Family and Community …… and New Discoveries

Sunday, Oct 14th- Along with reconnecting to our home, we have been spending time reconnecting with family and our community. We have made a resolution to get together with my mom and sisters on a regular basis. Six months is just too long to be gone! So…I try to have lunch in town with Mom once a week, and then off to whatever ‘excitement’ comes our way.  This past Friday, we went to listen to a speaker at the Sterlington Church of Christ. It doesn’t take much ‘excitement’ for us…...   ; )

We are also enjoying being back with our church community. It feels good to have been missed.  : )  Some of our friends in church have been keeping up with our blog. It is a nice feeling to have had them along with us on this journey.

We have also decided to make as much of an effort to ‘sightsee’ our local area as we do on our travels. Saturday we went in to downtown Monroe for the opening of the River Market. This will be an open air market held every Saturday from 9am-3pm. It is something new for Monroe and it was quite nice. They had several food vendors (we sampled the beignets) and a number of arts and craft vendors. It was not nearly as big as the one in Baton Rouge, or in Oakland, or even in Anchorage, for that matter. But, it is a beginning.

After walking around the River Market, we stopped by the visitors center for Monroe/West Monroe. When we travel, we always stop and pick up visitors information, then do a bit of reading and decide what things are a ‘must see’ in that area. We decided to do the same for our home town. There are so many things, old and new, that we have not seen.

One of the new things in the area is Landry’s Vineyards. They opened about 5 years ago and have been growing some specially developed varieties of grapes for the South. We stopped by on Saturday afternoon to check them out and do a bit of wine tasting. In visiting with the Landry family, we discovered that Jeff Landry was from Lulling, La (as is Fred) and his wife, Libby, is from Des Allemands (where the Perrers are from). It is a small world…..

We are planning to be more home this next year. (That means no long trips planned, at least right now). We will, of course, travel out to see the kids, but have decided to make this a year to sightsee Louisiana. There is much to learn and appreciate right here at home.