On Saturday the 15th of March, I and about 100 other people from the Marina, attended a very nice birthday celebration and golden anniversary, for several people from French boats. There was free food and free booze, and so no surprise that a lot of people came.
Since I am never sure how much publicity any individual wants or does not want, I will not name them here. But, the golden anniversary couple, made a wonderful video that can be found here:
In case, in your culture, the term ‘golden anniversary,’ is unclear, it means 50 years of marriage. Not bad at all.
When Janet and I were traveling by boat through Louisiana in 1999, the locals all told us that we absolutely must go to a real Louisiana honky-tonk. When we were in Homa, Louisiana, and heard this suggestion for about the 12th time, we said, “Okay. Which one do you recommend?”
It certainly was a wonderful experience. There was a bar, that was pretty much like a bar or tavern, anywhere in the US, but there was also a large room with a live band and dancing, and a lot of picnic tables set up. When we entered, a person directed us to sit at a certain table, back in the corner, and so we did. They also asked us where we were from, since it was pretty obvious that we were not locals.
There were a lot of people there, but we had a great view of the dance floor, and during my time in Louisiana, I discovered that there are many kinds of Cajun music, and I generally like any of them. This was a zydeco band. I’ll let you Google that.
The dancing was extremely enthusiastic. By that I mean there was a lot of exertion. Most people must be in pretty good shape to survive more than a few minutes the way they were going.
Early on we discovered that one couple on the dance floor, was celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. And during the several hours that we were there, they danced every single dance. In other words continuously. There were no intermissions. And they were really active. Who needs an aerobics class or Zumba? This couple was in fantastic shape!
It was also interesting that at several of the tables there were families with small children. The ages in attendance were usually in the middle range. But, there were the small children on up to the elderly couple celebrating their 65th. It was a very family atmosphere. There were no drunks. There was no inappropriate behavior.
Truly ‘fun for the whole family.’
We discovered that the other people at our table, were all from out of town. Eastern Canada. France. Of course, we were from Seattle. And I think there was a couple from the Northeastern US.
We got the impression that this was the table for out-of-towners. Because, it looked to us like everyone else was a local.
The Cajun accent may take a little getting used to, but it paid to pay attention to the announcer, because at one stage the announcer introduced Janet and I to the group, and would’ve been a little embarrassing to just be sitting there in the ozone.
So, in addition to the usual stuff in Louisiana, like New Orleans, ‘Hansens Sno-Bliz’s’, coffee with chicory, and beignets, I would encourage you to go to smaller town and asked for recommendations of a good honky-tonk to go to.
Also, we really enjoyed visiting Avery Island, the home of Tabasco Sauce. The year we were there we can sail are 6.5-foot draft boat all the way up to the free anchorage right outside the visitor center. And it was fantastic!
As we were leaving after about four days of fun, we discovered a massive oil leak in the engine and returned to the anchorage to wait for some repair equipment to be shipped to us. So we spent quite a bit longer than we had planned. But it was a wonderful adventure. Cajuns seem to be one of the very few people that are even friendlier than Turks. And the Turks are so friendly, that that’s high praise indeed.
Several times in Cajun land, we would be walking down the street and the hot summer sun, and people would stop us and say that we shouldn’t be walking in this heat. “Here are the keys to my pickup. It’s the brown one over there. When you’re done with it just park it somewhere nearby, and leave the keys under the mat.”
Now that is friendly!
David
Alegria1976's Blog 