The Week, Family, New Orleans, Plantations, Alone Time!

This has been a whirlwind few days. It started off with going to visit Aunt Ann, Uncle Bill and Grammy on the fourth. Of course, as you can see, Jack loved being there and so did Laura.

We got back home on Friday when Jim and I left for our weekend alone in New Orleans. We had a great time being all by ourselves for the first time in almost four years! I didn't even miss Jack all that much, but I have to admit that today I was happy to get home to see him. And from what I hear, he didn't have any problem with me being gone either. Not bad because that was the longest time that I had ever been away from him ever, so I think we did pretty good.

Of course Aunt Ann spoiled the kids rotten as is her way :). I did hear of one time when they decided to go to Krispy Kreme at 7:30 at night and load the boy up with sugar. HA! That will teach her. From what I hear he was bouncing off the walls for hours. Now she knows what we go through when she brings gummy worms and proceeds to give the boy the entire bag and then up and leaves us with the resulting consequence. HA! She has lived through the boy on a major sugar high now. It ain't pretty.

Making flag cookies with Aunt Ann and Sissy.

Grammy C. and Jack enjoying a chair together.

There is a nest in the corner of Aunt Ann's porch with three little baby birdies. So cute.

Mama Birdie feeding her babies.

All-American Fourth of July kids.

The kids had a blast in Aunt Ann and Uncle Bill's pool. In fact, Laura even went swimming when it was pouring down rain. She's a fish, I tell ya.

On Saturday, we went driving on River Road where the river plantations are located near New Orleans. There are absolutely beautiful and stunning plantations along the Mississippi River dating back to the early 1800's. The first one we went to was the Laura Plantation, which was run mainly by the women in the family for generations, the last being Laura, hence the name Laura Plantation. Of course, we had to buy Laura a t-shirt from there.

The front of Laura Plantation, which was a creole style plantation. I learned that the creole or French people decorated their houses in the bright colors while the American plantations were all white. I thought the history and the tour was fascinating.

We then went down the road to Oak Alley Plantation pictured above. This place was beyond breathtaking. Named after the 28 oaks that were lined up in front of the house. The oak trees were actually planted in the early 1700's, over a 100 years before the house was built.

The trees were gigantic and beautiful. Here you can see that at one point the giant tree limbs actually grew down to the ground and started to grow back up. Very beautiful trees.

View of the oak alley from the front porch.

We had a fun time in New Orleans. On Friday night we walked around the French Quarter, had a few drinks and dinner and just loved being childless. On Saturday, we spent the day touring plantations and then went out to Antoine's for dinner. Very nice and it was fun to dress up for dinner for a change. But the party animals that we are, we were back in the room and asleep by 10:00 that night. Yes, it is a fact that we are old!

We stayed in a fabulous little bed and breakfast, The Chimes. I highly recommend it for anybody who might find themselves in New Orleans.

Anyway, that is my last few days. Now it is back to normal stuff.