A couple of weeks ago Cade had to go to New Orleans for a work conference. I've never had a desire to go there but since his boss was paying for me to fly out there I couldn't resist. I decided to take Conner with us since I wouldn't have anything to do during the day anyway. (Good thing since both grandmas were unavailable to watch him and we didn't have a choice.)
I was pretty worried about the plane ride. Mostly worried about him pooping and having no place to change him and everyone within 20 rows of us gagging to death from the smell. I figured as long as he didn't poop or have an earache from changing altitude then we would be able to manage. I came as prepared as possible bringing lots of snacks, new toys, and holding off on giving him his bottle until we took off. But it turned out we barely needed most of the stuff. We had four flights total, 2 there and 2 back. The first flight was at his naptime and I figured as long as he wasn't too interested in his surroundings he would fall right to sleep. He was a little cranky waiting to board since he was so tired but thankfully he fell asleep before we even got off the ground! (I just love this kid.) Unfortunately, my arms got pretty tired of the position so after about an hour I moved and he woke up and was too into his new surroundings that he couldn't go back to sleep. But he was pretty happy for the rest of the flight playing with the papers in the seat pocket and smiling at the lady sitting with us. During our layover in Dallas there was a fun play area that he just LOVED so we wore him (and us) out pretty good playing peek-a-boo around the bridge over and over again. So on flight number 2 he fell asleep within 10 minutes and didn't wake up until we stood to get our luggage. Flight number 3 on the way home turned out just like flight number 1, he was out before we made it to the clouds, only he slept the whole time on this one. There was only about an hour layover before our final flight so he wasn't quite worn out enough for the last flight and he was a bit cranky but after about a half hour he was out until we landed. So the flights went great and multiple people even commented on how great he was during the flight. And best of all he never pooped on the plane!! (I apologize for the the pictures becauase of course our camera was dead when I went to take the first picture and I didn't think to bring the charger so all of the pictures are from Cade's phone which isn't good.)
Playing with the seatback
The clouds
After we arrived on Saturday we just walked around near our hotel to find something to eat. It was pretty late and we didn't care to spend much time out there with the many drunks and smokers all over with our small child so we just headed back and relaxed. Conner stayed on Arizona time the whole time which was great because then we were able to go out in the evenings after the conference and not have to be back by 8 and he slept in. He never does that at home so it was great to experience that again. On Sunday while Cade was gone Conner and I took our time getting ready and then walked around the riverwalk mall that was underneath our hotel and watched some cruise ships sail away. While we were down there I learned the Louisiana is serious about their football. Every place in the food court had the football game on in the back and were asking who had the ball or whatever. Even the salon in the mall was watching the game! That evening we took some streetcars (a.k.a. trolleys, but don't tell them that) over to the Garden District and looked at very expensive antebellum homes on St. Charles Ave. Rumor has it that Sandra Bullock and Nicholas Cage both have houses in there. I don't know why but I just love riding trolleys so we had a good time doing that. And I LOVE cities that have great public transportation and you don't need to bother renting a car.
If you look closely you can see tons of beads hanging from the trees from Mardi Gras.
One of the homes
Waiting for the streetcar (FYI The streetcar named Desire is now out of commission.)
Enjoying the ride
A cool tree in Audubon Park
On Monday Conner and I sat in the hotel room and waited and waited for him to take a nap. He was pretty cranky and had a hard time going to sleep with me in sight and no rocking chair to lull him to sleep. I thought about walking him around the hallways but I felt pretty gross and couldn't take a shower without someone there to watch him because he can and does get into everything and the room was not baby proof. Thankfully Cade snuck me food from the conference, watched Conner at lunch, and eventually Conner took a nap. That evening we went to the French Quarter and wandered around. We later heard that it is very expensive to rent there and I have no idea why because it is disgusting. Its one of those places that is so old and worn down, everything looks like its falling apart, its hot and humid with lots of bars (and apparently drunks peeing in the street) and it just smelled. But to each his own... We did eat at a nice place that had a jazz band and I enjoyed a Po'boy and jambalaya. Both were good, but not something I would ever crave or want to spend money on again.
The jazz band at the restaurant
One tuckered out kid. It was his naptime Arizona time and made for a relaxing dinner.
Cade thought it would be fun to put Conner in the aligator's mouth, but Conner didn't agree.
Tuesday was another fun day wandering around the hotel looking for things to entertain us until Cade arrived. In the mall underneath us was Cafe de Mondes that sells beignets. They are square doughnuts sprinkled with powdered sugar. I love doughnuts and these were delicious! Later that night we went back to the French Quarter for a walking haunted history tour. It wasn't supposed to be scary, more informational about the places that are haunted around there. Our tour guide wasn't the most personable and was very serious. We walked past another group that was laughing and I wondered what their guide was telling them because ours didn't tell us anything funny. It also didn't help that we would stop on a corner while he talked for about 15 minutes at a time and Conner only likes walks where we are actually walking. So Cade and I took turns wandering off with him and only caught parts of stories. Needless to say, that wasn't our favorite activity.
Waiting for the Haunted History Tour
A view of the city from the river
Wednesday was our whole day to tour. We took a bus tour of the city (and Conner slept the whole way). It was really interesting. There are specific Katrina tours you can take to see the devastation and what not. We didn't go on one but every tour mentioned things related to the hurricane and this one talked a lot about it and the changes they've made since then. For example, the people in charge of turning the water pumps on and off had to evacuate during the hurricane, but now they have a special tower that can withstand 240 mph winds so they will be staying put for any future hurricanes. They also are building much higher walls and have gates that will close to stop water from rushing into certain neighborhoods. The tour guide pointed out plots of land in between houses where houses were destroyed and never rebuilt. Something like 130,000 people have left and not returned since the hurricane. (Our next tour showed us where a Walmart shopping center was destroyed and is completely gone now.) We also saw cemetaries with above ground tombs because they are below sea level and the longest bridge over water in the U.S. (24 miles). Later that day we went on a swamp tour to see some aligators. We had lots of gators come right up to our boat and held a little baby one. It started out pretty warm but then a storm started rolling in and the weather felt great and it didn't start raining until our bus was pulling away. It was a fun tour.
Some of the above ground tombs
These tombs stacked on top of each other were rentals. For various reasons people would rent them out and then the body would be moved a few years later, like when someone died of yellow fever during the outbreak and they were waiting to be sure the disease was no longer contagious. (I might be missing something, it made more sense when the tour guide explained it :)
On the swamp
An aligator about 6 years old hanging out on a log. (The number of inches from the eyes to their mouth is the number of feet long they are and their age.)
Bruno getting up close and personal, he is about 12
This boat washed up after Hurricane Katrina, after finding the owner they figured it had come about 250 miles.
Holding the baby aligator. That lady is from Argentina and she didn't speak much English so she didn't listen much during the tour and kept playing with Conner and took a photo shoot of him. Another girl on the tour was from Hong Kong, I had no idea New Orleans was so internationally known.
The tour guide said there have been about 5 weddings back in that area of the swamp. Why didn't I think to get married there?!
I hope a gator doesn't come up and take my son's toes!
This is a swamp house destroyed by the hurricane. We forgot to take a picture but there was a whole "block" of houses with people living in them and waving at us as we floated by. I truely cannot imagine what life is like for them, I just keep thinking of the Disney movie The Rescuers. One of the houses that used the cheap way to secure it floated to another part of the swamp in the hurricane and is still in tact.
All in all, it was a fun trip. We enjoyed trying out some new foods and getting away for a little bit, but we feel like we saw everything we would care about and won't need to return. Something I will miss though are saying "Praw-lines" and "Naw Leans" and being around black people, seriously. They just crack me up and a few times I saw people just brake out singing to their friends. I don't ever see that around here.
And on a side note- Conner started walking just before the trip. He still hasn't mastered it but he can take about 6 steps before he falls down. I guess I'm a terrible mom because I just realized I've never taken a picture of the momentus occasion.
