Last week Josiah and I had a few days together in New Orleans. It was Josiah's first time flying. He wasn't sure about flying going in to it, but soon after take off, he said he was a fan of flying.
Our main purpose to going to New Orleans was to help my uncle and aunt inventory the yearly shipment of school supplies to Rosslyn Academy in Nairobi, Kenya. Jeremy and I did this a few years ago and I wrote about the process in this blog post:
http://carlaslittlethings.blogspot.com/2019/01/school-supplies-for-rosslyn-academy.html We labeled over 500 boxes again. Josiah was a great worker. He stuck with it and never complained.
That night we took a streetcar to a Mediterranean restaurant called The Green Olive. We were the only ones there and the food was excellent. Josiah was a huge fan. He's still talking about that beef shishkabob and pita bread.
The second morning my aunt was sick. Thankfully we had some extra help the first morning and we had made good progress. Josiah and I finished what we could help with by noon and took a bus back to our air bnb. I almost got us on the wrong bus, but I didn't. Josiah's confidence in me was a bit hesitant. We made it back with no problems and found a place to eat lunch. We were going to go to another Mediterranean place, but it looked for formal for my comfort and so we ended up at T -Swirl Crepes. We got chicken teriyaki crepes. Josiah said they were "mid." I really liked it and was completely sold with the presentation. It was pretty tricky to eat though.
Later we took the bus into town with Dan. We talked to Jackson Square and a block or two behind it. In front of the cathedral and behind the cathedral are two different worlds. We watched a street band that fit a lot of stereotypes quite well and pointed out the iconic French Quarter architecture to Josiah...
...and then headed back to Cafe du Monde for pre-supper beignets. There is more powered sugar on those plates than beignets! Someone on the internet asked a worker how much powered sugar is used in a day. This was the answer:
"The
worker said they replace the powdered sugar machine each hour with 50
lbs of sugar." So 50 lbs x 24 hours = 1200 lbs of powered sugar a day. A good amount of that sugar ends up on the floor or on you!
Saturday morning Dan woke up with a different kind of sick than Laurie had and Laurie was still recovering so Josiah and I embarked on our own few hours of sightseeing.
Waiting at our first bus stop I was like, "Josiah, I'm so glad you are taller than me." And he was like, "You know there is no way I can protect you." I'm good with a false sense of security. lol
We went back to Jackson Square and went inside the cathedral. It is the oldest continuously active Roman Catholic Cathedral in the United States, originally built in 1727.
What stood out to me was the contrast of the quiet, incense smelling, people walking around respectfully that was inside the cathedral to the loud, fortune telling, every kind of craziness that was happening right outside the cathedral.
We walked over to the Mississippi River which meant passing Cafe du Monde again. I may have been tempted to stop, but the line was really long.
It was a beautiful day. It was also a cold day. We walked along the river and went to the audobon aquarium. Josiah had never been to an aquarium. He likes fish and stuff. Of all the possibilities I gave him, it was the one that elicited a bit of a reaction. (He told me that whatever we did, he would think was cool. I really wanted to do things that he would honestly enjoy.) It was nice and warm and we did see some neat things. And when we had to walk through the gift shop to exit and Josiah asked me if I was looking for a Christmas ornament--you bet I found an ornament!
We rode the ferry across the Mississippi River to Algiers Point. It's the second oldest neighborhood in New Orleans and very quiet compared to the city streets. We walked around looking at the houses with intricate trim and architecture.
It was fun to look over the river to the skyline of New Orleans.
After that we had had enough of city life! We got back to the bus stop and back to our little apartment lodging. That night we were going to go farther for dinner, but Josiah wasn't sure how his stomach felt. That was all it took for us to decide to stay close to "home" and we ate at the crepe place again. I had a philly cheese steak crepe that time that I liked.
We saw the city lights and the sunrise as we took off from New Orleans Sunday morning.
It was another bright, clear day. Coming in to Baltimore we could see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
It was a good trip! The kids do a "question of the day" at lunch each day. Some are made up and some come from conversation cards. This week one of the questions was "What memory would you want to relive?" Josiah's answer was "I know it wasn't very long ago. But I would relive New Orleans." My Mama heart smiled.
