Frankly my dear....

OK--so we were in Louisiana and Gone With The Wind took place elsewhere, however, it's hard not to feel like you've stepped back in time when you go to St Francisville, LA. It was plantation after plantation after plantation. We had a great time and I was pleased to be in a land where when you order iced tea you're asked 'Sweet or unsweet'. Sweet tea is an art form. A lot of times what is called 'sweet tea' is 'barely sweet tea' in my eyes. More sugar, people! More sugar! You also have to add the sugar first and pour the boiling hot tea over it to melt it down. Adding the sugar later doesn't work. BUT....you can't put in too much sugar, either. When I make it, I found that 2 qts water and 2 qts sugar might be just a tad too sweet. I actually heard my teeth scream "We're melting!" as the sugared tea wore down the enamel. The best I've ever had was during my redneck phase when I visited Arkansas but the tea at Lola Blue's in St Francisville made my tastebuds dance.

We visited Rosedown (above), The Myrtles (the most haunted house in the U.S.--we took a 'Mystery Tour' on Saturday night), Oakley (where Audubon stayed and drew some of the birds from his 'Birds of America' book) and Greenwood (where they filmed 'North and South'). We hiked at a state park just over the border in Mississippi and took a historic walking tour.

We also visited Nachitoches, LA (pronounced 'Nack-a-tush' and preferably with a good southern drawl). This is where they filmed 'Steel Magnolias'. It was written by the brother of Julia Roberts character so it is based on real characters. We visited some of the filming locations and were amazed, yet again, how Hollywood can take a house on a postage stamp sized lot and somehow make us believe it's on acres of land.

Miss F enjoyed her time with my folks. In our absence, she's somehow decided that instead of sleeping 'til 6:15/6:30 that she's going to get up at 5:15 and sing and talk to herself until Mom or Dad can drag themselves out of bed. I'm hoping she was just excited to spend time with us today and that we can get her back on her old schedule.

So it's back to life, back to reality (wasn't that a song in the '90s?) We have a list a mile long of things to do to get the house ready for sale--when it rains, it pours and we now have some friendly carpenter ants taking up residence in the B Family Home for Wayward Pests, we have a leak under our sink and the bathtub is peeling away and needs to be refinished.

Here's a photo of me after eating in Cajun/Creole country for 4 days