May 8, 2008 | 8:00 AM
I’ve told you about the Tabasco Factory Tour and the Jungle Gardens on Avery Island. You should know that the best part of the trip wasn’t the tour or the garden. It was definitely the company. With two great friends like Liz and Nicole along for the ride reminiscing about the old days and enjoying the humor of the day… well it just doesn’t get much better than road tripping it with friends. So here are some photos of the best part:
I think the tiny two foot alligator startled Liz.
It took them a little time to get up the courage, but they finally went over the sketchy bridge. Shortly after Liz and Nicole made it across, some lady with a German accent showed up and, as Nicole put it, “pogo’ed across.”
They said hello.
The end.
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May 7, 2008 | 5:36 PM
After we went to the Tabasco Factory, Liz, Nicole and I went to the Jungle Gardens on the other side of the island. While it wasn’t quite as hilarious as the tour guide reading her script poorly, it was very nice. We taunted small alligators and spied on turtles.
We encountered a decaying boat house with broken windows that fit in a scene from Scooby Doo. Which reminds me… do you ever notice that about half of the Scooby Doo episodes take place in the swamps? I think there’s a significant point in that. Anyway here’s the boat house.
Then we saw the Giant Buddha, which I didn’t get a good picture of. The Buddha looks over the garden, because no real garden is complete without a 20 foot tall Buddha. Remember that when you start your next garden project. After the Buddha we went to Bird City, which is definitely filled with birds. Herons or cranes of some sort. It smelled like the zoo. I mean, really bad too. I always thought the smell at the zoo was because of the elephants and giraffes and rhinoceroses. No. It’s the birds. I’ll leave you with a glimpse of the birds.
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May 5, 2008 | 12:00 AM
Avery Island, deep in the heart of cajun country, is the home of Tabasco. A few weeks ago some friends and I planned a trip to go down there- it’s about two and a half hours west southwest of New Orleans off Highway 90. Last Saturday was our day trip. We left amidst tornado watches under the stormy green sky. Standing outside for just a few moments before leaving, I felt the temperature drop by a good bit as the green tinted clouds screamed past overhead. Lightning and thunderstorms began just seconds after we got into the car. Driving about 50mph out of New Orleans on I-10 and I-310, we found our way to HWY 90 west on the other side of the Mississippi River. From a little past Houma all the way to Avery Island the sky was clear.
The Tabasco Factory Tour was hilarious. We get inside the factory itself to find that it’s pretty small. The way our tour guide read from her script made us wonder if she’d ever read it before- it took all I had not to bust out laughing at the humor of the presentation. Our ten minute video was preceded by our guide’s comments to “let yourself out this door to the right when the video is over.” Sometime just before the video began I mentioned how we should model our Seminary Preview Weekends like this. Oh how great it would be.
After finishing our now self-guided tour, we ran up to the Tabasco Country Store for something to eat and drink. Liz and Nicole sampled all the types of Tabasco, including the Tabasco Soda and the Jalapeno Ice Cream. One lady behind the counter stared at me for a few minutes before finally asking where my chicken was. Apparently my doppleganger visited the Island the day previous, carrying a giant yellow rubber chicken. Interesting.
The other part of Avery Island is its Jungle Gardens. I’ll post about that next.
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May 2, 2008 | 10:44 PM
It’s been said that some have encountered Christianity and found it lacking. Indeed, I often sympathize with those who have chosen to walk away: in church I am bored, in religion I am dissatisfied, and I rarely understand the terminology many Christians use. American Christianity, as I see it, is utterly confusing based on what I think I know of Jesus.
It’s not that Christianity itself is lacking anything. It is my depth of understanding what it means to follow Jesus that is lacking.
There are moments when I catch a tiny glimpse of the hugeness of God, and I know beyond the shadow of any doubt that the God I follow is the real One. In the Scriptures I hear the notes of a symphony that sings God’s story. I do not hear the whole symphony; only one or two instruments at a time. And then, for a fleeting moment, I hear the harmony of whole of Creation singing at once, and I am reminded that this symphony will be played out in full in its own time.
And that I am, in such a small way, a part of this symphony that has been going on since the beginning… and will continue long after I’ve left this beautiful blue planet. It’s moments like these when I remember that the Creator from whom salvation comes is not lacking in any way. God is not dissatisfying. It is only my perspective that is at fault.
So, then, shall it change.
Posted in Christianity, Human Dignity Series, Life, Theology 3 Comments »
joe kennedy, 2007
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