My Louisiana Vacation

Pencil drawing by Vicky Christensen -- Charlotte!

I just spent 10 glorious days in Louisiana (and Texas). I visited by lovely sister in Clinton Louisiana and my sister's lovely oldest daughter in nearby St. Francisville Louisiana. My sister and I wrapped up the trip by spending two days in Dallas to visit her lovely youngest daughter. (Hint, they are all quite lovely.) While in Louisiana, my sister and I spent a day in New Orleans, stopping at the Whitney Plantation along the way.

I couldn't go without a little drawing and painting. Above is a pencil drawing I did of the lovely Charlotte (AKA Charlotta, AKA Lottie). Lottie is my sister's sweet little dog, a Poodle/Jack Russell Terrier mix. Actually Lottie is my niece's dog but she has taken up residence with my sister, and is my sister's loyal companion. If I could have any dog in the world, it would by Lottie. Now that I am back home, I miss my sister, but sorry Gayla, I think I miss Lottie just as much. I dropped some crumbs on the floor this morning and I expected Lottie to lick them up for me. No such luck.

Gayla and I also did a little painting with Gayla's grandson Luke. Luke was fascinated when I showed him how to splatter paint, and how paints react to salt and alcohol.

Here are a few more highlights from my trip:

I got to Clinton in time for a tornado warning. We sat in the most sheltered area of the house eating ice cream, just in case. Thankfully it missed my sister's neighborhood.

My sister!

Lottie on her favorite perch, the back of the sofa.

 We went to a small-town Mardi Gras parade in Clinton:

My sister with her grandson Luke at the parade

My niece Megan and her son Luke watching the parade

Some scenes from our stop at the Whitney Plantation. The Whitney Plantation is the only plantation tour whose major focus is on the slaves of the plantation and the deplorable history of the global and US slave trade. It's a very sobering tour, a story that must be told and re-told, and a story that other Louisiana plantation tours usually gloss over or ignore totally. The Whitney is in the act of culling through records and identifying persons who were enslaved on the plantation. A number of monuments on the grounds memorialize them.

One of the monuments that includes the names of slaves who were born on the plantation.

Our tour guide Cheryl. She was excellent.

A monument to the long boats that took slaves ashore from the slave ships

A slave cabin; not original to the Whitney, move here from another plantation

A slave jail; not original to the plantation

From the Whitney we drove to New Orleans. We walked around, took a streetcar ride and had some food. I had my favorite fried shrimp po' boy.

My sister on a Canal Street corner

We stopped for beignets and coffee

Paintings in the window of the Caliche and Pao Gallery caught my eye.