns as slow as is humanly possible. P.S. All this takes place in a giant pick-up truck, because everyone and their mom owns a Ford F-150 or the like.
So we've been told about a certain kind of nasty swamp-dwelling rodent called the nutria rat, and we're on the lookout for them. They are the size of a beaver but with rat-like tails, and they have orange teeth!! Someone supposedly brought the species to the area because they thought the cajuns would want to eat them. They don't. But now, since Cajun country is incredibly overpopulated with nutria rats, you can make a profit by hunting the nutria rat. We're thinking about it as a side job to scrape up some extra cash.
Well we are off to Ireland tomorrow! Tearing it up in the deep sea and Egypt and panning for gold on the Oregon Trail later this week. Be sure to check out the nutria rat on google images..its sick.
:)
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