New Orleans Part II
On Sunday morning, Josue and I got up early, beat everyone else to the shower and got ready for church at 10 am, or at least that was when we had to leave. Church was located about 20 minutes away. What a great time worshiping the Lord together with our dear friends. We hadn't done that in awhile as a group. It was a little hard for me to stay quiet because I felt tempted to want to talk and such, but of course, I behaved. =) After church, we ran by a grocery store to get some drinks and ice, and then we headed home to start the crawfish boil!
The way this worked was that Ted (Jeremy's dad) had everything brought out of the garage and set up the evening before. He had gotten about a total of 80 pounds of fresh crawfish to boil. He basically boiled a huge steel pot (sitted on a gas stove) of water, and then put in some Cajun spices specially for the boil, potatoes, sausages, corn, onions, lemons and whole garlic. While waiting for the pot to cook and boil up, the gang started playing some baseball and/or frisbee in the backyard. What a beautiful day it was! There was also a cool hammock set up for anyone to lay on. Pretty soon some people from church also started showing up for the boil. When the boil was ready, Ted just poured out the crawfish (and all the other ingredients) from the pot, spreading them out between 2 picnic tables for people to just stand around, shell them and of course, eat them. Wow...it was spicy, but oh so good! It was a little gross and messy, but it was also all about the experience that made everything so delicious.
After the boil and after cleaning up, the gang was invited to go sailing on Ted's and Nancy's sail boat on the lake nearby Covington (I don't remember the name of the lake). Sailing! I had never done that before, so this was absolutely exciting to me. And without being too technical about all that happened before, in between and after the sail, let's just say we had a blast just being on the water in the boat, admiring other people's boats, enjoying the cool breeze and the beautiful sunshine on our skin, and most important of all, each other's company.
We didn't get home until about 7 pm, and we ended the evening by throwing a quick surprise party for Melissa. Her birthday was actually on Friday, but this was the perfect day and opportunity for the entire group to celebrate with her. Before too long, we said our goodbyes and exchanged hugs with Kristy and Jenny. They had planned to leave and drive home to Memphis that same night since Kristy had an important test the next morning. As for the rest of us, we drove home to Dallas the next morning while Jeremy flew back to Chicago. It was a quick and short but definitely fun-filled weekend!
The way this worked was that Ted (Jeremy's dad) had everything brought out of the garage and set up the evening before. He had gotten about a total of 80 pounds of fresh crawfish to boil. He basically boiled a huge steel pot (sitted on a gas stove) of water, and then put in some Cajun spices specially for the boil, potatoes, sausages, corn, onions, lemons and whole garlic. While waiting for the pot to cook and boil up, the gang started playing some baseball and/or frisbee in the backyard. What a beautiful day it was! There was also a cool hammock set up for anyone to lay on. Pretty soon some people from church also started showing up for the boil. When the boil was ready, Ted just poured out the crawfish (and all the other ingredients) from the pot, spreading them out between 2 picnic tables for people to just stand around, shell them and of course, eat them. Wow...it was spicy, but oh so good! It was a little gross and messy, but it was also all about the experience that made everything so delicious.
After the boil and after cleaning up, the gang was invited to go sailing on Ted's and Nancy's sail boat on the lake nearby Covington (I don't remember the name of the lake). Sailing! I had never done that before, so this was absolutely exciting to me. And without being too technical about all that happened before, in between and after the sail, let's just say we had a blast just being on the water in the boat, admiring other people's boats, enjoying the cool breeze and the beautiful sunshine on our skin, and most important of all, each other's company.
We didn't get home until about 7 pm, and we ended the evening by throwing a quick surprise party for Melissa. Her birthday was actually on Friday, but this was the perfect day and opportunity for the entire group to celebrate with her. Before too long, we said our goodbyes and exchanged hugs with Kristy and Jenny. They had planned to leave and drive home to Memphis that same night since Kristy had an important test the next morning. As for the rest of us, we drove home to Dallas the next morning while Jeremy flew back to Chicago. It was a quick and short but definitely fun-filled weekend!
