One of our annual summer events is our "sister week". This year we took our time together on tour. We started in Ruston where we slowed the pace for our city-dwelling family members from Dallas by shucking corn and shelling peas under the fan on the porch.
The kids played with the chickens, harvested veggies from the garden, and hung their Eno hammocks out in the trees. Later, James took them riding in one of his old convertibles. (When they got home and were putting the top up, James told them to roll the windows up. After bewilderedly looking around, they asked, "How?" After a quick lesson, they decided actually cranking a window handle was "awesome"!) Dusky dark brought out fireflies and bats followed by a vacation opening- ceremony fireworks display.
The next morning we headed for my sister, Carole's house in Mobile where we further slowed our pace with a morning at the beach. At Dauphine Island we walked the bird sanctuary where we fed turtles and fish, which brought out a curious alligator. Then we headed over to the estuarium for sting ray petting and seahorse gawking.
That evening we took a fantastic tour of Mobile Harbor. The kids enjoyed being on the boat and the adults enjoyed all the interesting facts and trivia we learned. Everyone enjoyed the dolphins that sporadically played around the boat.
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| The USS Alabama,that the boys visited earlier in the day, viewed from the water. |
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| A derelict ship used by the Coast Guard for training exercises. |
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| So interesting to see a close-up view of a ship in dry dock. |
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| A new boat designed for fighting groups like Somali pirates. |
Then it was on to New Orleans were the main tourist attraction was.....
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| OLIVE!!!!! |
Besides babysitting, we visited Mardi Gras World. Now we've gone to New Orleans a zillion time, but never visited this tourist attraction because it is...well, a tourist attraction. But for the benefit of our younger family members and their friends who had never been to Mardi Gras, we decided this might be fun, and IT WAS!!!
The video that explains Mardi Gras really did a great job, and the kids enjoyed sampling king cake. The tour allows you to see behind the scenes where artists are constructing components for this year's floats. The floats themselves were so impressive and our tour guide's interesting Mardi Gras trivia was pretty cool. And yes, having totally gotten into a touristy frame of mind, we did dress up like fools!
While in NOLA our dad took his first Uber, and we all took our first pedicabs.
We spend our last night sharing a wonderful dinner at Katie's in Mid-City. They serve the most delicious charbroiled oysters without the loud, crowded, touristy enviroment of the Quarter.
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| The kids were sitting at their own table behind us. Thanks, Katherine, for taking the picture!! |
Early the next morning we bid farewell to New Orleans by riding the street car down to Cafe du Monde for beignets.
Then it was time to head out to our favorite place on earth- Mom and Dad's back porch in Many. While the women folk sat on the porch enjoying cool glasses of wine, Dad monitored the kids' target shooting. The holiday ended with a much anticipated Blizzard-run to Dairy Queen followed by closing-ceremony fireworks.
We loved taking our sisters' week on tour this summer. Moving from place to place and sampling what each of our homes had to offer was lots of fun. But as always, it was really just about being together!!
Love ya'll,
Shelli
Oh, why can't we break away from all this, just you and I, and lodge with my fleas in the hills? I mean, flee to my lodge in the hills.
~S.J. Perelman, Will B. Johnstone, and Arthur Sheekman, Monkey Business
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