Pirate GOLD!

Oh my poor neglected website.  Several things have derailed the virtual travel lately--not least of all the state of Louisiana itself.  It's silly, but since I dislike heat, cajun food, slavery and poverty, I've let other things get in the way of exploring even though there is plenty I DO like.  Louisiana has lots of fascinating things to offer and fantastic natural beauty.  SOOOO  we're back to our travels. 

Starting with PIRATE treasure.  Forget poverty! Louisiana is the place to go for buried doubloons. From the amount of websites dedicated to pirate treasures you'd think all you had to do was walk along scooping up handfuls of gold.  Of course this isn't quite true.  What you REALLY need to do is buy a little land and try and plow your field.  The pirate Lafitte alone is said to have left treasure on Grand Isle, Coca Island, 1,000,000 on Kelso's island and 11,000,000 in gold along the coast and Mississippi bluffs.

Stranded at the Cafe du Monde

I've only been to Louisiana once--specifically New Orleans. This was before hurricane Katrina and before we had a cell phone AND while we were on a "cash only" kick so we had no credit cards.  It was an adventure.  We took Catherine, who was about 6 years old and her cousin Natalie to New Orleans for the day.  Had a wonderful time, saw the Mississippi, ate cajun and then left to head back to my sister-in-law's house, when the car died.  Dead. Completely.  Uh oh. We could have been in real trouble, but it died in front of the world famous Cafe du Monde--home of beignets!!!  Beignets are small rectangular donuts smothered in pounds of powdered sugar.  Great with hot chocolate.   It took us awhile to get back to my sister-in-laws.  New Orleans is a fun city, but they have the world's least helpful police force.  The details are misty now, but eventually Dave wound up taking a taxi to a Sears store to buy a battery that got us most of the way back (naturally the problem wasn't anything as simple as a dead battery).  I would have enjoyed the beignets more if I hadn't been worried about the car and money and the whole situation in general, but beignets are great at any time, even under stressful condidtions--heck, maybe even better.