I woke up early to run and lift weights with Jeremy. Kaiya decided that she wanted to check out the fitness room so she came with us. She really wanted to lift weights and it was difficult to get her to understand that weight lifting on little bodies is no good! I am still dealing with the life long impacts of weight lifting from the age of 6 encouraged by my swim coach. Not good! So she was my cheerleader instead while Jeremy was my personal trainer. Ha ha! It was his day to do arms, so he had me do the same routine. I was so sore the next day it was ridiculous! We went and gathered up Mila and papa and wanted to head to breakfast. I wanted everyone to experience Cafe Du Monde, so we looked on the map and papa thought it was close enough for him to walk with his walker. We headed out. Unfortunately, we misjudged the walk. Since the sidewalks in New Orleans are kind of like slate cobblestone or something the walk was way too bumpy and way too much for my dad. When we finally reached Cafe Du Monde there was a line down the block and papa was exhausted so we opted for a place across the street. It was decent, they didn't have beignets, which was our reason for going, but they had good food. We decided that a walk back was out of the question, so we were hoping to find a pedi-cab (bike cab) for papa and the girls and then Jeremy and I would walk the walker back. No pedi-cabs to be found. We waved a cab down, which made me nervous because I had bad experiences with cabs in NOLA before. This guy was great. He was questioning my dad on the secrets to getting so old. My dad told him what he tells his doctors "eat too much, drink too much and don't exercise" This cab driver loved that and wanted to know what to drink and what to eat. My dad told him to drink scotch, so he said was going to start drinking scotch that day. Ha! My dad loved the cab ride, so that was a success.
The girls, Jeremy and I had reservations on a bayou tour about an hour and a half outside of New Orleans with Munson's Swamp tours. We did some research and this place had some great reviews. The Bayou was one of Jeremy's must dos for this trip. He was hoping to wrestle an alligator, but I guess that is illegal (I still can't tell if he is really joking about this). We piled in the car and drove and drove and drove into swamp land. Jeremy wanted to stop and check out every swampy marsh we drove past, but we were running late, so we were able to discourage that. I think he may watch a little too much gator boys or something. We made it to Munson's just in time. There were about 20 people there, so we all loaded up on this pontoon boat and set out into the swamp. This tour is on private land. Nobody is allowed to do any fishing or hunting of any kind. This allows for so much wildlife to live in these swamps. There were gators and turtles, raccoons, all kinds of beautiful birds and a huge colony of over 100 vulchers. It was really amazing. I have to be honest, I did feel quite nervous rolling into and area so densely populated with gators with my two little girls. I knew we were safe, but I had to have my arms or Jeremy's arms around them at all times. Our tour guide didn't help with his putting it on thick style. We came across some baby alligators that were about a week old and he was very nervous about them yipping for their mama, so we had said we had to get out of there. We continued down the swamp and found the vulcher island. He fed the vulchers raw chicken, which was super strange to watch them and listen to them go crazy about. He then fed the first gator, which was a small gator who could hardly figure out how to eat the pork chop that was given to him. He carried it around for about 10 minutes. The guide moved to another area and found what appeared to me to be a large gator other treats. Then he saw a huge gator at least 13 feet down a ways. That gator took off swimming fast towards out boat, which I thought was not right at all. She came right up to the boat and fed on the snacks he was providing. She circled around and would continue to come up to the boat directly under where Kaiya and Mila were (the two smallest people on the boat) it did not feel very safe. Jeremy was gripping those girls so tight. He didn't feel it was safe either. It was an exciting experience to see the gators up close and interacting, but the more and more I thought and read about it, the more uncomfortable I feel. These gators will now become nuisance gators because people want a good show and this guy is going to give it to them. These gators now swim towards people, which is not normal. If you watch most alligators, they swim away from people. These alligators now associate people with being fed. Deadly combo. Our swamp tour wrapped up after an hour and a half and we were back on land. Overall we loved the experience, but wish our guide and others would be more responsible. It was exciting to see the gators eating up close, but I would rather just see them as they are and not create an unsafe situation for people and alligators down the line. Jeremy was on an alligator rush and wanted to go find more, but we decided to head back to the hotel to take a rest before dinner.
We had reservations to go to Arnaud's, which is my dads favorite restaurant in New Orleans. This is the first place that he had oysters rockefeller and that is now one of his favorite things to make. My dad was in shorts and asked if he should change and I thought he didn't need to, so we headed over. Conveniently, Arnaud's was directly across from our hotel, so we didn't have to fight the chaos. When we went in they informed us that shorts were not allowed in the main dining room, but that we could sit in the Jazz Bistro instead. Telling my dad that shorts were find worked out to be the best mistake we made. The Jazz Bistro had a great little jazz group playing and my dad was so happy. They go above and beyond with the old style service at Arnaud's with three different servers per table. You want for nothing. The food was great, everyone was happy. The girls were obsessed with the two tap dancing street performers outside one of the windows, but also enjoyed the music inside. The band came to our table and played for my dad and took his requests, which is always so fun. My dad couldn't think of a good song request, which is funny because my dad knows so many songs throughout history. He picked "sweet sue" which the band was surprised and happy about, but of course my dad was mad at himself all night for choosing that song (HA!) Dinner was fabulous, we all had dessert which was decadent and delicious. Kaiya had told me she wanted to have coffee with dessert because she is in an "I am growing up and think things like coffee are fancy" phase. I thought, well okay, so we ordered he a decaf coffee and she thought it was so happy! She took a tiny sip and thought it was so disgusting (surprise?) Dinner was about a 2 and 1/2 hour affair so the girls were pooped. Jeremy took them up to the hotel to sit on the balcony and my dad and I set out (well around the corner) to hear some more jazz. There was a great courtyard around the corner from Arnaud's and still just across from our hotel and they had a great little jazz group playing, Steamboat Willy. My dad and I sat and listened and well my dad sang everysong with them and got a few requests in. He loved it. I love getting to spend time with just my pop. He is so fun and he really enjoys getting out and doing things, especially when it is accessible for him (no long walks on cobble stones through a bunch of drunk people). We stayed for an hour or so and then headed to the room.
Jeremy and I decided we would go out and explore New Orleans a bit without worrying about the littles or the pops. We wandered around, stopping in and listening to all the different music and watched all the fascinating people, it was so fun. We thought it would be fun to have a pedi cab New Orleans experience, so we convinced a guy to take us on a half an hour tour for 20 bucks. We rode around the French Quarter on the back of a bike and listened to this guy tell us about history. He was a sweet kid, trying to pedal his way through law school in New Orleans. It was so hot and he was completely drenched with sweat by the end of our ride. We parted ways and wandered down to Preservation Hall, since we never made it there with pops. Jeremy and I listened to a few songs from the lobby which was basically like a front row seat. It was different than I remembered it, but it has been about 15 years since I was there. It is such a great experience, so I am glad Jeremy got to at least see it. We bought my dad a shirt and headed back to the hotel. We went to pick up the little ladies and our key no longer worked, we knocked and I tried looking under the door and I decided that they were all asleep. In the morning my dad informed me that he waited up until 2am for us (it was so much earlier than that when we returned). I felt horrible, grrr. Another fun filled exhausting day of our trip! GN.
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