WORK AND TOUR IN LOUISIANA

 9 women from my church went to UMCOR Sager-Brown in Baldwin LA on November 9th to work for the week.

 Packing hygiene kits was the focus of the week.

 Boxes filled with 24 kits each and put on pallets.

 Then they were prayed over.

 I was still in NOMADS mode so I volunteered to help paint.

 I painted 8 of these yellow poles. Most of them needing two or three coats.

We didn't work on Friday, so we went to Avery Island.

 It is where they grow the peppers and manufacture Tabasco. It has been here over 150 years and owned and operated by the descendants of  Edmund Mclhenny, the inventor of it.. The museum was interesting. We then took a tour of all the buildings.

 The first stop was to learn about the peppers. They are hand picked.

 Next was the barrel museum which was very interesting.

 It was a self guided tour but at each place there were videos to watch.

 The mash is put into oak barrels. The lid is covered with salt. Each barrel had the date it was filled.

 The mash sits in the barrel for three years. The barrels on the side were dated Feb 2017.

 You walked in the blending room and you started coughing, the smell was very strong.

 They were bottling today. That number kept changing by 10.

 They were bottling the original red going to Australia.

 Some little bottles.

 At the store you could taste all the kinds and there was lots of fun things to buy. Of course all had something to say or do with Tabasco.

 We then drove around the island to the Jungle Garden. Pam and Noelene were are drivers on the trip so they checked out the map.

 Avery Island is a salt dome.

 The garden would be very pretty, at another time of year. The Chinese Gardens contain a Buddha statue dating back hundreds of years.

 Imagine Snowy egrets nested on the platforms. This helped save them from extinction. We didn't see any, but we did see a wild boar. This would be a beautiful place to visit in the spring.

DAY 2 AT UNIVERSAL

 Friday we went back to Universal. Yes $26 to park again.

 This time we went to Island of Adventure.

 Seuss Landing was our first stop with a ride on Caro-Seuss-el.

 See how excited Larry was to be on this ride, but I love Merry-go-rounds.

 Next to ride One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We got a little wet, but it felt good on a warm day.

 We stood in line for about half an hour to ride High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. Not much excitement on this ride, but you got a good view of Suess Landing.

 On to the lost Continent where we had good gyros at Fire Eater's Grill and then did Poseidon's Fury. We got right in. The guide was funny, and lots of special effects with fire and water.

 We walked through The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade. Very crowded and waits for rides were over 2 hours.

Larry stopped and took in the view.

 We then went into Jurassic Park. We waited in line for 75 minutes to ride the River Adventure.

Again we got a little wet.

We ended the day the the Chocolate Emporium.

An Espresso Buzz Milkshake, gave us the boost to walk back to our car.

DAY ONE AT UNIVERSAL

 Earlier this summer we purchased tickets for Universal. As Florida residents we could get 4 days for the price of 2.  We have just been too busy to find time to go. So Friday we set the day aside and went.

 We really didn't know much about what is here to do. After parking for $26.00 we walked about a mile to the entrance. Soon after we went through the gates we saw Despicable Me Minion Mayhem. I liked that movie so we went in. Well I kept my eyes shut through it all so I wouldn't be totally dizzy when we got off from all the dips turns and twist. It wasn't a roller coaster but with all the virtual feeling as if  you are on one. We then decided to stay away from all those types of rides, which is what they almost all are.

We saw some street entertainment. Marilyn and the Diamond Bellas, Sing It and the Blue Brothers show.  The Blue Brothers Show is right in front of Finnegan's  Bar and Grill, so we ate lunch there when it opened.

 We wondered around the park for awhile. Rode the  kid's rides; Twirl n Hurl,  and Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster. That was as much of a coaster as I can do.  We really enjoyed E.T. Adventure, Universal Orlando's Horror Make-Up Show, and Animal Actors on Location.  The park wasn't very crowded and most of the waits were only about 15 to 30 minutes, even for the more popular rides we were  not doing.

 The parade took about 5  minutes, but had good dancers and floats.

 We enjoyed walking through the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Diagon Alley.  This was later in the afternoon and was a little more crowded. I was disappointed that our tickets were  not good for the Hogwarts Express.

The Knight Bus, the conductor had a nice way of chatting with the children.
 By 3:30 we had done it all, it was hot and we were tired (15,000 steps), so we went home and will do Island of Adventure next time.

SELL AND BUY

 While we were in PA we sold the home we use to live in and have been renting for the last four years to our renter. Now we only have the rental on Summit Ave to manage. Larry wanted to get a new car, so we traded the Traverse and purchased a Highlander Hybrid. Think my first home in 1973 didn't cost this much but then it wasn't much bigger.

 The color reminds me of my last VW,

So we are now a Toyota family.