Bridgette and I accompanied Gung Gung to New Orleans over Easter weekend for 5 days, to visit his eldest brother and family there. It was our first visit to NOLA, and we were excited to see Uncle Jose, Aunt Violet, my cousin Monica, and to meet her sons Jose and Alex.
I didn’t spend much time putting together any type of itinerary for this trip, as our main purpose was to visit Uncle Jose and his family, and to spend some quality time with them. Our timing couldn’t have been better! Uncle Jose just retired, and he was delighted to host us at his house.
On our first day in NOLA, we enjoyed an afternoon at the French Quarters, and got to taste the famous beignets and Cafe Au Lait at Cafe Du Monde.
Traveling with Bridgette without Alan is very tiring, but I love being able to share these different experiences with her. I don’t know if she will have recollection of our trips, but I’m living ‘in the moment’ these days, and just enjoying our time together. It would be wonderful if we could do it as a family, but I am extremely grateful that Alan supports my desire to travel the world, even with Bridgette! There is so much that I want to see and experience in this world, and I’m so happy to be able to have my favorite little girl by my side through most of these journeys, so that she can also see how big the world is out there!
On the plane ride to New Orleans, Southwest Airlines gave Bridgette an activity book, and inside was a map of the United States. Gung Gung spent some time explaining the map to Bridgette, and pointed out the route from California to Louisiana to give her an idea of our route. I don’t think Bridgette really understood though. She keeps referring to New Orleans as ‘the other America’, because she knows we live in America, but the fact that we’re flying must mean to her that we’re ‘leaving America’. However, we keep telling her that Louisiana is still a part of ‘America’, thus, it is now the ‘other America’ to Bridgette.
The pictures above were from a neighborhood egg hunt, and I was so thankful that Bridgette did not have to miss her annual egg hunt because of our travels! On the morning of Easter, Bridgette also found Easter eggs hidden all around Uncle Jose’s front yard (courtesy of Monica the Easter bunny)!
Other fun activities in NOLA included a 5 mile walk along the swamps in search for alligators and snakes, boat trips along the Mississippi River, and the icing on the cake–a NOLA Easter Parade! Although the Easter Parade was probably a tenth of the Mardi Gras festivities and parade, it was still a great experience for us. Bridgette and my dad both loved catching the trinkets that were thrown from the floats, as you can see in these videos.
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