Lucky me, because my big work conference every year, which usually seems to cycle through the same few cities of San Diego, Washington DC, Orlando, and an occasional Boston and St. Louis, was hosted for the first time in New Orleans, and when it turned out that the girls' daycare was going to be closed that week too, it was a no brainer for us that the whole family would come along.
This would be Summer's first time on an airplane, and while Sophie has already had lots of flying experience, this really seemed to be the first time she "got" it. She was counting down the days, talking about taking the planes, and could barely sleep the night before out of excitement. Of course that meant that after we were on the plane and it was "normal", she was getting antsy. Didn't help that she didn't sleep well the night before and barely ate breakfast. She was pretty fussy until we got her a snack in the Dallas airport on our layover, and then her and Summer both slept through the second flight completely. She also wanted to help pack and she insisted on packing her little toy Baby Box figurine and a balloon. Believe me, I tried to get her off of it. She was so consumed by the balloon, she continued to ask throughout our entire trek there if the balloon was still packed, and the absolute first thing we did when we got to the hotel was to find the damn balloon and blow it up for her. Don't ask.
Nothing like stepping out of the airport and getting hit with that hot humid weather! I already loved it. It just has such a feel and I knew I was in NOLA. We had that first evening to make it to the hotel, check in, got in the rooftop hotel pool for Sophie and still had time to walk a little down Canal Street, getting dinner at the most delicious southern food place. My shrimp creole was to-die for, I couldn't even care about what AJ got (I don't even remember now).
Starting Tuesday, I had an amalgam of different meetings and sessions to attend at the convention center, so AJ was on full time parent duty. It wasn't so bad though, because his sister Ana flew in from Guatemala early on Thursday morning and was able to help out. Otherwise I had mornings, evenings, and pretty much all Saturday with them to experience and explore NOLA. The girls got to visit the aquarium and take endless (seriously, often more than once a day) trips to the rooftop pool (I forgot that that's really the only criteria for a successful vacation at that age), we had a lovely trek on the street car down the Garden District (so dreamy!), nighttime walks down Bourbon Street and around the French Quarter and Jackson Square, more than one unexpected thunderstorms, and probably the best time of all was our lunchtime Mississippi cruise on the Natchez Steamboat, complete with a Yuengling! Sophie loved New Orleans donuts (beignets- duh) pretty immediately, and she also fell in love with New Orleans soup (gumbo) so much so that AJ made it for us as our first dinner home the next week. (These photo loaded in random order and I don't have the patience to rearrange - just enjoy at whim lol)
We had a rough trip home, with our inbound plane being delayed enough to make us miss the connection in Denver, so we had to stay overnight there, but oh well, we all survived. Although during the flights, poor Sophie kept complaining about her head hurting (I think she was getting lightheaded when the plane would turn) and on the descent into Denver she was so quiet and I kept offering her a sucker (we brought a lot to let her have on take off/landing to help with the ear pressure) and she was just staring at it and not talking for awhile, finally took it but then decided she didn't want it... then just turned her head and threw up all over herself. Guess she got my motion sick genes. I'm sorry girl!
Even with almost a week in New Orleans, it still wasn't enough! Plus, trying to do anything with kids is harder than it seems, having to consider naps and travel times and what sorts of restaurants they'll tolerate, so I think in a few years I'll just take a sabbatical and go live in NOLA for a month. Or maybe I'll spend retirement there (if it's not underwater by that time).
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