Thursday, February 19, 2015

Back home

We got back home, right before bed last night.  We had a lot of fun, but I am so glad to be back home.

Here we are at 4:00 am sitting in the Spokane airport waiting for our flight. 

Visiting New Orleans and going to Mardi Gras, has always been on my Aunts bucket list, so we checked that off for her.  She was super excited, and already had beads and a mask before we left.  She even had her nails done up in Mardi Gras colors, so she's showing them off.  :)

 Mom, trying on a hat at the New Orleans airport when we arrived.  I think she was getting excited as well.

When we arrived in New Orleans, we paid for the shuttle to drop us off at our hotel and scheduled for them to take us back to the airport yesterday.  Well there was so much traffic and people that it took us 2 hours to get to our hotel.  It was crazy!!!  They could only take us part of the way to our hotel, because streets were blocked off for parades.  So the driver parked as close as she could, and then we had to walk the rest of the way.  Thankfully she led us most of the way.  We had to walk about a dozen blocks up and down the middle of the French Quarter.  You can just imagine us, walking right through Bourban Street, pulling our giant suitcases and bags down the middle of the street, after dark.  I guess the driver had been mugged the night before, when she was taking other people through the streets to their hotels, so that was comforting.  Ha! 

Anyway, we made it to the hotel, and then went and found a place to get some dinner.
 
Lots of fun and funky costumes for sale everywhere.

The next morning, we went back down in the French Quarter and did some shopping and people watching.  All of their facial expressions crack me up! 

This was the extent of my dressing up.  It was so cold down there and I've been fighting off a cold.  I wore this hat and scarf type thing around my neck.  At least it kept me a bit warmer.  And after seeing this picture, I decided it's time for a haircut! 



These two were so excited!

When I've thought of or heard about Mardi Gras, I always thought about women walking around and showing off their "ladies" to get beads.  Well, that is something that I've had no desire to see or be around.  It may happen down on Bourban Street, but where we were a bit more uptown, it was completely clean and there was none of that.  I was pleasantly surprised.  :)  I didn't see anything inappropriate the whole time!  There were tons of families, and grandparents.  Lots of parades, and people just stood along the side catching beads and cheering. 

Monday, we took a carriage ride and toured the French Quarters.  

It was a lot of fun to see the whole area and learn some neat things about it.  We even stopped at one of the cemetery's, which was a bit creepy.




Before we had left to come on this trip, I had googled good places to eat.  This Napoleon House kept coming up.  The building is really neat, but honestly I wouldn't eat there again or recommend it.  It was our least favorite place that we ate at the whole trip.

I couldn't get over the amount of trash that was left in the street from the parade.  They come by quickly and clean it up.  But still, it was unreal.


My cousin and I had decided to skip this parade, so just our mothers went.  Well, we ended up getting a phone call from them, saying that they had too many beads and couldn't carry them all!  Hahaha!  A lot of people didn't want the beads, but these two dorks, had so much fun!  Ha!  My Aunt had on a hat that we had bought to keep our ears warm, and she had bags that she was putting her beads in.  We kept laughing because she kind of looked a bit homeless, and some guy even gave her his broken chair. 


This was all they could carry and Michelle and I carried the rest of the beads that aren't even in the picture.  We laughed and said next time, we are nominating 2 of their other kids to come chaperone these two!  ;)
 Lots of fun, but it's definitely nice to be home!

Dan picked Emma up from school yesterday because her ear was hurting.  He made an appointment and they said she has an ear infection, so he got her medication and came home with her.  Well, sometime shortly after her appointment, her ear drum burst.  :(  Poor girl!  She is so tough!  I had that happen to me years ago when I was a kid and I remember how awful it was.  So today, we are at home hanging out.  Gracie has a good cough, so she's home with us as well.   It should be a good day to catch up on laundry and take it easy! 


2 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun trip Jenny. I love the history down there. And going for Mardi Gras. You wild ladies, haha!

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  2. I've always wanted to go to New Orleans for marti gras! how fun!

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