Mom

My mom flew down here and spent the past week with us. We had so much fun! Here are some of the things we did while she was here.

1. My mom and I did some shopping on Magazine Street where they have lots of fun boutiques. We went into one store selling Vera Wang wedding dresses just to look at them. They were beautiful. We also stopped by Sucre and had a chocolate!


2. We walked around the French Quarter and of course we stopped at Cafe Du Monde and had a few beignets! My mom loved them!

Mom enjoying her first beignet.

Rita and Tricia enjoying their beignets and coffee.


This guy sang us a song by James Brown while walking along the Mississippi River walk.

3. We had dinner at Maximo's in the Quarter with Maw Maw and Paw Paw. It took an hour and a half for our dinner to arrive so the manager said the whole meal including dessert was on him! While there, my mom got to try crawfish.




The crew (left to right): Me, Damien, Rita, Tricia, Maw Maw, Paw Paw, and Mom.


Our chocolate covered gelato dessert!!!

4. My mom and I walked a few mornings and we got to take her to the New Orleans Athletic Club to work out.

The yoga room.

The swimming pool and stretching/boxing area is up above on the second level.
5. We took a tour of the plantation Houmas House. We took a little detour on the way there and ended up on a tiny little road wide enough for one car to barely drive on it. The detour made for a fun trip though and on the way home we barely missed hitting a rabbit crossing the road.




It was pouring rain when we got there so we all had our hoods on.


The chandeliers were beautiful and the ceiling and walls were hand-painted by the gardener.


The map on the wall in this picture is a map of all of the plantations in the state of Louisiana right before the Civil War. The map was found under some of the floor boards in the Houmas House. They think that it was hid there at the beginning of the Civil War so that the Yankees wouldn't find it. Most other maps like this were probably burned because there aren't many left today.


Here our tour guide Judy played and sang a song on the Steinway piano. It was one of the few pianos of that brand actually manufactured in Germany.


The music box still plays and the company that made it is still around today. They now make machines to manufacture chocolate.


Some of the beautiful silverware.


The spiral staircase.



The kitchen with lots of old kitchen gadgets.


The gardens were huge and very well kept.




6. We ate a lot of different places while my mom was here! We had Indian, Thai, Italian, Southern, American food and lots of dessert!

Mom, Me, Damien, and Tricia at the Creole Creamery. They are known for having unique flavors of ice cream like lavender basil and avocado. They also have really good "normal" flavors too including my favorite which is caramel chicory chocolate. They are also known for their $22 Tchoupitoulas challenge. The Tchoupitoulas has 8 scoops of ice cream and 8 toppings. If you finish it on your own then you get your name on the plaque. A few missionaries in the area have their names on the plaque!


7. We had a party with all of our friends and family so that they could meet my mom. It was a blast! We played ping pong and had a pinata.

Appearantly our pinata is a Backyardigan. Damien picked it out. He loved moving the pinata up and down while I was swinging at it! I got a few good hits on it though.


We were pooped after the party! Lots of preperation and enjoyment.

8. We took a ferry ride across from the city of New Orleans to Algiers and back. The view of the city was beautiful!


9. While walking down Royal street in the Quarter we were able to witness an interesting little scene. A police car had its lights on following this car. The lady driving the car was trying to pull it over to the side of the road but was so drunk that she ran into this pole on the sidewalk with the front of the car, managing to slide the side of the car around the pole, and then backed up into the pole. She finally stopped the car and this very feminine, hip police officer gets out and tells the guy in the car that he will not allow that lady to drive the car. It was hard to take the police officer seriously because of his high pitched voice, stylish glasses, and neatly styled hair.