NOLA

On Saturday, after arriving home from NYC on Wed, we picked Kaleb up from Camp of the Pines. (We left at 5:30 a.m. to do this!)Since New Orleans was only three hours or so farther, we went on.  We haven't been there, and Rick's birthday was on Father's Day this year, so we called this his celebration.

Just so we could say we've been in Mississippi (we don't count states that we just drive straight through or where we are only in the airport), we detoured to Biloxi to see the lighthouse.

We tried to put the Princess book in each state picture.

Rest stop

The welcome center had carved trees with a sign that said someone had carved the oak trees that died in the hurricane.

We'd hoped to climb to the top, but they said that in this heat you have to do it by 9:30 a.m.

So we went wadding instead. We keep flip flops and water shoes in the car. (That was free too)

Louis Armstrong park

This picture should have been before the one above, but my computer is being weird.

Then we went to the French Quarter

 One not so nice thing happened in the Quarter, but we all just shook it off. A middle aged white guy was sitting on a bench, and when we walked by him he said, "Hey," so I turned back. He said, "You got all those black kids with you, whatch you doing in the Quarter?"
I did not know what to say. Didn't know what prompted his comment, so I just stood there looking him in the eye saying nothing. Finally he said, "What? I wasn't being rude." Well, if he wasn't being rude, then why did he say it? I wanted to ask him that, but didn't want to get into it on our weekend out. I looked him in the eye another few seconds then turned and walked away. Never said one word to him during the whole thing. Would have liked to know what prompted that question from him though. Later, in the restrooms, I told an African American lady with kids about it, and she said she didn't know why he'd say it.

 The next morning we went to City Park. There is A LOT to do there.

 I'd left the princess book in the car, but Rick has it on his iPad, so we did devos by the fountain.

 There were lots of play areas.

 We discovered Storyland which is like a small version of Story Book Island in South Dakota. We lived in SD from 1991-1995 and Story Book Island was on the bike path and was free. This one cost $4, but that wasn't bad. There was a small amusement park with it, but that was another $17 each for wristbands or $4 each a ride, so we just rode the train which went all the way around City Park so we could see what else there was. (Have I mentioned that we travel CHEAP? That's the only way we can do all we do. Right now we're in Orlando and Jasmine is microwaving a mac and cheese cup for supper for each of us.) That's how we found a bigger play area, sculpture park, a boat and bike rental place and more.

Not sure what this was. Any guesses?

This  picture is French Quarter but moved itself here and if I try to move it, it deletes the rest of my photos so I think I have a html problem with this post.

Before

After

Beignets (been yays) The lady said, "Turn it upside down and spank it" about the sugar. With the accent of course.

I wanted more sugar than beignets

Kaleb had ice cream

sculpture park

We thought about renting the pedal surreys, but it was just too hot. Next time. Or maybe the paddle boats.

We plan to go again since it's really only about six hours or a little more from us. But it's going to have to wait. 

Jasmine and I had NYC from June 11-18.
Then we had NOLA June20 and 21.
And now Jasmine, Kaleb and I are in Orlando for ICRS. Ty flies in tomorrow.
We will get home on July 1 and leave for IN on July 5.

NYC Days 5, 6 and 7

I am wondering whether or not to keep posting about NYC because it doesn't really seem to be of interest to anyone. I'm hoping that's just because everyone is so busy with trips and summer plans that they aren't sitting home reading blogs. I'm going to combine the remaining days into one post.

On our way.

On Monday we went back to the Museum of Natural History. There are really cool mosaics on the subway walls leading to it. You can actually exit the subway into the bottom floor of the museum.

Jasmine was interested in the Native American instruments.

We found this guy who is from both  "Hop" and "Night at the Museum." 

We made it a game to get the Princess book into our pictures. We also tried to find creative places to read it together  each day.

I told her to try shooting from a different angle.

Hall of African Animals

Yep. This is where we had our devos.

After the museum, we went out and walked around town for a while.

On Monday we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We did the audio tour, but didn't see nearly the whole thing.

We found the instruments!

This saxophone is 6'7" and weighs 40 lbs. Not sure how big the small saxophone is. 

This is a saxophone that was played by Bill Clinton.

We'd planned to go to the zoo, not the museum today, but rain was forecasted, so we went to the museum. It was raining when the museum closed. We had hoped to hang out right there in Central Park. Instead we headed down town on the subway.

We read the Princess book at Panera Bread!

The next day we packed out and flew home.