The Adventures of Flat Stanley

It's been a while since I last blogged not because I have nothing to say...those of you who know me know that is definitely not the case. Mostly because my computer would prefer that I not upload any pictures and my camera's memory card is requesting that I not TAKE any more pictures until I remove the ones that are currently on it.  Since I seem to be either too busy or too lazy to get another memory card and an external hard drive to put my pictures on I am destined to just write lengthy posts- not much fun!  Sooooooo...I went back into my picture folder and found pictures from our trip to New Orleans and have decided to blog about them!

Preface:
KC was doing a geography unit in first grade and her class read Flat Stanley.  She made a
Flat Stanley and had to choose someone to send him to that would take pictures with him and send back mementos from that place.  
She chose Aunt Susan (my sister) who lives in Idaho but may be anywhere in the USA at any given moment.  Who better for Flat Stanley to have an adventure with! As I said, Aunt Susan does a whooole lot of traveling and it just so happened she was going to be in New Orleans for work.  We've never been so we decided to take a long weekend trip to visit her.  Let me just say that New Orleans is both incredibly amazing, in the sense that there is so much history there and certain areas like the French Quarter make you feel as though you are stepping back in time, and incredibly dirty and sad.  There is a lot of poverty there and of course Katrina only made that worse.

Post:
Those of you who know me won't be surprised to hear that I really wanted this to be an educational experience for my children.  I wanted them to get to experience the diverse habitat and cultural history that is unique to New Orleans (yes, I do know that I'm a nerd).  With only a long weekend to do it all we had to pick and choose but the first place we went was to the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve.  We went to the Barataria Preserve and followed a nature trail through the swamp.  Yes, we saw alligators - in real life, as Annaliesse would say.

The next morning Aunt Susan met us bright and early and she brought Flat Stanley (she had forgotten him the previous day).  She also brought a delicious raspberry cream cheese King Cake that the bakery she was studying baked for us.

 We went in February. It was actually VERY warm.  They had just kicked off Mardi Gras season so we had to be a little careful with where we actually took the children.  In New Orleans you can be walking along a beautiful family friendly area of the French Quarter and turn onto a different street and suddenly they are exposed to things that they really shouldn't be seeing.  Fortunately we had my sister to navigate us and keep it all G rated.  

There were two Mardi Gras parades going on. One in the French Quarter (we DEFINITELY skipped that!) and one in Metairie.  The one in Metairie is put on by a youth crewe so we opted for that one.  I was relieved to see hundreds of families with young children there. The kids enjoyed watching the floats but they LOVED catching the beads and other things they were throwing. 

Mason looks like he's got a King Cake around his neck!  He was a favorite target among the young girls on the floats who were tossing beads :)

Even Flat Stanley enjoyed the parade!

 After the parade we headed to the French Quarter.  We did the tourist thing and ate at Bubba Gump's.  I do not regret that AT ALL!!  Mason and I shared the shrimp crawfish etouffee and it was wonderful!! 

It truly was like walking into a time capsule being in the French Quarter.  These buildings and streets have been here for hundreds of years!! Most of the French Quarter even survived Hurricane Katrina!

Flat Stanley loved Bubba Gump shrimp!

ok...I tried to just put pictures here but apparently blogger wants me to write something here... After we ate we enjoyed some jazz in Jackson Square.

Katie Claire was being a sweet big sister and gave Annaliesse her jacket after she got wet in the fountain.

This robot guy was pretty cool.  He stands on a box right outside Jackson Square and moves (robotically of course) and makes cool sounds with his mouth.  Apparently this is what he does for a living. 

And who could resist a trip to Cafe Du Monde for some delicious beignets.  The wait in line was definitely worth it!

A Beautiful view of Jackson Square at night.

This is what most of New Orleans looks like!

I almost forgot! The Bassmaster's Classic was going on while we were down there.  Unfortunately, for Trent and Mason, we didn't get to watch them weigh in or anything but we did see some of the participants on their way home.

 This was the winner!  It is a VERY bad picture taken while we were driving on I65 from Birmingham to Huntsville.

 We didn't get to do everything we would have liked but we had a great trip! We miss you so much Aunt Susan!!