The trip report

Some conclusions:

1. I am getting better at sleeping in unfamiliar places. I used to be terrible at it; even a comfortable hotel bed had me tossing and turning. Because of Reasons, I wound up sleeping on what amounted to a futon cushion on the floor....and I slept very well. I suppose part of it is that being tired (long drive, hot day, lots of running around) helped.

2. I will never get over that cownose rays will solicit being petted, and that visitors to an aquarium are invited to pet them (provided they wash their hands first).

3. I am still really nervous about the "flyway" type of highways and even though I try not to show it, I apparently telegraphed it pretty well

4. Even though I already have "enough" books and yarn, I can always find more I want to buy.

So I drove down to near Shreveport yesterday to see my friend Laura and just do stuff. The only thing I knew was planned was a trip to the yarn shop, but I was willing to be flexible for almost everything else. (She had suggested the Shreveport version of Comic-con, but I was not really up for a crowded venue at that point)

So the first day (yesterday) we got pizza at Johnny's (a local Louisiana pizza chain) for a late lunch, then ran to the yarn shop.



The pink yarn is definitely for me; I'm seriously considering knitting the "sweet potato vine" colored one (the purple and orangish) into some kind of slipped-stitch patterned socks for my mom as part of her Christmas gift; those look like colors she wears.

I also bought a book of lace-knitting patterns, on the strength of a couple pairs of socks, some armwarmers, and a cowl that I really liked. There are some other nice patterns in there.

We also went to the Norton Art Gallery (mostly Western-themed art, like, they had some Catlin drawings) and just wandered around it. (They also had beehives, and because it was so hot the bees were "bearding" the outside of the hive rather than really going in). They also had some antiquities, which were interesting to look at.

And from there, to the used-book barn - an enormous shop with a huge selection. I do not have a used-book shop near me any more and I really miss it; back in the day that's how I got most of my collection of books.



the cookbook (which I wanted even before I saw this feature) is signed by one of the authors. I was also excited to find that copy of "The Marches," it looks really interesting. And I think that's almost the last Trollope novel I didn't have.... The mystery looked interesting; I don't think I've ever read anything by Elizabeth Peters before.

And then, cats.

Laura has a lot of cats. They are mostly pretty well socialized - they see lots of people through her cello lessons - so many of them want attention when they see a new person (unlike some cats, that run and hide).

Chunk - who was the orange guy who seemed to like me the most last year - didn't seem to remember me and wasn't sure of me at first, but he warmed up:



Chunk is what they call a "shoulder cat," he wants to be as high up on you as he can be.

Fiona, one of the other cats, also wanted to be petted and a couple times she shoved herself in between me and whatever cat I was petting. I guess cats can get jealous?

This is the newest cat, Evander (so named because he lost part of an ear when Laura's yard guy didn't see him and caught him with the weedwhacker) - either he was the kitten of a feral cat, or was a dropoff. He is TINY so I think he must have been a feral kitten - Laura thinks he's only about 6 weeks old:



Daniel seems to have taken on the role of being Evander's "big brother":



(You can see Fiona in the back of that photo)

And finally, when we were watching a couple episodes of Red Dwarf (which I had never seen but which is the sort of odd, dumb-humor show I enjoy), Harold - the only cat allowed in her "yarn room" - decided my knitting bag was a nice bed:

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***

Saturday, we went to the Farmer's Market. It's huge and nice (this weekend was the second-to-last for the year, though; I guess they close down at the end of the growing season). I bought some honey and a very nice wood box made by a woodworker - designed as a jewelry box, I think, but I am going to use it for thread, scissors, and other sewing supplies.



This is just part of a very large mural (I think it's a mosaic) near the market.

From there: the aquarium. Apparently this is fairly new; Laura said she'd never been there before. It was $14 to get in but it was quite nice - mostly saltwater tanks. The lighting was cool - dim in the visitor areas, I presume so the fish could not see us, but the tanks were lit just enough that you could see the fish pretty well (without it seeing excessively bright). The shark exhibit was especially cool - constructed with a tunnel you walk through and you can see the sharks swimming *above* you. They also had a "bayou" area and so I got to see a live paddlefish close- up for the first time.



(Pardon the blur. And no, that's just a cartoon paddlefish next to the tank of real ones)

They also had a nice area with a waterfall and wood ducks and I think a pair of buffleheads too:





Here's a photo Laura took of the Bayou Room, better than the ones I had. I'm pretty sure that's me in the purple shirt:

But then, the best part.

They have "touch tanks" like some aquaria do - I got to touch a sea star (interesting, because my dealings with them is mainly as preserved specimens) and a sea cucumber (they are very squishy - no exoskeleton or endoskeleton, they are pretty much just a bag of guts).

They ask people to wash their hands (with plain clean water) first, and I suppose the salt water maybe also helps prevent germ transmission to the critters, but I do admit I worried about what being poked and prodded all day does to them.

Then again.....some may not find it so taxing.

Because the best part of the aquarium was next. They had a ray pool. The most abundant rays were cownose rays, but there was one very large speckled species in there too. People were invited to pet (well, really: gently touch with two fingers) the rays (again, provided your hands were clean).

This was magical. Being able to touch an unfamiliar animal brings out the best parts of me from when I was eight or ten. And I don't *think* the rays were unduly stressed by it; in fact, if you put your hand in the tank, three or four would swarm up and seemingly want you to touch them. So of course I obliged.

Rays feel cool. They are sort of soft but sort of rubbery and smooth. They feel maybe a little bit like suede but without the nap. They're also cool to watch when they swim; they kind of glide and it looks like they are flying underwater. 

We walked a bit more through, and came upon the gift shop. And I said to Laura, "I am not going to leave here without buying a stuffed animal; watch me"

And I found one. I had thought of a shark at first because sharks are pretty cool, but then I saw that they had cownose rays, like the ones we got to pet, and I knew I wanted one of those as a memory of The Time I Got To Pet A Ray:

My very own majestic sea flap-flap!

I've provisionally named her Bossie (because she's a COWnose ray, get it?) but if I think of something better in the next day, I might change it.

She is very soft and I am glad I bought her.

The aquarium was well worth the price of admission, I think. Really nice and very fun.

From there, we went to a Corps of Engineers museum (for the J. Bennett Johnston waterway). The Corps ranger on duty seemed bored before we walked in (he was the only person in there) and so he wound up giving us a personal tour and going into a lot of detail about the history of the region (he seemed to know a lot about the Louisiana purchase and the various tribal/national conflicts in the area) and more-recent history (A steamboat that sank in the 1800s and was excavated about 20 years ago). It was a small museum but was pretty interested, and was practically next door to the museum.

(I forgot this earlier. They had this "photo op" out in the lobby of the Corps of Engineers museum and it amused me sufficiently I had Laura take my photo. This may also have uses somewhere on a future webpage - my department teaches a lot of students who go do ranger work or work for the Corps)

After that, a quick lunch, a run to Barnes and Noble's (I was looking for the newest "Simply Knitting" but it was not in yet and I needed a box of thank-you cards), and then I packed up and headed the LONG five hours home (at least this time the trickiest driving was at the start rather the end of the trip).


ETA: I was not successful in hypnotizing a chicken but I did try. I think I handle them a little too tentatively; I think of bird-bones as fragile (they are hollow) and I was too afraid of hurting the chook.