June 2017, Louisiana-Home, Day 11 and 12

This place is Fun!

 After a late breakfast (we are TIRED), we purchased tickets for the hop-on, hop-off bus situation. You get to ride to all the places while a tour guide talks about them. Our tour guide for the morning spoke in a volume undetectable to the human ear, I found myself lip-reading so I could make sense of it, and then I just gave up. Fortunately, we weren’t too far from our first stop, Garden District.

Mile 2394- We ambled up and down the residential streets of the Garden District, drooling over the collection of historic homes. Fortunately for us, we found one for sale and it was only 6 million dollars! The kids spent the rest of the walk discussing how they would use the rooms of the 6 million dollar house that their parents were inevitably going to buy for them as a “second house”. A nerf room, a movie room, an exercise room, a basement with air hockey table, an insect and animal research room, and as the walk continued in the New Orleans heat, a cooling off room.

Mile 2396-We assumed that the children would love nothing more than exploring a historic cemetery in the hot sun. We began explaining the fascinating burial methods of New Orleans over the last three centuries. They tolerated it, but didn’t share our zeal for funeral practices of the 19^th century. Every party has a pooper…

All of my friends are at the beach.

Mile 2397- Our next stop was the incredible National World War II Museum. Charlotte has been really interested in this topic thanks to her awesome 5^th grade teachers! Please don’t miss this if you are in New Orleans. It is definitely worth it to spring for the film beforehand (Thanks for the tip, Beth Bourgeois!) It is narrated by Tom Hanks, and provides an excellent overview before you start looking at the exhibits.  There are parts of the museum that are very difficult to see. But, it is something that every American should do.

 

The youngest Bullingtons finished a little early while Mr. Bullington and Charlotte opted to read every.single.word. of every exhibit. In the meantime, Mae designated herself as museum greeter. She held the door and greeted everyone who passed through. That Safety patrol training is finally paying off!  Thomas played a rousing game of Cover My Hand With Rocks.

We grabbed a snack supper at the hotel because we had several dessert stops planned.

Mile 2400-We hadn’t had beignets yet, so we headed through the French quarter to Café Du Monde. Oh, the sights and sounds of New Orleans. Would you like to hold a python? Have your palm read? Drink, Listen, Look? We were lucky enough to happen upon local string band, Yes Ma’am playing in the street. Which very well could've been where they slept last night.  They looked like they’d given up showers and opted out of combing their hair, but they were uber talented. 

We stopped by George Rodrigue's gallery because the girls had learned about him in school and painted their own blue dogs. Mr. Rodrigue is also a prolific painter of the female nude. I guess Mrs. Hornsby left that lesson out! Just one educational stop after another up in here! I'm afraid Thomas might be the most "well educated" 2nd grader at West Side come August. 

 After our beignets, we noticed the streets being closed for a parade coming down the street! What do you know, it's Pride time in New Orleans, too! And, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the folks in New Orleans know a thing or two about parades! It was quite entertaining!

 

After the parade, the little ones begged to get more Bananas Foster so we indulged them. We walked back to the hotel and realized that New Orleans on a Saturday night is exactly what you would imagine.

Day 12
Mile 2402- I really wanted to go to the Mardi Gras warehouses. They have tours and you can see how they create the floats and we do love a parade! IT WAS AMAZING! The company who creates them have cornered the market on larger than life creations. We learned that they make all of the Chic-fil-a cows that you see on the billboards, the big statues that you see at The Oscars, and a lot of set pieces at Disney World!

Where there are costumes, there will be Bullingtons

Eat Mor Chikin!

Adrian!

Come on, now. Don't be a hater.

Anybody feel that? 

Oh hey, Elvis! I guess this means we've come full circle!

 Mile 2670-We started the long drive back to Marietta with a brief stop at Bates House of Turkey. The t-shirts told us that their Turkey would make us perky. I think we may be about 3 days past perky.

Mile 2889- Home! It just so happened that we rolled into our driveway while our neighbors, Derek and Becky, and their extended family, who are also friends,  were having drinks on their porch. We tend to do a lot of porch sitting and porch drinking in my 'hood. They hollered and hooted a big welcome home when we pulled in. The kids dashed across the street quick as a wink to see their friends and get to get away from us. Twelve days of togetherness can do that to a kid. But, this is home. 
I remember thinking to myself when we were in New Orleans, and the kids were fantasizing about buying a big ol' multi-million dollar house, that even if it were possible (it's not), why would I want a house here? All I'd have would be my family and a big 'ol house. But, there would be no icing on the king cake. I wouldn't see Mrs. Nancy walking Piper every evening and stopping by to chat about getting the city to move those dumpsters in front of her art Studio. I wouldn't get to see my friends driving their kids to and fro in front of my house all day. every day (I'm looking at you Laurie Gazaway), I wouldn't have Scott and Tracy to call on for every tool, craft item, or emergency. I wouldn't walk to the high school football stadium on a crisp autumn night. I wouldn't have a mayor that makes a special trip to buy lemonade from the girls' sidewalk stand. I wouldn't have bumped into Kristen at 10:00 at the Kroger because even when you swear you won't run into anyone, you always do. I couldn't walk to the church where my babies were baptized. We've been to 34 states now and countless other cities both big and small. But, I've yet to find a place that can hold a candle to Marietta City.  We are doing a good job here at being a community and that is a hard thing to get right. Thank you Marietta, you are a really nice place to come home to!

That would be 55 HOURS in the car! A record for us!

34 States in  5 years! See you next summer when we take on the Pacific Northwest! Look out, Oregon, Washington, and Northern California, We're coming for you!

June, 2017-Louisiana, Day 10

Mile 2241-  We loaded the car. Again. For like, the thousandth time. Then we cued up our audio book on the Battle of New Orleans and proceeded to the Crescent City. But, not without a couple of quick stops.

Mile 2245- LSU- Not only did we want to see the campus, but also the resident tiger, Mike. He’s a real tiger! He lives in his own habitat in the middle of campus! That should have said “lived”. Sadly, Mike has passed away and has gone to that great jungle in the sky. The habitat is being renovated and the new tiger arrives in August.  Well, that was anticlimactic. The LSU campus was still beautiful even without a live tiger.

Geaux!

2247- Louisiana State Capitol Building! She may not have the square footage of Texas, but she’s the tallest Capitol building in the nation! It really doesn't look like the other capitol buildings I've seen. But, I don't know if you've heard, folks from these parts don't really give two licks about how errybody else does things. 

 

Mile 2328- NOLA! We started our time in New Orleans by getting our sweet selves straight to ACME oyster bar and scarfing down some oysters and Jambalaya. We didn’t want to be late for our swamp tour!

Mile 2360- We headed down to Slidell and met our guide Jacob for our tour of the swamps and Bayou that surround the Pearl River. It was all well and good until Jacob pulled back into the swamp a ways and started showing us the crawfish traps he’d set. He asked Thomas if he wanted to hold one and of course he did. Everything was status quo until the crawfish twitched and Thomas dropped it right in between his sisters. You should have seen them scatter and squeal! I think it was an accident. I think.

 

Mile 2390- We headed back to the hotel for a quick snack because we had to get in line for our next stop. Preservation Hall! The Preservation Hall Jazz band has been playing since 1961 every night to a small audience. Only 100 people get in per show. There are 40 chairs, and room for 60 to stand. We counted 50ish people ahead of us when we got in line so I knew we were safe. We met some new friends from Seattle who were the parents to two boys, so they were tolerant of our sideshow. When we bought our tickets, the lovely lady at the door instructed us to wait in hallway outside of the performance room so that the children could sit in the doorway during the performance. The doorway is basically right by the band. Thank you, Awesome ticket lady! They do not allow photography during the show and I get it. They want the audience to be present during the performance. But, seeing the backs of those little heads sitting at the feet of such talented musicians, listening and watching with rapt attention to music that is thick with emotion and history. I wanted to take a picture SO BAD! But, I didn’t because I follow the rules. They were right by the trombone player and they can’t wait to tell Mr. Travis (our trombone playing neighbor) all about it!

Kids with the two percussionists

New Orleans is a difficult place to be a parent. You want to teach tolerance (like, not pointing at the guy with a cig hanging from his lips and saying, “HE IS SMOKING!” in your loudest voice.) You want them to be curious, but also to not read any t-shirts in New Orleans. Ever. Because they are terrible. Every time.   But, if you don’t breathe because of cigarette smoke you miss the smell of the Etouffee, Jasmine, and Magnolia. And, if you avert your eyes from the classless t-shirts, you might miss a historic doorway or an interesting painting.  We did our best. And we will stick with, don’t read any t-shirts.

We surprised the kids with a last minute stop to the Palace Cafe for some Bananas Foster. Our waitress, Dria, was one of those people who was instantly likable and I wanted to be her friend forever. She artfully set dessert on fire table side, so now Thomas wants to be her new BFF too!

 

We reluctantly agreed to take the kids to the pool at 10:00, because we like them nice and worn out and we can think of nowhere else we’d rather be than a hotel pool in New Orleans at 10:00 at night on opposite day. We were changing into our suits and Mr. Bullington instructed Thomas to button up his shirt. He was wearing it in the wide-open style of Tom Selleck. “Dad”, he responded. “I want to look like I’m on vacation!”