New Orleans

We've been in Florida for almost two months and we are bored. HA! How many times can we go to the beach? So, Matt and I started looking at a map and were checking how far things were from where we are in Florida. Just for future reference, Fort Walton Beach is in the middle of nowhere! In looking at the map we started talking about where to go and what to do, and we had talked about New Orleans. It has always been sort of a running joke with me and Matt about Mardi Gras and the whole bead issue. As in, he can have beads to give away but I wasn't "allowed" to get beads. Which is fine with me because normally you get beads by flashing guys with beads, since Matt is the only man who will ever see my boobs I was destine to never receive any beads anyhoo.

We wake up on Saturday morning (9/26/09) and Matt asks me if I want to go to New Orleans, and I say sure, let's go. So we pack up an overnight bag, grab the kids and are on the road by 10am. It's a 4 hour drive from Fort Walton Beach to New Orleans, it's a boring 4 hours too, I kept looking out the window at the swamps we were driving by trying to see an alligator.....I don't think I saw any, saw something but we went by to fast to be sure it wasn't just a stick in the mud. We drove through, Florida, into Alabama, then into Mississippi, and finally into Louisiana. We crossed Lake Pontchartrain, a very, very long bridge and we got into the outskirts of New Orleans. I think Matt put it best, "It looks gamey." There were so many water damaged houses, and half finished repairs, it looked very depressed. I would have loved to see the area before hurricane Katrina to have a basis of comparison.

I had the GPS set to the French Quarter of New Orleans so we got off the 10 freeway on Canal Street and then drove down through downtown New Orleans to Bourbon Street. I think most adults have heard stories about Mardi Gras and know that the French Quarter is all about partying. Let me tell you Bourbon Street isn't very kid friendly, with Larry Flynn's Hustler bar, and every imaginable sex shop dealing their wares right out on the street. I was worried that we had made a horrible mistake. So we drove down Bourbon street, and then got off of Bourbon street and on to Royal Street. We were looking for a hotel, so I was calling places as we were driving by to see what their rate for the night was and if they had any rooms available. I had read about the Andrew Jackson Hotel online before we had left and it sounded nice, and so when we drove by it, I called and they had a room at a reasonable rate ($119 per night, some of the other places I called wanted $250 a night).

Now parking in the French Quarter is non-existent. We were able to stop long enough to unload me and the kids with the luggage and then Matt had to go off and find public parking a few blocks away.



After getting settled in our room, and Matt had made his way back to the hotel, we set off to explore. In the entry way of the hotel they had all of those many, many flyer's telling all about the many, many things to do in New Orleans. Madeline LOVES to grab one of each of those things every time we go somewhere new. I was looking at them along with her and I found one that talked about a Haunted History Tour of the French Quarter. It started at 6pm and went to 8pm. Perfect, not too late but late enough that it would be dark by the time we were done. It was to meet in front of the Rev. Zombies Voodoo shop. We were off, we walked down Royal and then we went up to Bourbon. I should have known better, from our drive in, but it's Bourbon street, you have to go to Bourbon street.....right? Well, we walked the entire length of Bourbon street, and let's just say the kids are fine, but I am mentally scared for life. The "shillers" on the street were crazy. One guy told Matt, "If he's (Connor)got a fake ID he can come in too." He was trying to get them into a strip club. Another "club" had a girl in a very small bikini in the door way and directly behind her was a photo of two girls getting "busy". Very explicit.

On the good side of that, there were musicians playing music in the streets, and it was good music, very festive. There were magicians, and all sorts of different performers. The atmosphere was very much like carnival. Needless to say, I had one kid and Matt had the other one by the hand at all times. It was hot and muggy and at one point started to pour, and of course we were on Bourbon street....where to go, where to go.....we found a gift shop/voodoo shop and went in and looked around while we waited for the rain to stop. Just like in Florida it never rains for very long.

We were getting hungry so we were looking for a place to eat and saw an Oyster Bar, it looked good so we went in, just in time because it was starting to rain again. I ordered a Muffaletta sandwich, and Matt had crab corn bisque. My sandwich was HUGE. There was no way I was going to be able to get my mouth around the whole sandwich, so I took it apart and ate it piece by piece. Oh man, it was sooo good. Ham, prosciutto, and salami topped with an olive salad. Yummy has a new name and it's Muffaletta.


After dinner it was time to meet up with the Haunted History Tour. We had a really good guide, his name was Midian and was very informative. He took us to a lot of different haunted houses and businesses. While we were going we noticed that we were close to our hotel, so I leaned over and asked Matt if I should ask about our hotel, he said sure, so when Midian was done with the Corn Stalk Hotel (apparently where Elvis stayed while filming King Creole) I asked him about the Andrew Jackson, he asked if we were staying there, and I said yep, and then he goes into these stories about how it was haunted by small boys from when I was a boys school and guests can hear children playing in the courtyard when there aren't any children staying at the hotel. Then he tells us about how one couple had a few photos left on a disposable camera and when they went to have them developed they were shocked to see three photos taken of them in the hotel while they were sleeping, and they were taken from the ceiling!!! The kids eyes got huge at that one. He also told us about guests who had the covers pulled off of them in the middle of the night. Okay, so we are staying in a haunted hotel. That was on my life's to-do list, so I can check that off.

The Haunted History Tour was very good. It took us all around the French Quarter and showed us things that weren't Mardi Gras and was filled with history. We saw Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, the oldest building in New Orleans, originally built in 1770. Then we saw the most haunted house in New Orleans, the Lalaurie House. This place was the sight of some gruesome experiments done on the slaves, and murders. Presently, the house is owned by Nicholas Cage. Apparently, he will have dinner in the house but will not sleep there. The stories churned my stomach, and I was a little worried it was a bit much for the kids. But the kids seemed to be fine, listening and not freaking out. After the tour ended back at St Louis Cathedral, we went and had gelato for dessert. I had a mojito gelato that was super yummy.



The night went by without incident. The only strange thing that I could see was that I was freezing. Matt was laughing at me because it was crazy hot outside, but I was freezing cold. I had to get an extra blanket out of the closet and the instant I got that extra blanket, I fell asleep.


The next morning, we got up and went down to Cafe' Du Monde' It is a famous cafe' at the French Market. It has been open 24 hours a day 7 days a week since the early 1860's. We had cafe' au lait with beignets. Oh, so good. The coffee was so good and the beignets were fresh and hot and covered in powdered sugar. The kids were happy because they were basically getting a donut for breakfast. We walked around a little bit more and I have to say that the atmosphere of the French Quarter from Saturday night to Sunday morning changed dramatically. There was no traffic and hardly anyone was out and about. While we were trying to find Connor an alligator head (that's what he wanted for his souvenir) we saw street cleaners and sidewalk washers. Wow, I have to say how nice it was to smell the sidewalk washer's cleaning solution rather than the icky sewer smell that continually wafted up as we were walking around. New Orleans smelled of sewage and old beer, mixed with an undertone of puke. Of course you have to understand that over the years a ton of people have come through and the smell I would think is to be expected.

We left about 24 hours after getting there. It was a fun trip and memorable. I am glad that we went.

"for your age..."

I have slowly started making friends with the wives of Matt's army buddies. The women are very nice and friendly and I feel right at home talking with them. The only thing is that I am a good 15 years older than them. I am the old lady!!! Waaaahhhh. I don't want to be the old lady, I am still cool and hip and I have young kids...okay so maybe they aren't as little as they once were, but I don't want to be seen as the old person.

One day I was swimming with one of the wives, she is 9+ months pregnant and is the epitome of the beautiful pregnant woman. She looks like I only dreamed of looking when I was pregnant, she glows and is all baby belly, nothing extra unlike me when I was pregnant....any way. We were talking about recovering our body after having kids and I made the off handed remark that I needed to lose about 10lbs. Her response to me was, and I will quote her here; "You look great (now if she had stopped there I would be okay)FOR YOUR AGE"!!!!! Waaahhhhh! I look great for an almost 40 year old, boohoo, waaaahhh. I want to cry. What an absolute slam to my ego. I honestly don't sit around worrying about growing older, if I have wrinkles it's because I earned them by laughing so damn much at my kids, and if I have gray hair, I fully blame my husband. I just never, ever though of myself as old as I must seem to these young beautiful wives.

My only consolation is the knowledge that in time they too will eventually "look great for their age." bwaahahahahaha

Procrastination

Who me? Procrastinate? But of course! HA! Okay, maybe I have an excuse, we moved from Alabama to Florida right after we came back from DC, and I didn't have time to finish writing my blog. It kills me that I half way wrote about our trip and then didn't finish. I haven't forgotten about the trip to Washington DC, but the trip has been moved to the back of my head after spending almost a month in the sun down here in Florida.

I have to say I absolutely love Florida. If I could have my house and my stuff right here, I would be happy to stay. We are living in Fort Walton Beach, FL. It is a tourist destination, and there are a bunch of touristy things for sale, and the restaurants are geared towards the tourists. But despite that it really feels like a small town. The apartment complex that we are living in has the most friendly people working here. The General Manager is super friendly and nice and helpful. It feels like a small town where everyone knows each other, and they have all been together for years, but then they are also willing to include this strange outsider from California in the discussions.



Now the beach is unbelievable! Honestly, I am not a big beach person. I don't go out to lay in the sun and get skin cancer. I like to be clean and covered in sunscreen, but the beach here is the nicest, cleanest most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The only thing that comes close is Hawaii. Hawaii has the beautiful beaches and warm water too, but here it is so close and accessible. The beach is almost boring it is so clean and the water is so clear. Matt will go snorkeling and he will be looking for something to look at and he won't find anything. The only thing to find is these little fish that love to nibble on my toes. Apparently I have yummy toes, either that or I need a pedicure really badly.

Washington DC

So, after sitting around Alabama going crazy, I started looking at maps and seeing how far things were, and I discovered that DJ and Justin lived only 7.5 hours away from Huntsville, and then it was only 5.5 hours from Winston-Salem, NC to Washington DC. I started plotting my escape, uhm I mean adventure. First thing was to see if DJ was wanting to see DC as much as I was, she was so excited that she wanted to go right then, sweet! Let the planning commence. I spent the next week looking at maps, learning the Metro system stops, finding hotels and trying to see what we could do in two days. There's so much to see and do in DC, and since this was my fourth trip to the Nations Capitol I wanted it to be a good trip for DJ and the kids. I found a super cheap hotel in Alexandria which is on the outskirts of DC, booked it for two nights and then packed up the kids and started driving to North Carolina. We left Monday morning (7/20/09) we have traveled Hwy 40 so much that I feel like I know it very well, so the trip was nice and uneventful.

We got to Winston-Salem about 6ish, and DJ took us to the hospital where Justin works as a first year resident. There was a very cool playground on the roof and we were able to look at downtown Winston-Salem and the kids were able to play and work off some energy after being stuck in the car for 7.5 hours. DJ and Justin took us out to pizza for dinner and I had the yummiest chicken pesto pizza, and the kids had their boring pepperoni and olive pizza.

Tuesday morning we didn't wake up quite as early as we wanted but oh well, we got on the road and made it to Alexandria, VA in record time.....me speed? You bet'cha. We got to the hotel about 3pm and immediately went to the Metro station and took the Metro to L'Efant Plaza, got off and walked right into the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Great news the Smithsonian museums were staying open until 7:30pm! Awesome! It was about 4ish by then so we decided to walk across the mall to the National Gallery since it was going to close at 5pm. I personally love the National Gallery. It is my favorite museum in DC and I could spend a week in there and still not see everything. We wandered around a little, and then went down stairs to try and find the gift shop, I had a mission, I wanted to replace some Monet cards that I had gotten the last time I was in DC with Matt in 2005. On our way to the gift shop we stumbled onto a room that I had never seen it was full of ancient statues! I as stunned and amazed and oh so very happy. Connor found his favorite Auguste Rodin's The Thinker.

It was about 5pm and we were asked to leave by very nice friendly ubiquitous guards.

We then walked through the National Gallery Sculpture Garden which I had never seen before and was very impressed. There was a sculpture of a house that was an optical illusion that was just super cool.

Homesick

I have been homesick before. When I was only 16 and living in Germany I got incredibly homesick around Thanksgiving and I sucked it up and my time in Germany was wonderful. I have only fantastic memories of that experience. But now I am literally HOMEsick. I miss my HOME. I miss our house with our wonderful concrete floors that keep the house so nice and cool during the 100 degree summers, I miss the bare white walls that we never painted because we couldn't agree (actually Matt likes the white and I hate it but that's another post), I miss the deer eating all of my plants, I miss the absolute quiet on a summer evening only broken up by the sound of crickets and birds. I even miss the rattlesnakes and scorpions that I always end up having to kill if Matt's not around because while Connor is a spider killer he hasn't quite mastered the art of killing a fast moving scorpion and there's no way I am letting them close enough to kill a rattlesnake. Madeline runs screaming like the true drama queen that she is at the mere mention of a creepy crawly.....

I miss having MY stuff around me, having MY stove to cook on, having MY washer and dryer to to laundry in, and having MY bed to sleep in, I miss being able to let the kids go outside and play and not having to worry about who is around because there wasn't anyone around. I miss letting Madeline ride her bike up and down the driveway, I miss hearing Connor play with his cars in his bedroom at night before he fell asleep.

If I had MY house here in AL this experience would be much different. If we had rented a house instead of an apartment maybe this would be better too. I don't know, all I know is while sitting here in this cigarette smelling apartment listening to the neighbors talk while they are out on their patios drinking and smoking, is that I miss California and I miss my HOME.

I was told once that HOME is where all of your stuff is, and I thought I would be fine with just the bare essentials of my HOME. What do you know she was right HOME is where my family and my stuff is, and so I am here in AL only half of a home. Granted the important part of HOME is here, my husband and kids are here, but man I miss my STUFF!

Wud Fer Sale.....

Those of you that actually read this must know me, and to know me is to know that little stupid things drive me insane. I like to think of myself as easy going, but little things like misspellings and poor grammar drive me nuts, imagine my horror this past weekend at seeing a sign painted on the side the road that read, "Wud Fer Sale"!!! OH MY GOD! Seriously, that's what you put on a sign?! Okay, I know that I was in Butt F**ked Egypt, (BFE) also commonly known as rural Tennessee, but come on, you are going to take the time to paint a sign showing that you have wood for sale and you can't take the time to figure out how to write wood for sale?!

Okay, now that that is off my chest let me tell you about our adventures through rural North Carolina and then into Tennessee. If you haven't ever seen the movie Deliverance then some of my references might not make sense, but if you have seen the movie then let me rest some of your preconceived notions to rest, YES that movie was filmed in TN and in GA and YES, it really looks just like the movie, and YES they will stand out on the street with their banjo's and play duelling banjo's like they are proud of this fact. The countryside is stunningly beautiful, it is lush and green and it looks like if you stepped 50 feet from the road you would be lost forever and nobody would come looking for you.

I try not be be a snobby Californian while we explore this part of the country, we are going to be here for a little time and I really want to enjoy our time here, but man I feel like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. I can barely understand them when they talk, it's like I know they are speaking English but I just can't understand the words that are coming out of their mouths. We spent the night in Spruce Pine, NC and we asked the lady at the front desk for directions to a place to eat dinner, Matt was standing right next to me while she rattled off something that sounded like "y'all go down right then head towards town and there's a good steakhouse on the left." We get back in the car and Matt asks me what she said, and we end up laughing at the fact that neither of us understood a word she said. We found the "good steakhouse" and it turned out to be a buffet! Not my idea of a good steakhouse, we ended up finding a Pizza Hut and had pizza for dinner.

The weekend was wonderful, (the 4th of July weekend) we went hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains and had a great time with DJ and Justin exploring Tennessee with them and North Carolina with the Gem Mountain Mining experience. I have to say that Gatlinburg, TN reminded me a little like Vegas, with all of the cheesy t-shirt and souvenir shops and they had a ton of wedding chapels. The only thing missing was the gambling. Apparently Gatlinburg is a major destination for the 4th and it was fun to people watch while walking around downtown.

Alabama....

Okay, I have come to the realization that I am a snob. I do not smoke or drink to excess. I like having a clean orderly house and am polite because I like people. We are here in Alabama, the trip across country was fun, except for getting food poisoning in Oklahoma(hint do not eat hamburgers in Oklahoma!). We are here in Huntsville, and the people are super nice, but there's no sense of urgency for anything. We were told when we moved in that the washer and dryer would be installed on that day (Friday) and after asking about them three times, they were installed yesterday (Tuesday). They are OLD and DIRTY!!!! Scary dirty too, not just dusty, but caked on crap from the millions of load of laundry they did before being taken to our apartment. Old I could live with as long as they worked did it really matter how new they were? But dirty I have a major problem with. I was in tears as I scrapped the caked on crap off of the inside and outside of both the washer and dryer.....deep breathing excersises helped a little.


We have been spending a lot of time down at the apartment pool. The kids are in 7th heaven, they get to swim for about two hours a day. I don't mind because I can get in get wet, get out and sit in the shade and read my books while the kids play. I also get a front row seat to the on going drama of the other residence at the complex. The drinking, I can sort of see, it's stinkin' hot and humid and drinking a cold beer would hit the spot, but the consistent drinking to the point where you can't walk in a straight line to the bathroom is a little excessive. Now add to that two little kids that can't swim and that would be one mom that was down at the pool yesterday. The kids were yelling "mommy!!!" and the mom was just laughing and giggling with the ubiquitious men who were providing the beer. Then there is the smoking. EVERYONE here smokes. There's ash all around the pool, and our apartment stinks. It's either because of the previous residence or it could be the person living below us smokes, but the place stinks. I got a candle and all it did was make the apartment stink like smoke and candle. While watching the drunk mom yesterday I noticed a pregnant mom with a two year old little boy, and I watched in horror as she lit up and proceeded to smoke her way through a whole pack of cigarrettes while we were down at the pool.

I am trying my best to not be judgmental, and snobby. I honestly like the people I have met so far. Absolutely everyone is super nice, and friendly. The drunk people are nice to the kids and they are friendly as the light-up. I am just having a bit of culture shock.