May 15th

Brooke and Alyssa wanted to go to Cafe du Monde to experience the chickory coffee and the beignets.

Alyssa's coffee had a layer of I don't know what!
Brooke started to speak after taking a bite of her beignet and the powdered sugar came out in a big puff!!

After Cafe du Monde, we went for a stroll through Jackson Square. It's a pedestrian area where people sell their artwork, play music etc. Fun place to be.

May 14th

Alyssa flew in this afternoon. We had lunch and then showed her around a bit. Tonight was the Wave Goodbye Party on the Tulane campus. It was HUGE! There were food stations all over the place with food such as Jambalaya, Gumbo, Rice and Beans, Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Seafood Bisque, Oysters and then a ton of dessert stations also! The lines were so long, like 100 people on each line. While we were waiting on line, the girl in front of us told her friend that the people working at the stations said that you can just walk up and even take the food from the sides of the stations. Scott and Alyssa got brave and did just that! Throughout the party, we were able to taste almost every type of food that they had. The jazz band played almost the entire time which was very nice.

May 13th

We went to the Mardi Gras World in the morning. This is where the floats that are used in the Mardi Gras parades are made. It was pretty interesting. At the end, they let you pose in traditional Mardi Gras costumes.

Tonight was the Crawfish Boil on the Tulane campus. This was a lot of fun.... VERY messy fun! They put the Crawfish in a big boat and the lady scoops out a shovel full and dumps them on your tray along with corn and potatoes. I had to ask Scott how to go about eating things! I wasn't a fan but I did eat them anyway. If it was a tray ull of shrimp, that would have been a different story! Scott, PJ and Brooke all went back for a second trayfull. Chris had one Crawfish and he was done!

May 12th

We're off!!!! We arrived in New orleans at 9:20 in the morning. Ror and Andy just happened to be on our plane! They were comped a week in N.O's by Harrahs. After we got our car we went and picked up Scott then headed back to the airport to pick up Brooke. The first place that we have to hit was 'Orleans'. It used to be a Taco Bell ! PJ was thinking of this place all week! We got Shrimp Po Boys and we forgot just how HUGE these things are! You can make 2 or 3 meals out of just one. The price was great also ... $6.

We spent the day just walking through the French Quarter, listening to the music and taking in the sights. I don't remember where we had dinner but I do remember that it was in the French Quarter. I took notes the whole week so I would remember everything to update the blog and I lost the papers!

May 11th
Today was my last day at work before we leave for New Orleans. After work, it was time to finally pack and get the house in order!

May 10th

Happy Mother's Day!

We don't do anything special for the day so we just planted some plants, went for a ride in the MGB and BBQ'd dinner. It was a nice day.

May 9th

Today I've spent waaaayyyyy too much time updating this blog! This is getting really tough when you get behind! Now I need to clean the house and plant my herbs! The sun may come out today!

May 8th

Today the teacher was being 'observed' by the principal. She read a book on making pancakes.

Then she had the kids put pictures in order of the steps on making the pancakes. Then they had to measure the ingredients, mix it all together and then Mrs Z got to make the pancakes! It was really a lot of fun.

May 7th

We've been practicing for the school show everyday. Our class has to say lines about helping the world by recycling, cleaning up litter etc while in the background is the Chris Daughtry video What About Now. It's a serious video but the kids turn it into a comedy show! They don't have a clue!

May 6th

Tonight is PJ's first softball game of the season. It's a 9:30 double header! The rain started to come back about 1/2 hour before we left! When we got there PJ realized that we left the score book, the balls and the umpires money on the dining room table. So I flew home and back in time to give them everything. It stopped raining for a while and then came down in buckets! They ended up loosing both games. Us wives in the stands.... we deserve a lot of credit for staying there rooting the guys on!

The pic is obviously NOT us!

May 5th

I spent a lot of time today trying to find things to do while we're in N.O's. We're all very excited

May 4th

Rain Rain Rain Go AWAY! This whole week it's supposed to rain!

May 3rd
We still have 4 wineries to complete today. Being that we're driving home, we're just going for the food samples, the recipes and the herb plant that you get at each winery. You end up with 16 plants! Our favorite greeter was at King Ferry Winery again for this event. She's 93 years old! I take her picture at every event and bring her a copy on our next visit!When we were finished with the wineries, we stopped at a few places to take seasonal pictures

Taughnock Falls

Robert Treman State Park... where we camp every year

I take a picture of this barn every time we go up to Ithaca. It's my favorite barn. Every year it leans more and more but it keeps hanging on!

May 2nd

We left at 5:30 this morning to go to the Wine and Herb Festival around Cayuga Lake. As usual, we had such a fun time! It was 70 degrees and sunny! At night we went to Sunset Park to check out the sunset over Cayuga Lake
May 1st

Happy May Day!

I brought Judy C a bunch of flowers from my garden and made a bouquet for her. I left it on her stoop. I think I've given her flowers on May Day for the past maybe 15 years!

April 30th

I went to the dentist again today. I'm really getting tired of seeing them!!!

April 29th

The Saratoga Bee Balm is starting to pop through the ground.

This is what it looks like when it more mature:

April 28th

Went to visit Dad in rehab. He's looking ok and now has his mind back!

April 27th

It's back to work today after a nice weekend. I couldn't stop thinking about what a fun weekend it was!

April 26th

Up at 6:30 AM to start again! This is my favorite time of the day here. It's so peaceful and I'm usually one of the first ones to show up in the morning. Judy was a good girl and worked out in the gym before coming down to the scraproom. Today was even better than yesterday because everyone was tired and getting giddy. I read a letter that my MIL wrote to a pantyhose company that was so funny but even funnier because we were giddy. Half of the people in the room were hysterical!

Judy and I with our tablemates

Our friends from the past 2 years! They're sooo nice.

Judy and I entered the layout contest. Judy did a beautiful layout of her and Larry's time at the Great Wolf Lodge with their Grandchildren. The picture definately DOESN'T do it justice!

My layout was of the day PJ and I took a ride to Planting Fields Arboretum.

They added a second catagory for items that weren't scrapbook layouts. I entered a simple card that I made.

Today is the Brunch day which we look forward to. This trip isn't all about scrapping.... it's a lot about the food!




At 4:30 we had to head home. It's so sad when this weekend comes to an end. On the way home we thought up challenges to add to our layouts of our weekend. Do you think we could even remember one of them? NOT!

April 25th
WE'RE OFF!!!

Judy and I left at 5:30 AM for our 3 hour drive to the Simsbury Inn in CT. We got lost in a not too good area but that was ok.... we were on our way to a great weekend! We arrived just before 8:30 to the smiling faces of Becky and Sandy, our hosts. They showed us to out table and introduced us to our new tablemates. This was their first time at a weekend crop. Judy and I started with a nice breakfast sitting in the room with the fireplace. There's waaayyyy too much to write about the Simsbury weekend for now. Judy and I had a BLAST with constant laughter. It's so nice to get away with someone that you can 'let it all out' with.

Becky and Sandy came around early this year to ring their bug bell to deliver gifts to everyone! We always look forward to that and I ALWAYS end up with the worst one! But, we always have a good laugh about that also!

Some pics that will tell the story:

We ate lunch out on the patio. This weekend was supposed to be a beautiful HOT weekend with temps up near 90 degrees in APRIL!
PART of lunch!

Our bedroom

Our scraproom

Dinner is always so good here. There's so much to choose from. I try a little of everything which really equals a lot of food. It looks like a mess on my plate but is OHHHHH SOOOO GOOD! I hated the salmon though!!!

Judy and I always treat ourselves to one drink while we're away for our weekend.

We stayed up till 1:30 AM chatting with these ladies. They were so nice.

This is only PART of their stash!!!

That's it for today! Time to get a couple of hours of sleep!