St David, Arizona

One of our most special stops along the way was in St David, Arizona, which is about 40 miles east of Tucson. Not only were we able to view the beauty of the area, I was able to reunite with my cousin, Cindy, whom I hadn't seen for 30 years! We also had the privilege of meeting her wonderful husband, Jim, who we had never met in person! Although 30 years had passed, the closeness Cindy and I felt as children, came back instantly! We vowed not to allow another long time pass before we see each other again!!!!!!

Jim and Cindy have a beautiful home on 4 acres of desert property. Desert gardens abound on their acreage, due to Cindy's green thumb and knowledge of flowers and plants. We were able to bring our 5th wheel onto the property and hook-up to water and electricity, and we had the most magnificent view from our back window of desert plants and mountains! It was the perfect campground! We can understand why Jim and Cindy love their home and the peacefulness of the desert!

The 4 days we spent with Jim and Cindy went by fast! Lots of great sightseeing and activities. The first day was long, but great. We started out at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, which was mostly outdoors, and showcased the animals and plants of the desert in their natural setting. The museum had mountain lions, javelinas (wild boar), a hummingbird house where the hummingbirds flew around you, and 2 miles of desert trails where flowers, cactus, and other plants could be viewed. Finally, we saw our first Saguaro cactus, which is the tall cactus with the arms coming out. They only grow in certain parts of Arizona.

Our evening adventure was spectacular! Cindy had surprised Jim for his birthday with tickets to the "Kitt Peak National Observatory", which is operated by an Association of Universities, (including Michigan State) and the National Science Foundation. They perform research in astronomy. We were lucky to be included! The observatory has 26 telescopes, which are the most telescopes in one observatory in the world. We had to drive 12 miles up a mountain and were at an elevation of 7000 ft! To our surprise, we were told that when we left, we wouldn't be able to use our headlights for the first mile down the mountain, and that we would have to drive down caravan style, with only our parking lights on, so the white light would not disturb the ongoing data from the working telescopes! It was 11:30p when we left, so you can imagine how dark it was up there with no city lights showing!!!!! What we saw while up there was unimaginable! We started with a magnificent sunset over the moutains, lessons viewing stars and planets with the naked eye, binoculars, and using a star chart, and then took turns looking at objects through one of the large telescopes. Among the objects we observed were the moon and it's craters, a star cluster made up of millions of stars, a dying star (Circular Nebulla), two galaxies merging together, and Saturn with it's rings. It was thrilling! Oh, by the way, we did survive the drive down the mountain! I let Art drive and closed my eyes!

Two other memorable adventures while in Arizona, were trips to Tombstone and the Kartchner Caverns. Tombstone was a neat town with stage coaches traveling the main streets and volunteers dressed in the costumes of the old West. We had a drink at "Big Nose Kate's Saloon", and as you can see from the picture, Cindy and I had a good time!!!! The Kartchner Caverns are one of only 2 "live" caves in the world. They were discovered about 34 years ago, and the park is trying to preserve the growth of the caves by maintaining the internal humidity, unlike other caves that are just open to the outside atmosphere. Thus, they are considered "live". Only small groups are allowed to visit with a guide, and there are special refrigerator-type doors that are open and closed as groups pass to help preserve the humidity in the caves. They were a beautiful sight!

While visiting Cindy and Jim, we enjoyed meeting Cindy's stepmother, Ann, who is a wonderful women. She was married to my Uncle Norm for almost 40 years until he unfortunately passed away last year. He was an interesting man, and we had fun catching up on their lives and reminiscing with her!

Jim and Cindy showed us a nest with 4 eggs that was built in one of their flowering cacti. Before we left, the eggs hatched, and while looking at them, Art made what he thought was a bird noise. It must have been close, because the baby birds immediately sat up with their mouths open! Didn't know Art had such great talent! We got a great picture out of it.

When it was time to move on, we hated to leave, but hope we will be able to return. Thanks, Jim and Cindy for such a memorable time!!!!!!!

Galveston, Texas to Las Cruces, New Mexico

Our first stop in Texas was at League City, about 25 miles from either downtown Houston or Galveston Island. With limited time, we decided to visit Galveston and were glad we did. Galveston has lots of history, including Jean Lafitte and his pirates living there in 1817 for a few years, and the worst natural disaster in US history, which was a hurricane in 1900 that took 6000 lives! Most recently, Galveston was damaged by Hurricane Ike and is still recovering from that. We took a pink train tour of the island, pulled by a jeep, and saw miles of beautiful beaches along Seawall Road, and many Victorian buildings and homes that have been restored, and are on the National Historic Register.

After Galveston, we were on to Texas Hill Country! We really enjoyed that area last year and decided to explore some towns we hadn't seen. New Braunfels, a city started by German immigrants, was our first destination. The town itself was like a trip to the past, with lots of historic buildings and antique shops. We visited the oldest bakery in Texas, and of course, had to sample some pastries! A town close by, that we enjoyed, was Gruene, pronounced "green". It is a small town with cute shops, restaurants, and B&B's, but most known for Gruene Hall, which is the oldest continually running dance hall in Texas. Many country stars have gotten their start there, including George Strait, and John Travolta did a famous dance scene there in his movie, "Michael". We didn't dance or sing, which was probably a good thing!!!!

We returned to Fredericksburg, one of our favorite places from last year. This time we were able to visit the "National Museum of the Pacific War". The museum was built in this town because Admiral Charles Nimitz was born there, and was the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. The museum was fantastic, and it took us 2 days to tour it. There was also an annex named after George Bush, who was a pilot during WWII, shot down, and the only survivor from his plane. In one area they had war equipment and a "Quonset Hut", a round metal building with 2 flat ends. Although this doesn't sound exciting, I spent the first 5 years of my life living in a Quonset hut, because there wasn't enough housing in Detroit after the war. It was fun to go inside! By the way, they got their name because they were manufactured in Quonset, Rhode Island, for use in the war. Didn't know that!

Las Cruces, New Mexico was our next stop after Texas. Old Mesilla is an historic area within Las Cruces, which was settled in 1848. There is a plaza in the middle of Mesilla with the beautiful Minor Basilica of San Albino. Around the plaza are also historic buildings, housing shops and restaurants. We ate at "La Posta", in an original building of the area, which has been a restaurant since 1939. They had a room-size cage with talking parrots and toucans in the lobby. While in Las Cruces, we visited the "White Sands National Monument". This is actually a national park, made up of 275 acres of white sand dunes. The white color is caused by gypsum, which is very rare, and there are only 4 places in the world that have this white color sand.

Louisiana-Part II

Although we were too late for the actual Mardi Gras celebration, we learned a lot about it by touring "Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World". This company is where 80% of all the Mardi Gras floats are made and stored. We always thought there was one big parade, but we were told that last year there were actually 54 parades, each hosted and paid for by a "krewe" which is a social club. The krewe members pay for everything, including the beads and trinkets they throw from the floats. The larger and more famous of the clubs have their parades on the 3 days just before Fat Tuesday. Each krewe decides on their theme for the next year and the floats revolve around the theme. We were able to tour the factory and see the artists at work, as well as actual floats. Since the krewe members can be on the floats for 8-10 hours, an outhouse is usually hidden among the decorations!!!!!! Hopefully, we'll be there for the actual celebration someday.

Many plantations were built along the Mississippi in southern Louisiana, where there was fertile farmland for sugar cane. We were able to visit 2 of the most famous plantations that have been restored, Oak Alley and Laura. Oak Alley was spectacular and looked like it was from a scene in "Gone With the Wind". There were 28 huge Live Oak trees that were at least 300 years old providing a canopy to the front door of the mansion. We were able to tour the mansion and the gardens and had lunch at the bed and breakfast on the grounds. Laura, was a Creole plantation. Creole means the first generation born in this country. Laura was the 4th generation of a family (usually the women) that ran this plantation. She wrote her memoirs that verified the history of her ancestors. On the grounds of Laura, there were actual slave cabins, which had been occupied well into the 20th century by migrant workers.

Our last stop in Louisiana was a town called New Iberia. This town was settled by the Spanish from the Iberian peninsula. The main town is on the Bayou Teche. We finally learned a bayou is a slow moving body of water, usually with tributaries, that have marshlands. In New Iberia is Avery Island, which is the home of the Tabasco pepper sauce factory. The pepper sauce was invented by Edmund McIlhenny 150 years ago on the island, and most of the peppers are still grown there and the Tabasco products produced there, under the supervision of Edmund's direct decendants. After the factory tour, we went to the Tabasco country store. You would be surprised how many different items have "Tabasco" written on them! Besides Tabasco, the other notable feature of Avery Island is the Jungle Gardens and Bird City. Edmund's son, E.A., was a naturalist and developed the 200 acre grounds. There are 4 miles of drivable roads along a bayou where we were able to observe flowers, greenery, and wildlife, including alligators. It was a beautiful area. In the late 19th century, E.A., was instrumental in saving the Snowy Egrets from extinction. 20,000 Snowy Egrets nest on specially built platforms each year.

Lousiana-Part I

After leaving Florida, we made our way to Louisiana. About 40 miles outside of New Orleans, we ran into torrential rains while Art was driving the 5th wheel. It was the worst weather we have encountered yet, while driving, and Art had all he could do to see out the front window! There really wasn't any place to safely pull over, so it was scary!

Our first weekend in New Orleans coincided with the annual Jazz and Heritage Festival. It took place at the Fairgrounds which is also the infield of a racetrack. It was a huge area with many stages and venues, including blues, jazz, Cajun, gospel, and popular music, which we tried to sample. Some of the stages were in tents, but the main attractions were outside in the elements. The first day was after the rain, and we thought we were at "Woodstock" because of all the mud! Apparently this is normal, because many of the ladies were wearing fashionable rubber rain boots. Although it was very crowded and you couldn't always get close to the stages, they had huge "high-def" screens where you could see the performances. The big headliners we saw were Simon and Garfunkel and Anita Baker.

After the weekend, we made it to the city. We had always wanted to visit New Orleans, and were excited to finally be there! Our first tour was an overall city tour, which included the 9th Ward and St Bernard's Parish, which were devastated by Katrina. In the 9th Ward, there were still many abandoned homes and businesses that are uninhabitable. Our guide said only 15% of the population have returned there. The government is unable to get rid of all the abandoned buildings, due to the cost, which would be about $16,000 per building. We were able to see an area where Brad Pitt is building new elevated "green" houses that will be selling for about $150,000. He has contributed about 8 million dollars of his own money for this project. Part of the tour also included a visit to one of the famous above ground cemeteries that were developed in Louisiana, due to repeated flooding.

We loved the French Quarter! There is so much history there, and the architecture is so beautiful. Jackson Square is at the heart of the Quarter, across from the Mississippi River, and surrounded by St Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, where the Louisiana Purchase was signed, and the oldest apartment buildings in America which are still occupied with shops below. Artists and street performers gather there. We were able to sample "beignets", deep fried fritters with powdered sugar, (not good for diets), at the famous "Cafe du Monde". One evening we had dinner at the "Court of Two Sisters" which opened in 1832, and ate outside in a beautiful courtyard with a fountain. The last evening we walked up and down the infamous "Bourbon Street" and sat on a balcony "people watching". Quite entertaining!