Wow! What a fabulous time we had during our recent 10-day trip to New Orleans!
The highlights:
- home-cooked New Orleans-style food (crawfish etouffee, barbecued shrimp, duck gumbo, cochon de lait, crawfish cornbread, etc.)
- fine New Orleans dining (especially Jacque-Imo's!) and classic standards (oysters at Drago's and muffalettas from Central Grocery)
- Sydney's first birthday party, a laugh-a-minute at cake time and she looked too precious with her blinking light-up #1 tiara
- Sally as the ringleader of all the kids at the annual Camenzuli Critter Dinner
- the look on Sydney's face when we walked through the Caribbean tunnel at the Aquarium of the Americas.
- Sally making her own Critter Dinner from Play-Doh while the rest of us cooked and prepped for the big event
And an extended recap:
Wednesday we flew into the Baton Rouge airport -- what a nice regional airport! I for one was impressed. The flight was a breeze, very easy (non-stop, about 2 1/2 hours on Frontier). Kelly had crawfish etouffee waiting for us for dinner (yum!) and we toured Francois and Kelly's new house before a quick visit to see Nana and Poppy.
Thursday we spent the day with Papa Rich, who was in town accompanying his wife (Gigi) to a conference for her company. Gigi & Papa Rich will soon be relocating to Indianapolis, Indiana and are very excited about the move. Thursday night, Kelly served us homemade gumbo made from duck and turkey (delish!) and we hung out for awhile. Sydney got some one-on-one time with Nana and Poppy.
Friday, we all ran errands and worked on Critter Dinner prep. We took the kids to an early dinner at Drago's with Papa Rich & Gigi before they headed out of town. That night, we watched Ratatouille with the kids (before bedtime) and Blades of Glory sans kids (after bedtime).
Saturday Sally got a solo visit to Nana and Poppy's while the rest of us focused on Critter Dinner prep, and man, was there a lot to do! Well, if you know Francois, you know he puts on quite a spread every year and this year was certainly no exception. He created a "Swamp Sauna" contraption out of some damaged elevator doors and used it to roast a suckling pig which was just divine. The Critter Dinner was a huge success (as usual) and Sally was in her element, directing activities and creating excitement for all the kids who attended the party.
Sunday we cleaned up party remnants (much of which was done Saturday night) and got ready for Sydney's big day. I made a cupcake cake in teh shape of an angel for our Angel Baby and we also made her little happy cake for the big "1." Then we piled into 2 cars and headed over to Independence, LA for Sydney's big first b-day party for family and friends. Grammy had arrived in town that morning, so she joined us along with Nana and Poppy, Nanann and Pops and Penny and Emily, Aunt Kelly and Ton-Ton, Antoine and Francine, and some friends of Susu's (Makayla and Roland, and Lee & Carol) and we all had some yummy food at Aunt Susu's house. Too bad Uncle Norm was sick, he and Aunt BeBe missed quite a show when Sydney started in on her little cake! We shot video and loads of pictures.
Sunday night, Aunt Kelly was beat (did you know she is 7 1/2 months pregnant?) so she hung out on the sofa and Francois and Andy and I took Sydney to Little Tokyo for a yummy sushi meal. Sally got to spend the night at Aunt Susu's house, and they had a great time.
Monday morning, Anita arrived bright and early to collect Sydney and Andy and they went to breakfast and then did some geocaching. I had a couple of coaching calls that morning, and the house was nice and quiet. Aunt Susu brought Sally to the house so she could check out the Camenzuli diggs, and then we brought Sydney to meet up with Nana and go out for our annual Generational Christmas lunch. Yes, we are aware it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet, but this is the way it goes sometimes when 3 of the key players have moved away! We tried a sweet spot called Sucre (French for sugared) and had a nice meal together. We tried to hit Angelo Brocato's after that, but it was closed, so we bid farewell to Nana and Aunt Susu and spent some time with Grammy before she had to go back to her hotel to make some phone calls for Landmark. Later, Nana and Poppy babysat that night while Mommy & Daddy enjoyed a grown-up evening out wtih Francois and Kelly at one of our favorite restaurants in New Orleans, Jacque-Imo's. DIVINE!!! I had the fried green tomatoes appetizer, each of which was topped with a HUGE shrimp, followed by the seafood-stuffed merliton. An absolutely extraordinary meal. We were drinking some kind of Bordeaux that was sheer perfection, and we had a great time.
Tuesday we really took it easy during the day -- Francois and Kelly both had to work that day, and I had a number of coaching calls scheduled, but we did manage to meet up for lunch at the house -- muffalettas from Central Grocery. Yes! As good as I'd remembered (although they could always use a bit more olive salad!) Tuesday afternoon I took Sally for a walk (perfect weather) before it was time to get ready and head over to NAna & Poppy's for Thanksgiving dinner. We had to have it on Tuesday night since Susan was working (flying for Southwest) on Thursday. Norm was feeling much better, and it was great to see him & Brenda there. Great Aunt Betty joined us as well, which was a nice surprise.
Wednesday, Kelly was working but Francois was off, so we loaded up the kids and headed downtown. We went to the Aquarium (Sydney LOVED it...Sally's favorite part was seeing the scuba divers feeding the fish in the Caribbean exhibit. She was particularly fascinated by the female scuba diver...it was almost as though she had never considered being a diver until she saw that girl doing it...no matter how many times in teh past Mommy has told her that SHE dives!). We also went to the very top of Canal Place to see the largest geocache we've ever found (Sally got a dolly) and then we headed into the Quarter to visit my old favorite jewelry shop: New Orleans Gem & Lapidary on St. Philip Street. I was delighted to not only see it open adn thriving, but to see the same original owner (Guy) manning the store and cranking out simply divine designs. We made quite a few purchases, including a Larimar ring for me (stunning), a mookaite bracelet to match the necklace I brought back from Australia, and a stone we've never seen before called Angelite. Francois was planning to simply look but once he saw this breathtaking cameo ring (carved from agate) of a fleur-de-lis, he knew he HAD to buy it for Kelly. So he did! And that night, we all piled into 2 cars and drove to the West Bank for excellent chinese food at Empress of China. And this was where Francois presented the ring! And of course she LOVED it.
Thursday was Thanksgiving day...Andy took Sally geocaching in the morning while I relaxed and caught up on some emails and miscellaneous work. Francois and Kelly hosted and open house starting at 1pm, and Andy and I took the girls out to run some errands and make a final grocery run. Much like some of our parties, guests were there for a very, VERY long time and Francois eventually had to let people know it was time to go home by 10PM! Yes, I agree 9 hours is quite a long time for a pregnant lady to host so many people in her home. :-) We bailed out for a couple of hours during the party to visit Nana and Poppy one last time. We found out Sydney LOVES pumpkin pie and I discovered that packing doesn't have to be stressful when you start organizing early. I got one whole suitcase packed before the open house even started.
Friday was all about getting organized and ready to leave. Since there was a HUGE LSU game at 1:30, we left the house around 11:30AM with our leftover muffaletta in hand and headed to the Baton Rouge airport to go back home. Francois was very kind to drive us, especially since it was his birthday, but we had a good chat in the car. The flight back was uneventful -- Mommy & Sally slept for half of the flight, & Sydney slept the entire flight after she got her takeoff bottle. We were happy to be home, and I managed to unpack all the suitcases before our pizza arrived. We caught up on our missed Survivor episodes and flopped into bed.
Ah, home sweet home!
