N'awlins, Part I

GH and I spent a fabulous two days in New Orleans all by our ownselves over Thanksgiving. It was so wonderful, so relaxing, so lacking in kids! It was amazing! Key and Grandpa kept the chirrens and they claim to have had an excellent time as well. They brought the kids over to NOLA to spend two days with us, going to the zoo and the Insectarium. I know Key and Grandpa declared that they adored the children and loved spending time with them, but lo and behold, their mini van burned rubber out of Orleans Parrish rather than go to the Insectarium. Apparently the zoo did them in. I present to you here pictorial evidence of our awesomeness; take from it what you will. I neglected to get a picture of the six foot man wearing a bikini top and tutu on Bourbon Street. My apologies.

I think you know where this is going..... 

Yep, Cafe du Monde, every morning we were there. Beignets, a giant cup of cafe au lait with the excess powdered sugar from the beignets spooned in, and a crazy man playing a trumpet out on the street. He was enthusiastic, that crazy man. And loud. 

Look how relaxed! How youthful! Must have been before the kids came over. 

Look how non-twitchy I am as I sip my coffee! No stress! No bizarre food particles stuck in my hair from a kid gesturing wildly while eating! Awesome! And now, on to the zoo!

Ick. Gross. Stop touching that thing. 

We all know that I am a bit more, shall we say, relaxed, than my mother? Apparently when I was a wee lass of about six or so, my class took a field trip to this exact zoo and this exact Discovery Zone, aka the petting zoo. And it seems that a goat took an interest in me because I was a dollop of adorableness that looked tasty beyond belief. So the ol' goaty goat wanders over and takes a nibble of my dress, a nibble of the lace-edged sock that was on my black and white saddle shoes (my mother was a bit particular) and then its little goat lips nibbled up the hem of my dress, around to the front, and before my mother could stop it, ate my name tag right off my chest! She was utterly horrified that I was touching a barnyard animal in the first place but the fact that it had the effrontery to eat my name tag? Unacceptable! I don't think I touched a goat again until I was an adult. And then I milked one at my friend's house. But don't tell my mother. 

Clearly I have no hang ups about goat-touching. 

As you know, GG1 loves cheetahs and frequently pretends to be Cheetarah. When I saw this statue, I was excited. She was not. This was all I could get out of her. 

MOS was obsessed with the zoo map that he clutched in his hands the whole time. Even whilst riding a speeding antelope. Or gazelle. Whatever. It was running away from the cheetah. 

And Little Miss Cooperative here enjoyed the cheetah muchly! 

While others of us rolled our eyes in consternation. 

Even though it looks like MOS is about to fall, I assure you, he did not. He merely sat down right where he was and then shrieked like a girl until I came over and rescued him. Good times! 

Here's me, posing reluctantly with the lizard. No one would be in the picture with me since I had worn them out trying to get that pic in the header of this entry. Oh well. I can do bad all by myself.

Stay tuned for Part II of our N'awlins trip. We went to the Insectarium and ate crickets. Delightful!