Home for Easter

Although I'm living in paradise, it's been 3 months since I was last home and I really miss my family, friends and just being home.

I caught a plane out of Honolulu Thursday night and arrived dead tired in Baton Rouge late Friday morning. I cashed in a free rental car and headed north with Darlene for a whirlwind trip to see all of the North Louisiana bunch.

We met at my brother Ricky's new home. My Mama arrived shortly after Darren and I arrived then soon Darlene came with Donna and the two boys. 3 of Rick's girls were there as well and we cooked fish outside around the pool. It sure was great seeing everyone in one place because I was dog tired from flying and driving.

After spending the night with Mama, I met Darlene, Donna and the boys at the Biedenhorn home on Riverside Drive in Monroe to take a few Easter shots of Devin and Hagan.

By noon, we're on the road again toward Baton Rouge to meet at Jared and Jaime's house for an Easter dinner there with Laurie, Jo Ann and Lindsey. It was nice and relaxing there, no pressure and everyone was really laid back. I'd now been home for 36 hours and had not yet been to my own home so around 8:00 PM, we blast off home.

Sunday, I'm still dragging around half asleep and very tired from the jet lag, so after a noon lunch at Robert and Janet's with Lou and Blaise and Susan and her kids, Kate and Nick, we slipped back to the house for a couple of hours worth of nap time.

We had tentatively agreed to drive up to St Francisville to meet our friends, Louis and Jan so we managed to drag ourselves out off the sofa and recliner and drive up there for coffee and pie.

Monday morning, I rode Boudreau back up to meet Louis in St Francisville. After gassing up, wet crossed the Mississippi on the ferry and headed up through New Roads along the river on old Highway 15. It was pretty desolate but it was good to get the cobwebs out of my brain by putting some miles on those Harleys. Overall, it was a 200 mile round trip from and to St Francisville and would be 300 for me when I eventually arrived at Dutchtown.

Crossing the river from Vidalia to Natchez, we stopped off at Fat Mama's Tamales for some Gringo Pie before heading east over to Roxie, MS to head south back into Woodville, MS. That's just north of Louis' home. I left him back there and headed back toward Baton Rouge for a short visit again with Jared, Jaime and Henry. It was a short visit but I had to pack up for my flight out back to Honolulu at 9 AM the next morning.

View Larger Map
It was a great visit but tiresome. To add to it all, it took me a couple more days to recover from the flight back here in Hawaii.

Week in review

(click on image to enlarge)

It's been a slow week, which really is good. However, that's like Louisiana weather; if you don't like how it is, wait a day and you'll get an entire different version.

For the past three months, I've made the same 15 mile trek to work 5 days a week and sometimes you don't even remember what you saw barring anything different. Every day, I pass the same watercress farm on Kamehameha in Pearl Ridge and every day, I see workers out harvesting watercress and think, that would be an awesome shot if those workers were somehow out in the middle of the field/pond. Well, it finally happened. The only thing better would be a little more light. Anyway, I parked my car up a way and walked back down the road so I could take advantage of the best angle for the shot.

Incidentally, you'll see a band of aluminum wrapped around most of the palm trees. I've been told that's to keep rats from climbing up and nesting among the coconuts.

This weekend, I just didn't have much of a plan so early, I took a long walk checking out things going on at 6 AM. ( I'll make a post on the "Night Shift" at a more appropriate time). One thing about early mornings is there is virtually no one out under 40 years old unless they were going home, arriving for work or sleeping on the beach.

I watched for a while as Japanese tourists offered up prayers at an alter next to the Waikiki Beach police office while surfboard kiosk owners unlocked their inventory of rental equipment. I must confess, at first I thought they were taking pictures of something with little digital cameras, the way they had their hands out. Perhaps it's time for that optometric appointment I've been putting off.

Later, I walked the Ala Wai canal as Hawaiian canoe racers lined up for a sprint down to the McCully Street bridge.

Enough of this nonsense, it was time to scrounge up a breakfast somewhere.

(click here for a link to some Oahu trivia)