Day 20: October 18, 2015--With Family near Atlanta, GA

Very little to say about today--and SO much to be grateful for. The pictures below are worth thousands of words.

We had left Washington, D.C., at 6:30 the previous evening, and arrived in Atlanta a little after 9:30 Sunday morning. Our cousins Eddie and Isabel Baquet--whom we had previously known only via Facebook--picked us from the station and, after a quick stop at the Whole Foods, took us to their house, where we celebrated the recently-passed birthdays of Eddie's brother Peter, and Peter's son Jude.

Of 13 people in attendance, we were all related by blood or marriage. Eight were direct descendants of the same man--the Creole musician Theogene Baquet--and four more were Baquets by marriage. Only two people there were NOT named Baquet, though one of those was a descendant of Theogene (her mom was born a Baquet).

Food and drink, family, stories, laughter--LOTS of laughter. We had so many common interests and attitudes, it was like those stories of long-lost twins meeting up and, I don't know, both of them having a green rubber band on their wrists, or the same fashion sense, or something. I have said many times: there was NO "breaking in" period. We started talking as though our previous conversation had been interrupted and we were just picking it up again. An indescribable feeling.

We stayed with Eddie and Isabel and zany little Raquel that night.

No Gallery today. We were too busy being family. In fact, it's lucky we remembered to take any pictures at all!

UPDATE: I was so happy reminiscing about time with my family that I forgot to mention: a friend of Lila's from college days is now working in Atlanta. So she came and picked up Lila for lunch, but they were back in time for Lila to get a heapin' helpin' of the family's hospitality.

Getting together again is a high priority for Lila and me.

Baquet men just being Baquet men. Me, Julien, Eddie, and Peter.

These two pics may seem identical, but it's like one of those Zen gardens where you can't
see all the rocks from any one vantage point. In this top one, left-to-right: Sheny (Isabel's
lovely mom), Kayla in back (Dana's daughter), Linda (Eddie, Peter, and Dana's mom), Julien
(Peter's younger son), Dana (Eddie and Peter's sister), Peter in back, Eddie's wife Isabel in
front of him, and Raquel in front of her; moi; Ashley (Peter's wife); Jude in front
(Peter's older son); and Eddie at the right rear. Lila is not in this one.

Same personnel in this one, though Lila has been added, and Dana is behind her mom.

It was over all too soon. Tomorrow we said a sad goodbye, and pushed on to the Motherland: New Orleans.