Well, I Know I'm in Trouble...

What a fun day! All week I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go with Sam and Louise to the Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge. (Pronounced like 'Bro', for yall Yankees :-P) Last night I went to bed thinking I'd still be sitting around the house cooling my heels waiting for the granite guy to come put in my countertops as he promised he would have done this week. >:-(
This morning I was fast asleep, 'down a deep well', as I call it when the phone rang, and it was Sam and Louise letting me know they'd be here in about 45 min. or so to pick me up to go along with them! Whooshhhhh...showered, hair washed, shirt ironed, "toofsus" all brushed and did, makeup on, dogs fed and watered, camera bag packed, lunch ready, breakfast eaten...all in 35 minutes. I'm still amazed. Truth is, I didn't want them coming in the house to wait for me...it's a WRECK still. BAW! I want my kitchen done, and my life put back together.
Well, off I went with them. We took the most glorious scenic route; one that I usually take when I'm evacuating for hurricanes and the last thing I'm doing at times like those, is enjoying the scenery. Today it was lovely.
Now Sam and Louise are my witnesses: I kept mentioning that it didn't seem right to travel so close to the Lafayette area and not go see Aunt Gussie and the family, but it was just not possible today, so I was going to 'sneak' over and hope no family was at the festival.
It was my first time at the Crawfish Festival, and it was packed. The music...well, what can I say...it was Cajun music...I just LOVE Cajun music! How people can just walk calmly along listening to it is beyond me, but then I didn't grow up around it, so I 'act the fool' dancing along to it as I walk. If people didn't keep sending me Chicken Soup emails admonishing me to 'dance as if nobody's watching' and it hadn't sunk in...which it has...I would just walk normally, but when the air is full of the joyous, bouncing sound, I just gotta let go and enjoy it, by dancing along to it as I go. "AAAAAAiEEEEE!!" (Cajun yell, in case ya forgot.)

Sam tried the deep-fried, either shrimp or crawfish, not sure which, and said it was very spicy hot...yum! Louise got a bread bowl with a crawfish, spinach (I think that's what the green was) sauce. It looked rather awful, but she took one taste, her eyes rolled back in ecstasy, and she said, "Mmmmmmmm". It must have been pretty good, because it seemed as though everybody in the park was carrying one and wearing the same smile. We went to the crawfish tent and had some of the most delicious crawfish...oh migosh, talk about GOOOOD! Even the salt potatoes were very good. There were even a few jalapeno peppers scattered amongst the crawfish, like little gems.

Sam, "Mmmmmm".

We shared a table with a couple, who posed for us. I'm hoping this lady liked the crawfish...lol...actually, I didn't notice her expression til I got home and opened the photo shop. I was more interested in the crawfish table at which we were sitting. Now how cool is that? An hole in the center to throw the crawfish shells. Talk about Cajun ingenuity! I wonder what we'd use these tables for up north. I coulda stuffed one of the kids in there when they were misbehaving at the table:-D

After we ate, we wandered around looking at the craft booths, etc. and spent an enjoyable time visiting, while sitting in the grass under a tree, trying to soak up some shade, then headed for a ride down along Bayou Tesche. We hadn't gotten far when my phone rang. It was Cousin Larry. Oh-oh. (how did he know??) I call Cappy's cousin Larry, "the Hub", because he goes to all kinds of festivals, he's got his finger on the pulse of the whole family, he's the 'go to guy'...he's almost omnipresent this guy...eyes everywhere. He asked, "Where yat??" in a way that suggested he somehow knew. I confessed. "Uh, we are or were at the Crawfish Festival". He said, "Uh-HUH!! and you come all the way over here and not gonna call?" Rats. Busted. Ok, I'm publically apologizing to Cousin Larry, Aunt Gussie, and the rest of the family. I knew I couldn't get away with it, and it won't happen again. I DO miss yall, and I love you. You guys will really like Sam and Louise...they are great, fun people.

Another thing I learned about them is that they like to wander around the back roads like I do. What they gave me today, besides wonderful company, great memories, and a fun day, was...TWO new shortcuts!! I now have a shortcut, when leaving town in a hurry in case of a hurricane, and another shortcut coming back from out 'west' in south central Louisiana. Yessiree, my kinda people; and on top of everything else when Sam got dropped off at home, he handed me three ziplock bags of (drooling here) the best homemade smoked sausage I've ever eaten. (he makes this stuff himself!)Three bags full...I'm in trouble now :-) Thanks, Sam and Louise!