A weekend on the bayou!

It's funny how my travels always take me full circle! I spent the most amazing two days back in Louisiana with some of the people who mean the most to me in this whole world. What had originally started out as a grandiose plan to gather my friends down in Mexico to celebrate my 40th birthday in January turned into a belated celebration of family and friends on the bayou this weekend.

I love to travel and to experience new places, but my soul and spirit are grounded back in Terrebonne Parish. I wasn't really all that disappointed when the plans for Mexico didn't work out, I only chose that location because it would be warm in January. Things have a way of working out for the best though; we enjoyed two 80 degree days under cloudless skies with only a slight breeze to remind us it was spring.

The only two things on our agenda for the whole weekend were a crawfish boil on Saturday and the Boat Blessing (AKA Blessing of the Fleet) on Sunday. We did our best and were quite successful at sticking to the itinerary! We chuckled all day Saturday about how the only effort we expended the whole day was to eat and to move our chairs to chase the sun or shade depending on your preference. The first of our two-day retreat consisted of eating breakfast, eating boiled crawfish and birthday cake, playing horseshoes, laying around in hammocks, riding in the back of a pickup truck a couple miles up the road to get snowballs, go to "town" for supplies for Sunday, then eat dinner. Whew, it almost makes me tired just repeating all we got accomplished! As you can see in the picture, Kathie awarded me with a tiara graced with the number 40 which I proudly wore all day long. The fact that I allowed Kathie to put it on my head and then kept it there all day left many of my friends and family perplexed and wondering if this fourth decade will see a softer Karen! I wouldn't count on that just yet! I was so happy to be home and surrounded by all these people who love me (although most of them think I'm a little crazy!) that I would've worn a dress and glass slippers and would not have batted an eye! OK, I might have taken them off when we went to the back bayou to dump crawfish shells and to skip rocks!

Sunday turned out to be just as relaxing and extraordinary as Saturday. After a leisurely breakfast, we headed "down da bayou" to Chauvin for the Blessing of the Fleet. The tradition of priests blessing shrimping fleets started in Europe and was carried to Louisiana by Catholic immigrants. The Boat Blessing in Chauvin dates back to the 1920s. The ceremony is quite simple: there is a Catholic Mass followed by the priest sprinkling holy water on the shrimp boats and saying a blessing for a bountiful and safe season. The priest then rides the lead shrimp boat and blesses boats along the bayou as he makes his way towards Boudreaux Canal. The bayousides are lined with friends and families gathered with food to celebrate the day and take in the sights. Oh, and are there some sights! Only in Louisiana can you see a Catholic priest on the lower level of a shrimp boat casting holy water in the direction of boats lined up along the banks while teenage girls in bikini tops and cut off shorts dirty dance on the deck above!

It was a small procession of decorated boats that made their way along the bayou yesterday. I assume that the rising cost of diesel didn't do much to lure the dwindling number of Louisiana fisherman and shrimpers out for a day of cruising and merry-making. The offshore season, which applies to the waters off the central Terrebonne Parish coast, is set to open tomorrow so there's not likely to be much change in prices before then. The opening dates for the inland spring season will be decided by officials on May 1st according to an AP report released last week. Hopefully diesel prices will come down to help keep the operating costs of the fleet reasonable.

Thanks for checking in and feel free to scroll down to view the two slide shows of pictures from my trip home. If the slideshows take too long to load, just click on "view all images" and it will come up in another window. Thursday I'm off to Lexington, Kentucky for an Equestrian event. I'll post again soon- Have a great week!