The Events of Friday, February 4, 2011

                Days of walking eight or nine miles a day, a fun late night listening to jazz, clapping, clapping, clapping, tours that consist of walking in circles around historic neighborhoods, having late dinners of yummy chicken and then going to bed when it is very late and then trying to sleep with a train conductor taking a midnight ride and tooting his horn about a million times. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? This was our basic schedule of New Orleans, although it doesn’t include that we had fun, which, of course, we did. However, after four days of nonstop fun, jazz and noisy nights, we were ready for a break and how do most teenagers spend their breaks? Sleeping, right? Well, the kids and Mom (she is still a teen at heart, well at least in the fact that she loves to sleep in) had a glorious morning of sleeping in while Dad, who never sleeps long enough in our opinion, slept in to (in his opinion) the extremely late time of 6:45! We rejuvenated ourselves in sleep until about 8:15, and then we were wakened up by a cheerful Mom.

                Mom and I went to shower while the others prepared a hot breakfast. However, when we came back, we found that there were not enough eggs for scrambled eggs and we didn’t have any Bisquik for pancakes. So we settled down for a delicious breakfast of cereal and grapefruit – I love grapefruit! Throughout the rest of the morning we basically relaxed and, as Mom said, “Had nice long showers, nice long quiet times, nice long times on the computer and a leisurely pack up and go.” We eventually got on the road just before noon and stopped at a grocery store for, obviously, groceries. We shopped and then drove about five miles to the San Francisco Plantation. There we had an interesting lunch of a variety of sandwiches, snacks and yummy desserts. It was interesting because I had butter on my bread instead of mayonnaise. I heard the Europeans do it that way because it is healthier. It was really good. After lunch we swept the floor and then entered the San Francisco Plantation grounds.

                The weather here right now in southern Louisiana is in the low 40’s, and constantly either a light drizzle or a torrent of rain going on at all times. However, after hearing that the over half of the rest of the nation is blanketed in snow, we aren’t complaining. When we entered the premises of the San Francisco Plantation, it was just lightly drizzling but it was still quite chilly. The grounds were practically deserted, but we bought tickets and headed into the house. We were greeted by a couple of young ladies in period dress. One had a purple hoop skirt and dress and a brown short fitted jacket with matching gloves, very authentic, but the other had a yellow hoop skirt and dress with a black hooded sweatshirt under her dress. The one in the purple skirt introduced herself as Angela and began showing us around.

                First she took us around the first floor and showed us the variety of Creole architectural examples that were very different from other houses in that day. For example, the Creole French believed that hallways were wasted space, so they did not have any hallways. The house was built in 1856 and it was owned Edmond Marmillion who unfortunately died the day before his son brought his new bride home from Germany to meet his family. Valsin Marmillion, Edmond’s son, and his wife, Louise von Seybold, had met in Germany, where Louise was born. Valsin never wanted to own a plantation, so he planned to live in Germany. However, when his father died, he was forced to take charge of the plantation. His wife did not like how it was decorated so Valsin gave her permission to redecorate it to her taste. She did so, but left the family quite in debt. Thus, when they hosted balls, and everyone would comment on how beautiful the plantation house was, Valsin would say “St. Frusquin”, a name derived from a French slang phrase that meant ‘without a penny in my pocket’. So the plantation got to be known as St. Frusquin. Valsin eventually had three daughters and lived very happily on the plantation.          The next owner did not like that the name of his mansion was saying that he didn’t have any money, so he played with sounds that sounded like it and came up with San Francisco, thus the name it has today. Some of the interesting features of the house are the two cisterns on each side of the house that used gravity to give the house running water. This was pretty modern in the antebellum or pre-civil war period. In the butler pantry two jars are buried halfway underground, with the mouths of the jars just above ground. In lower Louisiana, the water table is very high, only two feet or so below the ground. This meant that the jars were sitting in the water table, surrounded by cool water. The servants would put the perishables into these jars to keep them at a regular temperature of fifty degrees Fahrenheit all year round. Also in the butler’s pantry, Angela showed us the double layer of brick that crossed over one another in case of flooding. The plantation is located right by the Mississippi River, so they had floods often. If flooded, the water was able to sink through the floor and into the water table very easily, much like the modern drain system. Another interesting feature was how the downstairs only had one formal room, but upstairs every room was formal. This was because, if the river flooded, they only had one room to worry about, rather than all the finery upstairs. Angela led us through all this finery upstairs, telling us about everything in a crisp Southern accent. Soon our tour was done and we were sent out the front door and down the stairs. Downstairs we found an interesting fountain that had goldfish in it. Weird way to store fish!

                We then visited the other buildings, including a school building that dated to the 19th century and the slave quarters. Outside the slave quarters was a metal triangle with a long metal bar with a hook on one end hanging from the bottom. I played around with it and found that the metal bar was very heavy. The triangle had deep tones and it was fun to sneak up to it when nobody was looking and startle everybody with this big GONG!

                Exiting the premises, we stayed for a little in the parking lot trying to decide what to do with the remainder of our day. It was beginning to rain steadily and was fairly cold. After reviewing our plans for Louisiana and checking the weather, we decided to look for camping near Baton Rouge. Dad quickly located one and we drove to our campsite. When we arrived there we started to prepare a delicious dinner of ravioli, salad, bread and ice cream. However, Caitlin accidentally dropped the oil when putting it away and, boom! There was another oil spill in Louisiana! Fortunately it wasn’t too bad and we were able to save the wildlife - or not so wild life - from the area and clean it up easily. We had a delicious dinner, did math, and then headed off to bed for some more glorious sleep.