Sunday 11 April 2010

We started off the day by going to WalMart.... always something we need it seems.

We were planning to visit Acadian Cultural Center, but we wound up at Vermilion Ville a Cajun/Creole Heritage & Folklore Park. It is a village depicting life in the area between the years of 1765 and 1890.

We met a man, Cliff Mire, who is a carver. He was carving ducks and he was carving them from scrap pieces of wood that he had glued together and then cut a block from to carve the ducks. The patterns were beautiful! He explained to us how different patterns in pecan wood are formed when the wood is cut (with bark left in tack) then left in the weather for at least a year. In this process spores develop in the wood and different patterns would form as the different spores set up their territory from each other. He carves many different things including puzzle boxes (boxes with a hidden compartment). We bought a carving of his at the gift shop "Ducks in Flight". It is two ducks in flight carved of cypress and mounted on cypress.

We also met a woman named Daphne J. Moore who was doing some hand sewing. She was patching an apron with some quilt squares. It was beautiful. She also makes corn husk dolls and baskets woven from pine straw. Daphne was great to talk with. I regret I walked away and didn't get a picture of her.

There was also a lady at the church and a man ran a ferry over a short distance of water. The people were friendly and a good time was had. Well worth the $8 each for the tour.

We ate the Sunday buffet at the restaurant there. About $11 each. The menu included pork chops. I'm not really sure how they were cooked... perhaps broiled or seared in a frying pan and then simmered in a sauce. They were good with just a little bit of a bite to them. There was also rice, navy beans, corn, green beans and dinner rolls... and a sausage and chicken gumbo that was seasoned to perfection. For dessert there was blackberry cobbler and bread pudding. That sure was good eats!

We then went to the music hall where Cajun music was being played. There were people dancing, but this decrepit couple decided to just watch. It was a lot of fun to listen to the music and watch the people dance.

We spent more than four hours at Vermilion Ville. Our feet and legs really felt it. Hopefully all the walking made up for all the food we ate.

I edited a few of the pictures I took this afternoon. There were a lot of quilts on display in the village and I took a few pictures of them. The hand-stitching was superb on them. I could never stitch that evenly. Quilts are such beautiful artwork and I love looking at them.

I also took a lot of pictures in the music hall... I will probably only upload a three or four of them :-))

Maybe tomorrow I will get the rest of the pictures edited and maybe there will be free wifi and I can get them uploaded.

We bought gas at a Shop Rite at $2.95 a gallon.

Time to do a bit of straightening and then rest for the trip tomorrow.

We walked at least 100 miles today :-))