Thanksgiving 2008

Our Thanksgiving week for 2008 was as busy as ever. The week started on Monday with an Arbor Day program organized by the chairperson of the Monticello Tree Board--Hope Bragg! Hope volunteered a few weeks ago to help Monticello achieve its Tree City USA status with the Arbor Day Foundation, and one of their requirements is to officially recognize the program with an official declaration by the mayor. This presentation was done for Monticello Elementary School, who worked on setting things up:

Hope led the students through a lively performance:

which was capped off by a visit from Smokey the Bear:

Here Hope is with the official decree signed by the mayor, along with a gentleman from the city's development council and an urban forester with the Arkansas Forestry Commission:

The tree planting (that is a small black gum that they are standing by) had to wait for a drier day--the heavy rain we got that morning put a damper on having this ceremony outside.

This ceremony was only one part of our busy Monday. That evening, Kenny received his Bobcat award in his Cub Scout pack, which they pin on upside down until he does a good deed to earn the right to wear it right-side-up:

Here's a picture of Kenny with his den (I asked them to be goofy for the image):

On Tuesday, Beth had her preschool's Thanksgiving "feast", in which the kids could bring in their favorite food to share with their classmates.
Beth brought popcorn chicken and regular popcorn (let's just say the meal was not a stellar example of the USDA food pyramid).

Hope's parents had arrived Tuesday evening for another visit. On Wednesday and Thursday, Rich and I took advantage of the nice weather to canoe additional stretches of the Saline River. Here is a picture I took of one of the many large trees we saw along the banks that had been largely undercut by the river, yet remained standing for years:

As long as the river continues to undercut this bank, this loblolly pine will eventually topple into the river. We continued to pick up petrified wood and the occasional potsherd on gravel bars that we would stop on.

On Thanksgiving, Hope prepared a large feast while we canoed and the kids played with their Nahma (Ann Pruden). We returned just before dinner, put away the canoe gear, and settled into a lovely dinner and a little football watching before turning in early. We needed a good night's sleep, because on Friday we drove to southern Louisiana for a brief trip. On the way to Lafayette, Louisiana, where we stayed the night, we stopped at a pecan stand to purchase pecan-based snacks. We also swung briefly into Mississippi to drive the stretch of the Natchez Trace between Port Hudson, MS, and Natchez, MS. It rained on us fairly heavily as we drove towards Lafayette following one of the Mississippi River levees. We also passed by the major flood control structure in Louisiana that keeps the Mississippi headed towards New Orleans. Pretty impressive (and expensive) piece of engineering! That evening, we dined at a nice Cajun restaurant called Prejean's in Lafayette that Hope's parents had run across a couple years ago.

The next morning, after unsuccessfully trying to find a place to pick our own satsuma oranges, we head to Louisiana's southwest coast to visit the Gulf of Mexico. After a couple hours of driving along the narrow highway that crosses this very flat part of Louisiana, we arrived at the small port town of Cameron. Here, we boarded a free car ferry, which took us across the river, a curious experience for Stephen:

As we crossed the channel, Rich and I spotted a dolphin jumping in the water. Our main goal was to get the kids to the beach to collect shells and let them wade in the ocean. The near-empty beaches were chock-full of shells, once you could find a place to park along the road. We quickly collected a large quantity of various shells in very good shape (along not very brightly colored).

I remember that when we were in our shell collecting phase as kids, I often dreamt of picking up all the shells I could carry from the beaches they accumulate on. Here, it was no problem. The cool, dreary day undoubtedly helped keep more people from the beach. This area had also been hard hit by Hurricane Ike just a couple of months ago, and I think Hurricane Rita struck it in 2005, so the local economy is still suffering badly, with few of the shrimp and other seafood fishermen up and running, and many homes and roads badly damaged or destroyed. The oil and gas industry seems to be fully functional, though, and many homes were being rebuilt (probably to be hammered again in a few years by another big storm). I think the buoys in the background of this picture had been driven ashore by the hurricane:

We then made the long drive back home, arriving after 9 p.m. Hope's parents left early this morning so they could get back to Michigan at a reasonable time. Before they left, we had Kenny open a few of his birthday presents--Kenny turned 7 today.

Hard to believe he's 7 already! We'll probably have a party for him and his little friends later this week. As busy as this week was, I think we're packed solid until Christmas, so I better get rolling!!