Yet again

Because we cannot simply go enjoy the day somewhere without the inevitable monkey wrench, our trip to New Orleans, which was lovely for the most part was marred by two inconveniences. First, poor B has gotten a decent head cold and by this morning was feeling really rough. Of course the other kids were raring to go, and we had booked two WALKING tours of New Orleans, so I bundled her into the car with her blankie and prayed that she'd feel better for a while. (I'll tell you about the other one in chronological progression)

We got to New Orleans in great time, and found parking four blocks from our first destination with an Early Bird rate of $6.00 for the day (or $10/hr).  Um, okay, early bird it is. Woke B again, she said she felt great, so we started our VooDoo tour, cautiously optimistic. The tour was really good - I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history, religion and rituals of voodoo, as opposed to the media representation of what voodoo might be. Our guide was fabulous and entertaining and the kids had a great time learning about voodoo as an alternate religion and it's union with/deception within French Catholicism.

Statue in Armstrong park

Congo Square and our guide

Looking from the center of Congo Square where forbidden vudo rituals were held, up the road to the Catholic Church, the only approved religion

Where Marie Laveau once lived (not this house, it was razed, but this address)

Plaque at  1020 Rue St Ann

By the time the tour was over, B was feeling much worse, and the kids were getting tired and hungry. We had been talking about beignets and cafe au lait for days, so it was decided that we should find somewhere to procure such sustenance, and Cafe Du Monde was the suggestion, but when we walked there, it was lunch time and there was a line, and everyone was too hungry to wait, so we went across the square and are beignets and drank cafe au lait that was, I am sure, just as good as those at Cafe Du Monde with no waiting, and the stuffed beignet with crab stuffing and creole rice was absolutely to die for.

I think he likes it

Probably not on our diet, but this is a one off

She may look unsure, but after about 5 of them, it was on!

Once everyone had eaten, the sun came out and the streets of New Orleans got steamy and HOT as they tend to do on rainy mornings. The kids started wilting all over the place and of course, someone had to be the first to fall, literally.  K was running to go relax in the shade on a bench and fell flat on her face, and landed hands and knees roughly on the rough stones of Jackson Square. By that point, the afternoon was an absolute wash and we decided that the second tour just wasn't in the cards, and I notified the guide that we would be skipping, and we headed back to the car and back to Gulfport.

Jackson Square just before "the incident"

Or so we thought. Just as we came upon Slidell (again) the tire light came on to tell me of low air in a tire. I pulled off just before the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, and the gas station of last resort had an air pump in their lot. Unfortunately, it didn't actually work. The two workers inside said the nearest station was across the bridge. Red Headed local boy concurred that I should be fine driving across the bridge unless it was "totally flat." Hmm...

I took the Irish Bayou bridge instead (smaller bridge, one lane in each direction), and the first station on that side of the bridge had an air pump that worked too.  Unfortunately, the air did not remain in the tire, and it was flat before we hit the interstate. Fortunately, the light came on just in front of... a tire store. Unfortunately, they were booked for at least four hours, but he sent me off to another tire place. Fortunately, they were able to get us in immediately. Unfortunately, they did not have a single solitary tire in the size I needed, but they were willing to at least throw the donut on for me, so I could once again make slow haste down I-90 and across the border into Mississippi with an eye toward getting tires on base.

But, of course, it was quite a long drive at 35-40 mph, so I happened upon a small tire shop in Waveland, MS and decided to pop in. Thankfully they had not one, but FOUR tires in the right size, all of which are now on our car. So, in the end, although our luck has continued, we did make it safely home and had a lovely time in New Orleans, having done almost everything we had intended to do.