My family lived on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana when I was in the 6th grade. Before moving to Grand Isle, we lived in Houma for a while and I was the only blond, blue eyed person in the school and people stared. That was a little scary for me because I had not learned to come out of the woodwork where I normally stayed. I remember surf fishing for flounder and evacuating for two or more hurricanes during the time we were there, and highways in front of us covered with crawdads! but I didn't recall the beauty of the state.
In those days I didn't eat seafood so missed out on one of the benefits of the coast. There was a wonderful seafood restaurant on the island where we lived (Grand Isle) and the rest of the family loved to feast on all good things caught locally while I ate cheeseburgers and nothing but.
Jim and I traveled the width and almost the length of the state last week and we were amazed at how beautiful it is everywhere as well as the outstanding friendliness and warmth of the people. Hopefully I will be able to produce paintings out of these Louisiana treks eventually.
I do have three paintings in progress and hope to give an update on the one called "Passages" from the last blog as it has changed considerably. SJo
