Thanksgiving in New Orleans

We arrived in New Orleans around 2pm so had plenty time to take in the sights of the French Quarter and bump into friends...we had another of those 'it's a small world' moments when we stumbled across Olivier & Aurelie and their children wandering around too.
On Friday morning we went to Cafe du Monde for breakfast where we had coffee and beignet. I understand why it's famous, they were quite delicious and one of the highlights of my stay, (sad, I know, but I do like food. The other highlight was probably Saturday breakfast in the hotel!) After our sugar rush we took a leisurely walk to Blaine Kerns Mardi Gras World to look at some of the floats and props of Mardi Gras.
One of the larger Mardi Gras floats.

The French Quarter.

Having eaten beignet for breakfast, it was time to try muffaletta for lunch, another New Orleans delicacy - a big sandwich stuffed with salami, olives, cheese amongst other things, the children chose not to eat this so they had a po'boy instead (big sandwich). Then it was off to City Park by way of the streetcar to use up some more energy climbing trees and getting covered in mud (the children managed to find the one muddy puddle in the whole of the park!)

After a delicious breakfast in the hotel on Saturday morning we got in the car to drive home via Bellingrath Gardens (near Mobile). We had a lovely walk around there and then a spot of lunch before driving the rest of the way home in time for Nick to watch Match of the Day while I unpacked, made bread, did the laundry and tidied up the house.

Now I need to go shopping for food.

Oh, and there are more photos on my facebook page.

Visiting the Burchells in Dallas, TX.

Nick and I went round to Craig & Bernice's for dinner last Tuesday night for a lovely meal and a catch up with them. On Thursday we went to see an off Broadway performance of Mamma Mia with Neil, Dorothy, Christine & Arvid which was fabulous. I would recommend it to everyone. I think Nick & I are still humming Abba tunes even now. The downside of this night out is that Christine wants Dorothy, herself and me to dress up in Abba like costumes a la Mamma Mia for her 40th birthday in March...watch this space to see if we manage to get the costumes...It makes me smile every time I think about it, you've got to admit it would be hilarious, especially if we sing too.
On Sunday Tom, Lily & I flew to Dallas to visit Iain & Stephanie for a couple of days and tick Texas off our list of states visited. We arrived at their house round about 4.30pm and were just chatting about what I wanted to do while there when we realised that it was exactly 46 years to the day that JFK had been assassinated. Needless to say, we all piled into the car and drove the 5 minutes to that famous site. X literally marks the spot. Unfortunately you run the risk of getting killed yourself because X is obviously in the middle of the road.

Grace, Lily, Andrew & Tom standing on that famous spot.

On Monday Iain & Steph were at work and Andrew & Grace were at school so Tom, Lily & I went for a mooch around the Dallas Botanic Garden and Arboretum (www.dallasarboretum.org) which was really lovely and then on Tuesday when Steph and the children were off we all went to Fort Worth to see a cattle drive. This, sadly did not live up to my expectations (and it was freezing) but the cows were pretty impressive all the same.

Longhorn cattle.

After that we got some lunch and then drove back to Dallas for a visit to the Nasher Sculpture Centre where I got to see sculpture by such greats as Picasso, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. www.nashersculpturecenter.org

Then it was off out to the Dream Cafe (www.thedreamcafe.com) for dinner. If you ever find yourself in Dallas I recommend it. It has a small play area outside for the children and the food is delicious, I had the Garden StirFry which was excellent.

And then it was time to come home and get all our dirty laundry washed and dried in time to pack it all up again so we can drive to New Orleans tomorrow with Nick. Happy Thanksgiving y'all.

Remembrance Sunday Do

It's that time of year again when we remember the fallen and hold our Remembrance Sunday service. Once again, the weather was kind to us and we had a glorious day with blue sky and high temperatures. It was the Brits turn to host the event again this year so the ladies went to Kate's house to prepare all the food and wrestle with a trestle table while the men went to do their duty and pay their respects at the cemetery.

The previous day we held the Dads v Lads soccer match for Tom and some of the other boys from his team, it started off as quite a close match with the dads doing rather too well at goalkeeping and at half time the score was 2 - 1 to the boys. During the second half the boys surged into the lead and won the match 6 -2. We celebrated in style by eating pizza which we got delivered to the park

Later on we went round to Tim & Deanna's for dinner where we ate too much chilli, banana bread and brownies. Deanna is such a fantastic cook it's always a pleasure eating there and Nick always ends up eating too much. heehee.

A lovely weekend

Well, I was right, Tom's soccer game was postponed from Tuesday to Thursday night and unfortunately they lost the semi final match. Fortunately for us it meant Tom didn't miss the final on Saturday. bright side to everything, right?
After school on Friday we all got in the car and headed off for the weekend to Northwest Alabama and the Dismal Canyon and Natural Bridge.

Natural Bridge, Northwest Alabama.

Our cabin in the Dismal Canyon park.

A VERY large leaf.

Lily, Tom, Willa & Ethan, what you can't see is that they are all wearing matching welly boots, we entered the canyon for our walk after a quick pit stop in Walmart for a very well spent $15 each on footwear.

Waterfall in Dismal Canyon.

After a very eventful drive on Friday (detouring through Birmingham to avoid a 10 car pile up on I65 and then stopping for dinner so we avoided the tornado but still managed to drive through some awful rain - had to drive at 20mph on the interstate because I couldn't see very well) we finally arrived at our cabin in the canyon park. A well deserved glass of wine and then to bed.

Saturday morning we went into Hamilton to meet up with Tim & Deanna who were staying at her parents house for the weekend. We then went into Hamilton via Walmart to pick up welly boots for all the children (best $15 ever spent on a child) and onto the Fall Festival followed by pizza for lunch at Dinelli's.

Next stop, the Dismal Canyon for our walk through the mud, rivers and canyon itself - now you understand the welly boot purchase! The children had a blast, Tom especially loved tramping through the water and mud and climbing on any available surface. After all that it was back to our cabin for a well deserved glass of wine, bottle of beer, cup of tea, glass of water depending on who you were - can you work out who had what? The children had pepsi or water and then went off to play with the pea shooters they got at the fall festival.

After we had a bit of dinner and the Frantz's had gone back to Hamilton for trick or treating Nick, Tom & Lily went back to the canyon to see the resident Dismalites - little bugs that light up in the dark that are very rare and only found in a few places in the world (and I can't remember where they are! oops).

Forgot to mention Albert the cat, a resident of the canyon who spent quite a lot of time on our porch being petted by Tom, Lily & me all weekend, I especially enjoyed my Sunday morning coffee sitting out on the porch with Albert on my lap. After Nick and the kids went back in the canyon for a last poke about on Sunday morning we headed off to pick up Tim & Deanna and went off to see Natural Bridge for another walk, clamber, wade through mud and water.

Like I said, we had a lovely weekend and thankfully the drive home was uneventful.

There are about 60 more photos on my facebook page if you are interested.