A Good Excuse to Play Tourist for a Week

On June 2, my mom called me and asked what I had planned from June 12-June 18. Um....nothing! So, that was that and she booked a ticket to come and see us. We were so excited and so glad she made the last minute decision to come. And we only had to wait TEN days for her to get here! That made it really exciting since trips are usually planned much further in advance and it seems like the day will never get here. So we picked her up at the airport on the 12th (much later than planned since she had a crazy day of getting re-routed to get here) and Tyler hugged her and immediately started asking her all the things she wanted to do while she was here. "Do you want to go swimming with me?" "Do you want to go to the aquarium?" "Do you want to get a sno-ball?" "Do you want to play trains with me while you're in Louisiana?" "Do you want to watch a movie with me?" So, he had an agenda planned out that would have no problem filling up the next six days.

So, to summarize her visit, it would actually be easier to list the things we did not do since we pretty much packed it all in. We made several trips to Sal's for sno-balls, we swam and swam and swam, visited the aquarium, went on a plantation tour, went to the Children's Museum, went to the French Quarter, ate lunch at Voo Doo BBQ, ate dinners at Reginelli's and Ye Olde College Inn, went shopping, celebrated Father's Day & Sam's 9 month birthday (by cutting his hair--pictures to come soon!), took walks around the lake, and I'm sure I'm leaving something else out. And I think my mom quite enjoyed just having it be hot. If you live in Idaho or have family there, you know that they've been struggling to get the sunshine to stay there for any length of time.

We had a great time with her here. Sam actually warmed up to her after a day or two (he really really does not like strangers--can't emphasize that enough), and it was so nice that he would go to her! He got quite attached after a few days. And we just love having the excuse to leave the daily grind behind and go do some fun things. It's always fun to play the role as tourist in your own city. And since I've only lived here two years, I still feel like there's a lot I haven't seen and done.

Here are a few picture recaps of a few things we did. I didn't take my camera for everything we did, but had it on hand for a few stops.

1. San Francisco Plantation
I love old plantation homes and when my parents visited last April we visited Oak Alley and thought it would be fun to visit another one this time. So, we picked the San Francisco Plantation. It is a much different looking plantation than the traditional Southern plantation. I guess they say it's because it was built by Germans, so the decorating is a different style. The details were just incredible. There were original paintings on all the ceilings that were just amazing. Everything was very ornate and I always have a hard time imagining living back then, wearing one of those huge dresses, and NOT having air conditioning. Seriously, how did they do it?
I just love all the details of these old homes!

2. The Aquarium
With our faces lit up by the fish tank lights, we checked out some of our favorite attractions. Tyler loves watching a little tiny fish called a jaw fish that digs holes and swims down in them and comes out spitting rocks. It actually is kind of fascinating to watch. It's funny that his favorite thing in the big huge place is a fish that's about the size of my index finger!

We also found Nemo while we were there:

Garrett and Tyler pet the sting rays:
And they also pet the baby shark:
And we checked out just about every other kind of fish imaginable! And I couldn't even tell you the names of a lot of them now. :)

3. After watching all those fish, we attempted to be them.

We spent much of our time at the pool hanging out and beating the heat. Swimming with the two kids is much more enjoyable with another adult, I have to say! I could relax a bit more and even take a picture or two.
Tyler is definitely doing his best to be a fish so far this summer. He is loving the water this year and with his floaties on, he is pretty much invincible (not totally, but almost!). It's nice that he can play so well with them on so I don't have to be quite so worried about him.
And Sam loves this little tube (for about the first hour, anyways). It has been great for keeping him contained as well!

4. The French Quarter

No trip to NOLA would be complete without at least a little visit to the Quarter. It was hot and humid, and we were all sweaty, but we managed to survive for a couple hours one morning!
The St. Louis Cathedral. This is one of the most famous landmarks in town and you can't miss it if you're in the Quarter. The inside is beautiful too. We ran into a nice group of people who offered to take our picture if we took theirs and I hesitantly agreed to hand over my camera. But I thought it would be fun to have a picture of all of us here...well, the results were pretty disastrous when I got looking at the pictures. I'm not sure what the lady was doing...hmmm. Oh well! And after all that, I didn't even get a picture of my mom with the boys. Darn!
For the longest time, Tyler insisted that this cathedral was a temple. I think he is just now believing us that it's not a temple.
One of my favorite things in the Quarter is the fence around the cathedral. Probably a tad strange fascination, I know...but when we moved here, I fell in love with the fleur de lis which you can see just about everywhere you turn and this fence has an old feel to it and a hint of 'fleur de lis', and I just love it!

And no trip to the French Quarter, and I do mean NO trip..., is complete without us stopping at Southern Candymakers. When the sign says "best pralines", they are not lying. They are the BEST, along with their cashew tortues, taffy, peanut butter cups, oh--and the list goes on. Our families always get a box of pralines to take home with them and we use it as an excuse to get a box to take home with us too. hee hee! Hey, I told you we played tourists for a week, right?!
Well, once again, Mom--thank you for coming! We had a ball and hope you come again soon. We miss you!