On Monday, the last day of 2018, Allison and I enjoyed a 2 hour kayak adventure in the Sarasota bay area, around the Ringling estate. We were hoping to see some manatee or dolphins, but it seems the water was a bit too chilly. Although it was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. We took a guided tour through the mangroves. Many years ago the Army Corps of Engineers cut tunnels through the root systems to allow water to flow and avoid collecting fresh water pools that attracted mosquitoes and alligators. Even though we did not see any large creatures, we did enjoy spotting many different types of birds, spider crabs and tons of upside down jellyfish! And it was a beautiful day to be out on the water, paddling around with Allison.
Meanwhile, Scott and Tom took my mom on a tour through the Ringling museum after lunch. Apparently it has free admission on Mondays. Earlier in the day, I visited an Assisted Living Facility with Tom's dad. The family has been looking into memory care facilities for Tom's mom and we had not seen this facility on our list. It was very nice with a large, secure garden area to allow the residents to walk around on their own. Including a large koi pond with the biggest fish I have ever seen! I think they get lots of attention(and food!). Just looking at different options.
That evening, Allison and I stopped by the Nokomis beach to watch the sunset on the last day of 2018 with all the other beachgoers. Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner with Tom's parents at their house and then took a stroll around their community to check out the christmas lights with both moms. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel. We needed to pack up since we were going to be on the road the next day.
Happy New Year! We left Nokomis and drove up to Tampa to spend the day at Busch Gardens. We enjoyed all the animal encounters and a few of us had a great time riding all the roller coasters! Scott especially loved their new Cobra coaster. Tom had tried it out when it first opened last year on a business trip to Florida in October. Scott reports it is his favorite as it has an elevator, as well as having the cars running backwards and spinning. I pass. We also enjoyed all their holiday decorations and shows, including an excellent ice skating show. We said goodbye to Busch Gardens as we will be letting our yearly family pass go. We have been disappointed each year since the parks were sold in the ever limiting perks of owning a pass. You basically pay more and more and get less and less. Plus with Scott being away at school, and the drive down to Williamsburg has gotten worse and more expensive with the tolls, we decided it was probably not worth keeping up with the monthly family payments. But we certainly enjoyed it while we had them=at least for 15 years!
We spent the night in Tampa after eating dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Gators. Scott actually had gator bites for dinner! The next day we were up and on the road for the long drive to New Orleans. We decided to break up the car ride for my mom's sake, and stopped overnight in Mobile, Alabama. It is a 10 hr drive from Florida to Louisiana. We had a short drive the next day, on Thursday, through the rain when we arrived in New Orleans. We stayed in a neighborhood outside of the city, Metairie. Sarah Bozyk and her fiance, Patrick, have a house there not far from the downtown New Orleans area. Their wedding was scheduled for Saturday, in a church and country club located in New Orleans. We discovered that we were not expected to attend the rehearsal dinner, but wanted to spend some time with Sarah and Patrick, as well as my brother Dave and his family before the wedding. Allison and Scott were not going to be able to attend the wedding since we scheduled them a flight back to Maryland early Saturday morning. Allison had to be back to work on Monday, and Scott started school again up in Michigan. We did not want to try and fly them back on Sunday just in case there was a problem with the weather. Plus it gave them some time to get organized before heading back to work and school. Scott had already signed up for his Spring term classes-Physics, Calculus and two Engineering classes. He also ordered his books online so they will be ready for pick up when he returns on Saturday. Allison and Scott were flying up to Baltimore together, and then Scott was switching planes to fly up to Grand Rapids.
So Thursday afternoon when we arrived in Louisiana, we decided to go see Aquaman which was a lot of fun. My mom even seemed to enjoy it. We didn't have time for lunch, so we nibbled on theater food during the movie. That evening, we met up with Dave and Sandra, Christopher, Nicholas and Sarah Bozyk and her fiance, Patrick for dinner at a local restaurant called Zeas. It was nice catching up with everyone, especially the soon to be married couple. We will see them all again on Saturday evening at the wedding.
On Friday we had the whole day to ourselves. There is alot to see and do in New Orleans. My only memory of New Orleans was a quick visit with my parents when we were kids. I just remember walking around the French Quarter at night as a family and it seemed a bit scary with street performers, loud bars and a few very interesting people(ie ladies of the night). Tom has been to New Orleans, on business trips but never really did a lot of sightseeing. I wanted the kids to have a better experience than Tom and I remembered on our previous visits to New Orleans! And we had a whole day to discover the city.
We started our Friday morning off on a visit to Mardis Gras World. We wanted to see some of the floats and learn all about Mardis Gras since it is such a huge part of New Orleans. We visited a large factory near the river and took the tour. We all enjoyed a movie about the history of the parades, had a piece of the famous King Cake and then took a walking tour to observe how the floats are made and assembled. Basically Mardis Gras starts on the Feast of the Epiphany and Ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before lent. The city of New Orleans has a strong, catholic history and celebrates with floats and parades. The floats are built by different sponsors known as Krewes. Private organizations with membership and business sponsors. We were able to see how they build the floats, mainly out of styrofoam and painted. They often recycle old pieces, especially faces. King Cake tastes a bit like a coffee cake covered in sugar. If you find a small baby in your piece of cake(baby Jesus), you have to host the next party and serve King Cake. The tour was fascinating and gave us quite an insight into New Orleans history. But we weren't done. I had made reservations for a bus tour of the city. I thought it would be nice to take a carriage ride tour like we had in Charleston with Tom's family. Unfortunately, the carriage tours only pick up from the street. With my mom, we needed something handicap accessible. I found a bus tour online and we were directed to catch the bus at the downtown casino, Hannahs. Tom dropped my mom and I off at the door and found a parking spot in a nearby lot. Unfortunately there were no more handicap spots, so he had to bring mom's power scooter to the casino. The bus was not equipped for wheelchairs or scooters, so we asked the casino valet service to keep an eye on it while we went on our tour. They were nice enough to let us park it in the lobby entrance. Then we discovered that Scott could not come into the casino(21 and over), so Tom and Scott toured the city block around the casino until our pick up time. The boys had lunch and stopped into the famous Cafe Monde for a chicory coffee and beignet pastries. Allison joined Mom and I for lunch inside the casino while waiting for the bus which seemed to be running late. When I called they said they could not pick us up at the casino, only hotels. Turns out we were supposed to wait outside the Hannah's hotel. But fortunately there was a Doubletree hotel right across from the main door of Hannahs, so we all headed across for pick up. I know the family is not usual crazy about bus tours, but this really turned out to be a winner! Our driver was also the tour guide, very funny and very informative. We learned about the history of New Orleans, the river system and levees as well as the impact Hurricane Katrina had on the city. Tom and the kids especially enjoyed the tour of a local cemetery when we had a chance to get out and walk around. I stayed back on the bus with mom. If you are aware of the flooding problems they have in New Orleans, you can understand why it is difficult to bury bodies. Instead, the deceased are placed in above ground marble crypts. If the bodies were buried in the ground, water would eventually force the caskets up from the earth. Instead, families purchase crypts and are buried behind brick walls. The catholics did not believe in cremation, but the crypts heat up inside to over 300 degrees and the bodies and caskets decompose, making room for other family members after they pass. The crypts are opened, the remains removed and buried in bags in the bottom of the crypt to make room for a new casket. Apparently it was a fascinating tour and they even got to see an open crypt with human remains. I enjoyed a quick trip off the bus at the Central Park and purchasing a bag of beignets at the original city bakery.
It was a long day and we still had to head back to the casino to pick up mom's scooter. We made it back to the hotel, got some carry out for dinner and went to bed. The kids were going to have to get up at 3am to catch an Uber ride to the airport by 4am for their 6am flight. Fortunately the airport was just a 10 min drive from our hotel and the kids got there in plenty of time to catch their plane.
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