So, I'm going to show you pictures of last Sunday, our last day in Louisiana.
We started out going to Mass at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Lafayette.
This was our first experience going to an old cathedral.
Sonshine spent the first half of Mass just looking around at the gorgeous archetecture and the paintings of the Apostles on the ceiling. Unfortunately my regular camera was broken and the iPhone camera doesn't have a flash or good zoom, so most of my interior pictures didn't come out.
Just trust me that it was gorgeous! The kids did ~okay~....after Mass was over the man sitting behind us winked at me and said "you made it"
Sigh. I'm not sure all the SUPPORT I'm getting for taking the kids to Mass is making me feel better or worse!
We parked right next to this beauty....
This is a building adjacent to the cathedral. Fr Philip said it was probably the original rectory.
I just love the archetecture......
This "grotto", or Mary's Garden was just to the right of that above picture. Sooo pretty!!
This is the main entrance to the graveyard. That's the cathedral on the right. The fountain in front of the gates didn't show very well...neither did the sign over the gate, which is in either French or Latin, I don't remember now and can't see it well enough to tell.
Here's the side entrance...in English. Just like my friend Linda, I love me an OLD cemetery!
Because I had 2 more cemetery stops on the agenda for the day I didn't haul the kids out of the car to walk around this one. But I did circle it thrice in order to grab a couple shots of some very old graves. In this part of the country you can't dig 6 feet down without hitting water. So most everyone is buried above ground to some extent, depending on where you are.
This leaning brick crypt is obviously ancient!
After a 40 min car clean out to get our toy bags restocked for the trip home we headed back to the cousin's house for left over hot dogs and burgers and final goodbyes. Then we started our LOOONG journey home.
I'd planned on visiting both sets of grandparents' graves on our way home. One set is in Church Point, the other in Shreveport.
Church Point is a small town about 15 miles from any major freeway and there are no direct routes from Lafayette to town. I found out that while I am a good driver, a good kid-tamer, and a good navigator....and am NO GOOD at doing them all at the same time.
I took so many wrong or missed turns that if I hadn't had the GPS on my iPhone with me I might STILL be in Louisiana!
We did finally make it to the correct graveyard.
The little church my Grandparents attended for many years. Through that gate to the right is the graveyard.
Where we found my Grandparents.
And my Aunt.
From Church Point we headed towards I-49 along an only slightly less meandering road with only slightly fewer wrong/missed turns to Sunset, La. Where my empty cooler had an appointment at Janise's Grocery. (That's pronounced with a zsha-neess')
There I bought 3lbs of Janise's fresh homemade sausage and 12.5lbs of Richard's (pronounced Reh-shard') smoked sausage!
From there we headed north to Shreveport, but the sun was low in the sky (ie, in my eyes) all the way there and was setting as we pulled into Shreveport so I made the executive decision to not visit the other graveyard this trip. I'll go again another time WITHOUT hooligans and put flowers on my other grandparent's graves.
We crossed the Texas border about 8:30pm and finally made it home at midnight.
almost 940 miles later.
5 comments:
I would LOVE to get the chance to check out some of the cemeteries down in Louisiana. Having the graves mostly above ground adds a totally different feel and look to the cemeteries than what we get here in the nawth and I can only imagine how cool it would be to walk amongst the stones there.
That cathedral was quite the beauty; I'd have been looking around during the entire Mass myself so I'm right there with the hooligans on this one!
Glad you didn't take the wrong turn in Shreveport and end up wandering around the bayous for days on ends fighting off gators and skeeters the size of Volvos!
Beautiful part of the country to visit.
What? No boudin? It's my favorite sausage and I'm glad you reminded me 'cause I have a recipe, and, trust me, the only way to get boudin in Idaho is to make your own. I want to try my hand at Italian sausage, too.
Glad you're home safe and sound...
Wow, what a trip! I love old graveyards, too. I haven't been through Louisiana much, but what I did remember from those trips were the crypts and above-ground graves.
when they say "you made it" through mass--they were right there to help you if you needed it! A smile, an extra pen and paper, a wink--all help. And if you have REAL problems--someone helps!
The pictures are very nice. I remember when we were in Baton Rouge and New Orleans and the cemeteries there. It must have been wonderful to be in the the beautiful churches and their "holy spaces."
Thank you for sharing! It was so great!!! Cathy
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