Vacay Y'all!! We headed over to New Orleans for spring break this year and had a great time. Even better we headed off with the Ellers. We had a lot of fun together, but also split our separate ways when we had different things we wanted to do. I think one of the best parts was that when the kids needed some down time around the hotel they had a LOT more fun having friends around (and things were much more peaceful for Monica and me)! Here's a picture of us all in downtown listening to some sweet sweet jazz.
Our first day we went to see downtown. We spent most of the time wandering and finding all sorts of fun things. Here's the group all together as we first set off.
There was a nice place to look out over the river and relax. There was a public transit trolley that came right next to this, and a church just across the street. Also, super cool bridge out yonder!
We headed over to the church next and looked around inside for a little. I don't know if our kids have been inside a cathedral before. Everyone (even Grayson) did a good job being quiet and respectful, phew!
There was some grumbling for a snack when we left the church, so we went on the hunt for beignets. We came to Cafe Du Monde and there was a super long line. Fortunately Winry needed to go to the bathroom so Monica took her inside to find one and discovered the line outside was just for to go orders and we actually could be seated right away! So we ended up getting in real quick.
The key to a good beignet is equal parts powdered sugar on top and pastry. Yes, they were very tasty, and they were pretty messy too. I'm actually surprised Grayson wasn't more coated in the end, but then again, he also never drips his ice cream. The kid is a dessert pro.
After the beignets, we wandered the town and saw a bunch of cool buildings. We also saw a puppeteer that was painting with their puppet. We also found some street performers playing jazz music and stopped for a bit to dance. My eyes were going insane (double vision) and I had a pretty bad headache at this point, so a lot of the city exploring is a blur to me, but if I missed anything I hope Monica will add it here. Oh, we stopped in a gift shop to get quarters for penny pressing, and went to a market as well.
On our way back to the hotel we went the wrong way on the fork on an off ramp and ended up in Mississippi. Yup, we had to go to the next state over to turn around. It was only 6 minutes. We also drove by an apollo rocket. Sadly, that place was closed until Thursday, so we didn't get to see it up close.
When we made it to the hotel, the girls really wanted to go swimming, so we let them hop in the pool for a little while before bed. But the water was very cold!
Grayson still enjoys having his own "room." Here he is sleeping in the closet.
On Tuesday we went for a hike. There were a few places were the trail was flooded a bit, but there were logs to help us not have to walk through the mud, and I think everyone made it through (kind of) clean.
Here's a cool tree we saw. There were a bunch with spanish moss hanging all over off of them. We walked through a park that had a bunch which looked super cool, but I picked this picture because we're all in it.
After our hike, we hopped in the car and drove to Mississippi, on purpose this time, to go to the beach. We had a fun time playing in the sand. I don't think anyone other than Winry went in the water much, just the occasional dip of the toes, etc. Grayson has been loving a Clifford book where they go to the beach and one of the dogs builds a sand castle, so we built our own.
Grayson had a lot of fun in the sand, and definitely got comfortable in it by the end...like, really comfortable.
The beach we went to was in Biloxi. It wasn't the closest, but it did have the most giant shark head stores.
And the kids got eaten alive! Thanks Roadside America for helping us find these gems.
And of course, a giant alligator head too! We went into this store as well and did some souvenir searching. Grayson got a puka shell necklace, and Grayson and Winry got some VERY breakable turtles that I had to glue back together as soon as we got home.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at this umbrella street! Monica's always wanted to go to the one in Spain, but this one filled in nicely in the mean time. They look more spread out in this picture than they actually did in person.
Here's a panorama in the middle of the street.
We again went to the pool that evening, and the Ellers joined us as well. I ran over to a grocery store next door and grabbed some ice cream and cones, and we all shared a treat together, which was fun.
Wednesday morning Grayson was very focused on hygiene and efficiency and went down all 4 flights of stairs to breakfast like a penguin.
We had a little time in the morning before we needed to head to our main activity for the day, so we ran over to this giant cat fish. It might not have whiskers any more, but we all still did.
And then we went to a park so the kids could play on the playground. It was a little wet, but we had towels. That said, the kids didn't do much playing. Like most things in Slidell it was next to water/swamp.
We got bagels for lunch, and then went to an alligator ranch! This is actually a nile crocodile behind the girls that they had there. This guy was MUCH meaner than an alligator, and it was pretty obvious when you saw it in this tank with an alligator next to it. We got to walk through a "growing pen" or whatever they called it, and fed the alligators marshmallows! Essentially they'll just snap at anything they see move by their faces.
And then at the end we got to hold alligators! They were all babies, thankfully, and their mouths were taped shut. Turns out the proper way to hold them is by their tail and throat, because their ribs are so small/fragile that you'll likely break them holding them by their stomachs. Everyone was able to catch some while we were there.
Here's Brooke wrestling a gator. At this point she was still winning the fight.
It was a lot of fun, and a really cool experience.
We drove to Baton Rouge from the alligator ranch, and the hotel happened to have soup and salad that night, so we just ate there. I think it was a good call, as the kids were all pretty tired by this point. So instead of finding a restaurant and a thing to do we just had a relaxing night at the hotel.
When we got in our room, Grayson was not interested in peeing in the toilet, so Monica let him stand in the tub and pee, and then rinsed it out. Later, while it was just Grayson and me, he ran back to the bathroom and climbed into the tub to go potty again... though not quite pee this time... Fortunately our room had two bathrooms this night, so we didn't have to use this tub.
It ended up being just a little more to get a 2 bedroom room, so we took the opportunity. The girls had a room with a double queen, and Monica and I had a king bed. This means that Grayson finally got a real bed... er... a couch bed if that's real. He actually did a good job staying on the bed and not wandering the room when he was supposed to go to bed.
Thursday we drove home. Nothing really eventful happened, but it was pi day, so I ran to the store and bought a piece of pie in the evening.
We didn't make it home in time to make a pie on Thursday... and Friday ended up being pretty crazy and we baked it but didn't have time for it to cool... so Saturday we all had pie! Yay pi day!
Sunday was St. Patrick's day, and the girls prepared a leprechaun trap. They didn't quite catch the bugger, but they got rewarded with chocolate coins for their effort.
We had shamrock waffles for breakfast. Yum.
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