Year 2, Day 364: Plantation, Church, and Pizza

Today Gary took 5 grandchildren out for doughnuts and breakfast, in that order. And no, it wasn't Abishai that stayed home, it was Everly.  There's no need to take someone with sensitivities out and have them watch others eat what they can't eat.  So, Shauna made her a special toast with nutella and cooked apples on it.  Yum!  Abishai ate his whole doughnut plus two sausage patties.  Benaiah also ate a doughnut and breakfast sandwhich and survived.  Hopefully he's on the mend.  He slept a ton yesterday or just sat in Aaron's lazy boy watching YouTube videos all day.  He's much more conversant today.  When the kids got back, us women made sure everything was in order and then we took Everly and Keturah to local southern plantation on the west side of New Orleans.  I totally had the map of New Orleans wrong in my head.  I thought that it was on the northside of Lake Ponchatran, but it's on the southside and to the west of Chalmette, where Aaron and Shauna lives.  So, there's basically one highway that goes through the city east/west and maybe a couple that spin off to the south.  So, you have to take that one highway to get to places quickly, or go through all the city streets.  But it's also confusing because there's a ton of all kinds of different waterways and bodies of water.  New Orleans and it's surrounding towns are below sea level and when the levies broke, a lot of the poorer areas were flooded during hurricane Katrina.  It's also a lot smaller population wise than I thought.  It's about 3 times the size of Manchester, NH and about 1/3 the size of Indianapolis, proper.  They permanently lost a good part of their population that didn't come back to rebuild after Katrina.  I think they were upwards at 450,000 and they are just now recovered to 375,000 12 years later (I found these stats on the census charts).  Anyway, I still don't know the area, but I can at least tell you that yes, it's swampy, yes, it's an old, poorer city and no, I still wouldn't want to live here.

I learned a ton about the general area of New Orleans, as well as the specifics of The Destrehan Plantation on this incredible tour.  We had one of the best tour guides I have ever experienced!  She was excited and knowledgable beyond just memorizing a script.  She was proud of showing off the plantation.  It was wonderful!  She even tried to memorize all our names! And asked the girls some questions and just generally interacted with everyone.  The girls had a scavenger hunt to do while we took the tour, so that kept them engaged, and hopefully listening.  Beverly, our tour guide, did focus on what it meant to be enslaved like how hot it would be to work in the cookhouse or how the enslaved lived in their slave quarters.  I found out that Louisana plantations are different than other plantations because the laws were based on French civil law.  That meant that the plantations were not passed down to the next generation automatically.  The children of the deceased had to buy back the plantation and it's contents, including slaves, if they wanted to keep it in the family.  And of course, the parish system is unique to Louisiana.  A parish is like a county in another state.  There was even a very special room that has a keypad lock on it that houses an ORIGINAL document of Thomas Jefferson that created a council to make Louisiana a state.  Lots of politics in creating a state and it took 5 years to get it done.  Did you know that the founding fathers argued even more than our current legislators do?  Oh yes, politics don't change.  And there were refugees from Haiti back then, as there are refugees now.  And executive orders back then that were controversial, like the Louisiana Purchase, and oh the politics in that purchase from Napolean!  Ah, history!  I love it!  Hopefully my children will appreciate it someday that we've taken them to all kinds of places like this where we can see history and touch history.  In fact, Beverly let us touch a huge cypress beam and made just that comment, that we were touching the same thing that the builders touched over 250 years ago.  And she and I were just as excited about a 60 year old visitor that visited in the last year that was a direct descendant of Mr. Destrehan (or another owner of the plantation).  He lives in Europe because his great great.....grandmother moved there in the 1800's.  He traced his roots back to this plantation, just like my grandparents had traced their roots to Europe (the first Howell came to America in the early 1600's with the first settlers).  So stinking cool!!!  I bet it was so exciting for the plantation to find a living relative by accident!  And there was so much more we learned.  I wish I could remember everything from tours like this, but I guess each bit of information builds on itself.  That's why it's important for kids to memorize key events in history so when they come across things in their reading or on a field trip (and other reasons), they can "hang" that piece of information in their internal timeline.  It's so awesome!

And did I mention it was 65 degrees today and sunny?!  Yes, is this winter, or is this June on PEI?  Hm,....I was glad I didn't freeze when we were at the plantatation, which yes, was on the Mississippi!  We climbed a levy that was built maybe 100 years ago, but I was slightly disappointed that there was still land and a tree line in order to get to the Mississippi.  I have not crossed the Mississippi except for on the cruise boat in the delta.  Yes, it's a dirty river, but it was THE highway for material goods for 200 years! And still does that job!  I think I'll put "take a ride on a riverboat on the Missis" on my bucket list I created yesterday with places like Israel, Rome, UK, Colorado, Alaska, etc.

We got home and then Everly was off to a rehearsal with her Sunday School class because they are leading church tonight.  Aaron and Shauna do church on Saturday night and small group on Sunday night.  Then we'll come home and eat take out pizza, including a gluten free pizza for Everly and I!  Yum! Church was ok.  It was "family night" so Everly's "middle school" girls' small group lead it with a few songs, a video about creation singing God's praises, and a time where we all drew pictures of God's creation singing praises.  Aaron shared some announcements as well.  It was short and sweet.  Benaiah got to see the old playground from Indian Creek and explain what his friends and he did when parents weren't looking.  Otherwise, the rest of the day was spent playing cards or video games.  And I'm now exhausted and I'm not sure why. Our activites aren't that physically demanding.  Hm,....but we are active, so that might be why.  I'm loading up and checking pictures tonight so I can clear my phone and journal them all tomorrow.  One last full day here with Aaron and Shauna and Evelry and Nora.  We will be staying up until midnight and hopefully the rain will hold off so we can see everyone else shoot off fireworks.  We've been hearing the booms all day today.  It's a spectacular sight to see!

Cell phone pics first, so just a bit out of order:

Everly has joined the gluten free club with her Aunt Melinda.  So Shauna made her a special "doughnut" made up off gluten free toast, nutella, and apples that had been softened in some water on the stove.  I call that a win!

Another day, another look at the New Orleans skyline!  It looks like most 150K populated downtown, but kind of sticks out because it's way down here at the base of the Mississippi and is surrounded by those swamps and things.

The Destrehan Plantation!  Well worth the $20 admission fee if you get the right tour guide.  You tour the main building with the tour guide and then you can explore the rest of the grounds on your own.  Some buildings were on the property, some had to be rebuilt after a fire, and most had to be brought up closer to the house so that the property was walkable by tourists.  For example, the homes of the enslaved were a mile or two down the road in/near the cypress swamps.  The plantation had nearly 400 (?) acres at some point and was about 5-8 miles wide/deep.  Now it's much, much smaller, maybe 20 acres? There's not much around it though.  It switched hands a few times, some were Spanish, some were French, and then I believe it was used by the Union forces for offices when they occupied New Orleans during the Civil War.  I'll point it out below, but the property didn't have any history of flooding, despite not having a levy in front of it (they were built I think in the early 1900's?) Properties north and south of the plantation did flood, but for some reason, this one did not.

I'm so glad that a) they had this scavenger hunt for the kids and b) I had two other adults with me so I didn't have to field the "I'm bored" question a million times.  I'm glad we didn't plan on any other big field trips during this vacation because almost everyone was sick at some point during the week.  I was surprised that Keturah wanted to come on this field trip because she and Justin just didn't want to do anymore.  But I think since Everly wanted to come, and Keturah wanted to spend more time with her, Keturah came, too.  I played the part of "homeschool mom" of course, offering some other tidbits after the tour guide did her job.

Very, very special room on this plantation.  It's protected by a keypad lock and was one of the downstairs, possibly storage, rooms.  It houses the most precious of old documents and artifacts that needed to be climate controlled and not in a bunch of light.  The document was an original letter Jefferson and his secretary of state sent to Lousiana to commission the process of making a state government.  It also had several original paintings from 200 years ago.  Very, very cool since we won't be going to Washington, D.C. to see those kind of original documents yet.

My little boy has grown up!  Benaiah was very nostalgic about the Indian Creek preschool playground.  It was placed in the preschool wing at our church when Benaiah was literally just about to be born.  So, it was the first indoor playground he and the middle kids had known.  We played on it not only on Sundays but almost every week for MOPS meetings or leadership meetings and lots of times in between.  And now look at that big guy!

They all did this!  But because Abishai is older and bolder, he learned quicker than the others how to swing all by himself.  And climb the green grid, which most kids avoid at first because of the big holes.

It's hard to imagine that the one on the right was as little as the guy in the middle.

Benaiah gave Justin directions on how he and his friends used to climb up the outside of the playground when the parents were supposedly not watching.  I think the parents were just ignoring them half of the time.

I knew I had pictures somewhere in Facebook land of the playground all the way back to when Keturah was born, so I started digging.  I came across this gem, and if you compare it to what Justin just did a few weeks ago in the soft sided cube box, that yes, he still likes to squish into small spaces.  And yes, it's Justin, not Abishai.  Same shirt though.  Justin was 3 1/2 in this picture.  He was also a tiny child.

I'm so sad they covered up the incredible mural that was in the playground area at Indian Creek that someone from the church painted.  But here's Justin climbing up the climbing wall.

Justin on his way down the slide, sporting another shirt that Abishai wears now.

"Little" Benaiah, on his way to being 7 years old.

Great times!

My babies 9 years ago!  When we did fit them across the backseat of a vehicle.  And I believe, that Keturah's carseat is only turned around for the picture.  I would have never driven a vehicle without her being rear facing in a pumpkin seat.  But it shows you again, that Justin and Abishai are very similar and still were in 3 point harnesses at this age.

Melinda with short hair.  This was Christmas 2008/2009 in Missouri I think.  Too much maintenance back then.  I don't have time to do my hair now.

The current playground pics in this post were taken right before church on Saturday night.  Everly's middle/high school girls' small group led the service.  We had singing, Bible reading, a video for sermonette, and more singing.  And we also had this element where the whole church took turns drawing on paper how God's creation sings His praises, which was theme of the night.  Their church is still very small, and I know it was a holiday weekend, so perhaps there's more people there than what was there that night, but I don't think we numbered more than 50 people.

Four themes or environments like dessert, oceans, outer space, and the forest. BTW, Benaiah used to fill out that shirt completely because at that age he was just a bit rounder than Justin.  It hangs off of Justin though.

I did like that we all got to contribute to this element of worship.  Fun!

Justin's poke'mon type characters in the dessert theme.

We had to beg Keturah to particiapte, but she did finally draw something.

Everly's friend reading Scripture and then she read some, too.

We kept Abishai busy by feeding him his snacks.  He didn't make a big mess, nor did he wonder off, so mission accomplished!

And of course, the fiddle cube, aka the rubix cube.  It annoyed the grandparents because he did it during the video, and to be honest, I would rather he not do it either, but I choose not to make it a fight.  The sermonette video was a speaker playing different sounds at different speeds from what astronomers have picked up from the heavens, or whales "singing" and what not.  When you put them together, they do sound like a song, and if manipulated the right way, it turned into a praise and worship song we know.  Pretty powerful!

Our completed drawings and the girls that put on the service.

He scaled it like it was nothing and he wasn't afraid at all.  #toddlers

#teens with mustahes and sideburns, and pimples and dandruff.  He says he wants to walk into school like that when he goes back.  It will have had another week to grow.  #growingup

Hey, look!  I can put a cup on my head! As per usual, Abishai woke up right before it was time for church, so he had to ate supper afterwards.  We ordered in pizza, including a gluten free one!

 Now, for the rest of the story using the better camera with the not full memory card:

It rained most days, so we didn't get a whole lot of bouncing time in.  But at least Abishai wasn't afraid to go on the trampoline!  He has briefly been on a big one at a neighbor's house, but he hasn't had any significant time one one since we left ours in Canada.  I miss our trampoline.  Maybe this year we can get one for the kids as their combined birthday gift.  We definitely have the space for it!

He wasn't even afraid when Daddy gentle jumped and he fell over!

So full of energy!

Abandoned amusement park.  Nobody wants to buy the land because it's built, again, on the swamp.  It's been sitting idle since Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago and now everything is rusted and it needs to be razed.  Aaron said a movie or two has been shot there though in recent years.  We pass by it on our way to and from Chalmette from the eastside and to get to downtown New Orleans quickly, you go east and up and around to the main highway that's between the city and the lake.

The Folgers coffee bean plant!

New Orleans again.

Spanish moss for the tree hugger aka Jared!

Our lovely tour guide, who reminds me of a gypsy with her turban, in front of the rain barrel.  They have two rain barrels like this that used to collect fresh rain water.  She said the Mississippi was dirty back then as it is dirty now.  But they secretly added an elevator in this rain barrel for tourists when they acquired the property.  Clever!

The main floor of the house housed the storage rooms like this pantry.  It was originally a dirt floor and if you dug into it, it would be around 65 degrees (?), great for holding barrels of milk and cheese.  This is original brickwork, obviously restored.  We saw a short video that included pictures of the state the property was in during the 60's and 70's and it was very, very sad because it had been vandalized many, many times.  But I can't believe how much original IS still left!

Original cypress beams and flooring!  It proves to us that in the older days, 200 years ago, they built things to last.  There's one beam that goes under the whole part of the original house and I bet it's like 40 feet long!

Originally the dining room was upstairs, but once the family knew it wasn't going to flood, they brought it downstairs because it was cooler and closer to the warming kitchen.  Remember, food was prepared in the outdoor kitchen in another building and then brought to the house, to the warming kitchen, which is also where the kids ate because the noon day meal could last hours.  She also explained why the table and chairs were shorter in height.  The average Creole guy was 5 ft, 4 in!  Creole just means "born here."  So maybe parents were born in Spain, but the person was born in Louisiana.

Model of the original house before the wings were added and the upstairs back porch was enclosed to make a formal entryway.  It was designed by a freed black man and it took 5 people about 3 years to build and there are no nails used in the original building.  It was also tongue and groove and wooden pegs.  Built to last.  Also, it was built partly in the Greco-Roman style, during the remodel of the late 1800's.

I LOVED this! You could see what they stuffed the walls with for insulation!  Mississippi mud, crushed oyster shells, animal hair, and I can't remember what else.  They purposefully did not restore this room fully so we could appreciate the original handiwork of the men.

Keturah demonstrating how they built the house.

Literally touching a piece of history.

One of the original pieces of furniture that wasn't stolen was this all one piece marble bathtub that used to be downstairs.  It weighs 1,500 lbs.  The original property owner enjoyed baths, whereas most people during that time didn't bathe often.  The man of the house bathed first, then the teenage sons, then the wife, then the younger children.  In the same bath water.  Ew!

This is a cane/walker made for someone from this time period because it's for someone short in stature!

Looking to the street from the second floor of the house at the beautiful trees that obviously survived the hurricanes.

Money shot!  (I'm not showing you all the pictures I took but I did take more of the bedrooms and sitting rooms which where pretty typical of other period homes.  Most pieces were not original to the house.)

Billards table.  No pockets for the balls, so you can't play pool on it.  A local college bought it at an estate and then discovered the no pocket thing and made a deal with the plantation to gift it.  When the teenage boys started puberty, they exiled them to the outer rooms of the house because of their stench, or so the story goes.  So this is one of the original "man caves."

More trees!

The back of the house!

The back of the house, which was really the front because the carriages would come up and around the house to drop off their passengers to enter the house through these doors.

A volunteer explaining the differences of headdresses of the colored folk.  The one on the right was typically worn by those working in the kitchen and in the house.  The one on the far right was for field workers.  In Louisiana, it was required BY LAW to wear the headdresses.  And the material came from their own worn out clothing.

The plantation grew indigo as a cash crop, and then switched over to sugar cane and cotton later on.

This is where the boiled down the sugar cane.  Harvestime for them was between October and December, so they kept Christmas a smaller affair because they were tired from all the harvesting.

We climbed the levy on the other side of the street and I was disappointed to find a big line of trees in my way of seeing the Mississippi.  So we will go tomorrow to a place in downtown where we can see the river.  I've only seen the river when we passed over it to go to Missouri and when we were on the cruised and cruised down it out to the gulf.  New Orleans sits a bit more north than the actual meet up between the river and the ocean.  That's why it's called a delta.  Lots of fingerlings/fingers/fingerings or whatever they are called.

A nightly ritual of playing ball before bedtime.

Here's the last big of cell phone pics for the evening:

Abishai has been initiated into the donut club aka I didn't have to go with him and Grandpa bravely took 5 kids by himself to the doughnut shop!

They also got some breakfast food and Abishai ate his whole doughnut, plus sausage and eggs.  I love how Grandpa says "Donuts are appetizers!"

Some fun stats I found.  Not only is the African American population much, much bigger here, but New Orleans lost 100,000 people initially after the hurricane and has only regained about 30,000 back.

Much different stats for Indianapolis, and I'm sure New Hampshire would be similar.  New Orleans, the city, is a little bit bigger than Manchester, NH.  But if you consider all the suburbs like Chalmette in the population counts, New Orleans is about 40% the size of Indianapolis, the city (not the suburbs).