So yesterday I finished up my obligations to the university, had lunch with Keith (crawfish etouffe, black-eyed peas, mac'n cheese, strawberry pie with an indescribable graham cracker crust), and then was off on my own.

I wandered over to the local yarn shop and I learned something else about Louisiana (or at least Lafayette): They don't believe in sidewalks. I was amazed by this; the weather is clearly walking weather for most of the year (probably not August, when, I'm told, the temperature and humidity hover around 95 and the mosquitoes are as big as 747s), yet nobody seems to walk anywhere. Or ride bikes, either.

Nonetheless, it didn't matter much, as the local yarn shop is only about .2 of a mile from my hotel room. There was a crowd in the back, sitting and knitting. I thought briefly about asking if I could join them, but the gathering was inside, of course, and I wanted to be outside. So I wandered over to Girard Park, where I spent the better part of three hours sitting and knitting:

(I wasn't the only one basking in the sun, as you can see.)

The park is ringed by a jogging path "paved" in cinders. If I still jogged, I would so have been there - the "crunch, crunch" of shoes on cinders is music to my ears. I meandered along it, anyway, and discovered that the trail led to a pond:

And on the other side of the pond, there's the University art gallery:

Ordinarily, I'd be tempted by the art gallery, but on this trip, sunshine trumps everything . . .

Instead, I got quite a bit of knitting done:

That's gonna be a scarf soon.

Then it was back to the hotel, where I availed myself of the exercise room, briefly considered a dip in the pool & hot tub (I'm saving that for today), and watched bad tv and knitted until I decided to have dinner at a Greek restaurant that had been recommended to me by someone on Ravelry and that is located, as luck would have it, about 50 steps from my hotel. What can I say? I had eggplant stuffed with shrimp, peas and carrots and smothered in a mushroom sauce and topped with cheese, along with absolutely the best Greek salad I've ever eaten. (Dunno how they infused the spices into the oil in the dressing, but it was sublime.) I took back many leftovers, and the dinner was just as good for breakfast today - even if it was cold. I've decided that whatever else I order when I'm here, it's going to have a sauce over it because these sauces are positively divine.

Today I'm off to Lake Martin and a state park. Tonight Keith and I and his partner (down from Chicago for the weekend) are going to a live broadcast of a Cajun music radio show in the Liberty Theatre in Eustace. Of course, there will be a meal beforehand . . .

Now I'd better get going so I can work some of these meals off!