New Orleans Day 4

Did I begin the day with coffee before dawn and a walk when the sun came up? But of course.

A house spotted on the walk.

We didn't have any scheduled activities this day, so I let everyone sleep in a little bit and we left the house around 10 a.m. We had arranged to go visit my aunt and uncle, who live in Covington. This is a suburban town across the Causeway.

The Causeway is a giant bridge that spans the entirety of Lake Pontchartrain. It's about 24 miles long, which means you drive on it for a very long time and it really feels like you're just out there in the middle of the water. It's pretty fun, although I wouldn't want to break down on it.

We did not break down and made it to my aunt and uncle's house. We visited with them for a little bit before going to my cousin's house nearby. She has a granddaughter Poppy's age and my aunt wanted the two girls to meet.

After that, my aunt and uncle wanted to take us out to lunch, so they started driving to the restaurant and we followed in our car. 

This is when I got a message from our Airbnb host that the cleaners were at the house getting it ready for the next guests and that some of our personal effects were still there.

Well, yes. ALL our personal effects were still there, because we weren't leaving until the next day. But apparently I had made a mistake in my booking and this day was the last day I had reserved.

*&$*#@!!!

That was what was in my head as I frantically messaged our host, trying to figure out what I needed to do. I was expecting a big fee, all our stuff thrown out, etc. Instead, when I apologized and told her how sorry I was to have caused so much trouble, she was very understanding and told me the cleaning crew would collect all our things and store them in a locked room until we could get there to pick them up.

I felt very bad about this, because of course our belongings were scattered around, since we hadn't planned on having to pack up until that night. I had, thankfully, asked the kids that morning to pick out their clothing for the next day and put everything else in their bags, so their rooms weren't too bad. It was still a lot of random stuff for the cleaners to gather up, though.

By the time I had had this exchange with our host and checked to make sure that yes, our flight and rental car return were indeed for the next day, we were at the restaurant. Our Airbnb host had told me there was no rush to get back to the house, but I felt like we should get there as soon as possible. I made my apologies to my aunt and uncle and we went right back across the Causeway to New Orleans.

On our way back to the house, I made a hasty new reservation on Airbnb. I had originally thought I would just get rooms at a hotel near the airport, as we were flying out the next day. However, A. encouraged me to try to find another house in New Orleans. That way we could actually enjoy our last afternoon and night. Hotels are not enjoyable for our family, so I took his point and got back onto Airbnb.

Within the parameters I had set for number of beds and cost, there were only a couple of options. I chose a renovated shotgun house and made the reservation. So at least we had somewhere to sleep that night.

We arrived back at the house when the cleaning lady was still there, so we had a chance to look around the house and get anything she had missed. She actually got almost everything. She had even bagged up the food in the refrigerator so we could take that with us. She was very nice about all of this, assuring us that Venus was in retrograde, and that was probably why this had happened. I gave her a large tip, we stuffed our very disorganized belongings in the car, and we set off for our new house.

It was only about half an hour away, and we couldn't get into it for over an hour. It was now about 2 p.m. None of us had eaten lunch yet. I had been promising my children po'boys for four days and had not yet delivered. A quick search on my phone revealed that one of the most famous po'boy places in the city, Domelise's, was only half a mile from our new house. It closed in an hour, so we went directly there.

Po'boys are like sub sandwiches. They are made on French bread, with various toppings, often seafood, served dressed--with lettuce, tomato, pickles, mayonnaise--or undressed, and hot or cold. They're best, in my opinion, dressed and heated. And the bread is miles better than most subs. I love them.

This place was a real hole in the wall institution, clearly.

Sandwiches being made above a sketch of the building.

I ordered two ham and cheese, two shrimp, and two oyster po'boys, plus five Barq's root beers, which is local to New Orleans. Our sandwiches were ready within about fifteen minutes. We sat outside to eat them, as the restaurant was closing.

After that, we parked in front of our new house. This turned out to be on Tchoupitoulas Street, a main parade route for the Mardi Gras parade. We still had about half an hour before we could get into the house, so we walked around the neighborhood for a bit until we could get in.

Hello, new home.

Shotgun houses are particular to New Orleans. They are so named because they are long and narrow, have no hallways, each room leads directly into the next, and theoretically, you can stand at the front door and shoot a gun from there to the back without the bullet going through any walls.

My children were disappointed that this house didn't have the doors lined up, so the shotgun test wouldn't have worked. It was still a cool old house, though.

This was the first bedroom, which was between the kitchen/living room and the next bedroom.

After getting all our stuff inside and re-organizing it all, and then settling the children in front of a documentary about bayous on one of the three televisions, A. and I realized we could actually leave and go have a drink in a bar. Like a date.

This house was in the Riverside district of New Orleans, which meant were a LOT of bars to choose from. We passed a couple that were just standard bars with middle-aged regulars hanging out drinking. This was not really the scene I was going for. Instead we went to a fancy bar associated with a steakhouse, where it was quiet and we could get nice cocktails and actually talk.

This was vodka, St. Germain (an elderflower liqueur) lime, and cranberry juice. It was very good.

This was only about half a mile from our house, so we were gone about an hour. On our walk back, we happened to go past a warehouse that had an open door and lights on. We paused to look in, because it was pretty clear that they were making Mardi Gras floats in there. We agreed we should bring the children back to see it, so as soon as we got back to the house, we gathered them all up and walked back to the warehouse.

We stopped in the open doors just to look, but a sculptor named Benny saw us there and invited us in. When he learned we don't live there, he took us on a tour and explanation of the various works of art in progress. He would not have done this if we were local, because we were seeing the parade floats for the coming Mardi Gras, which are supposed to be secret.

For that reason, I will not show you the couple of photos I took, but it was very cool. He explained the themes and how the floats are constructed from paper mache on a frame of two by fours.

After that we went back to the house and spent some time sitting on the front porch, eating potato chips and watching the traffic go by on Tchoupitoulas Street before going to bed.

The next day wasn't too early of a start. We were in the car by 7:45 a.m. to get to the airport. I wasn't sure how long it would take to return the car* and get through security the day before Thanksgiving, so I made sure we had lots of time. 

Everything was so fast, though, that we ended up sitting at our gate for about two hours. Plenty of time for a few more beignets from the airport Cafe Du Monde.

Not as good as Jackson Square, but happily eaten nonetheless.

Our flights and drive home were uneventful, if long. We had a wonderful time, but everyone was very glad to make it home.

* I had a few minutes of panic when I left my purse in the rental car and had to run back up to the car to search for it. Thankfully, the car hadn't been moved yet. Unthankfully, I first looked in the wrong car because it was exactly the same as our rental car, same color and everything. When I eventually realized my mistake and looked in the right car, I found my purse right away, but it was a bad few minutes.

New Orleans Day 3

Just so you know, there is no expectation that all of you are reading these very long and frankly self-indulgent recaps of our trip. I mostly write them for myself, because this blog is the only way I remember anything anymore. 

With that in mind, onward!

Every day began with me drinking coffee in a dark house before the sun and the family were up. When the sun came up, I would go outside and walk around the quiet neighborhood we were staying in.

I love the giant live oaks hanging over the street.

Even though the roots do this to the sidewalks. And the roads themselves.

I didn't have to wake everyone up super early this morning, but we did need to get going somewhat promptly to drive out to Oak Alley plantation for the tour I had scheduled at the house there for 10:15 a.m.

There are many plantations out on this road west of New Orleans. We didn't have time to tour multiple ones, unfortunately, so I just chose the most well-known one. Oak Alley is one of the bigger and fancier plantations. Sort of like the Gone with the Wind plantation.

Overlooking the alley of oaks from which the plantation got its name.

A. and I had been there maybe 20 years ago, and they've made some changes since then. Notably, they've reconstructed the slave cabins and have much more information there than they did previously. 

One of the informational signs in these cabins explained how the slaves were baptized and mentioned that the church where this happened was only about four miles away. A. really wanted to go there, so after we spent some time walking around the gardens and grounds after the guided house tour, we drove to the church.

The church there now was built in I think the 1920s, after the older church was destroyed when the river came over the levee right there and washed everything away. The newer church was open, so we were able to go in and look around.

Some information in the church itself explained its history, including that the records for this church were at various times kept in French, Spanish, and English, according to who owned this area at different times. This church was actually in the Diocese of Havanna (Cuba) for a time, hence the Spanish. Louisiana and New Orleans are most often associated with the French, but the Spanish history there is just as strong.

Anyway. Across the road from the church was the original cemetery. It also sustained a lot of damage from the same flooding, and many of the mausoleums were damaged. We didn't have a lot of time to look around, as we had to get going to our scheduled swamp tour, so we just quickly drove through the cemetery before getting back on the road.

I had planned to stop at a restaurant near the swamp tour place for po' boy sandwiches, but between our church exploration and taking longer than I expected to get to the swamp tour, we didn't have time. Instead we got Subway sandwiches on the way and ate them in the car. Boo.

However! We did get to the swamp tour location right on time. 

I discovered when I was trying to find a good swamp tour that these companies do not allow children on the private boat tours, which is what I would have preferred. Instead we had to go on a big pontoon boat. And this particular company fed the animals with marshmallows, even the alligators. This did ensure that we saw animals--raccoons, wild boar, and the alligators--but I was not too pleased about that.

Can you spot the alligator?

The kids loved it, though, especially the part where they all got to hold a little alligator.

I really had no interest in holding this myself, but the captain was quite insistent.

By the time we finished with the swamp tour, it was somewhat late in the afternoon. We drove right back to the house for dinner and some downtime before bed. It was not hard to get any of the children to sleep after all of our exciting and tiring days.

Speaking of exciting . . . check back later for the tale of our last full day in New Orleans, in which I discover I have messed up our Airbnb booking and I have to scramble to find another one. Which ends up being literally next door to a college bar.

New Orleans Day 2

Day Two of our New Orleans adventures began, as always, with me getting up way before anyone else was awake and drinking my coffee. This time I was in the living room, though, as the sun hadn't yet come up.

Coffee on the couch.

Incidentally, the lightbulbs in this house were THE WORST. Such a bright, glaring white that I refused to turn any of the lights on in the living room when I was in there. Instead I turned on the lights in the connecting dining room and entryway to light the living room. So bad.

Anyway.

This being Sunday, we were of course going to church. Some of my children had been asking when we could go to a Latin Mass again, which is not something readily available to us at home. In a big, very Catholic city like New Orleans, though? I was sure I would find one somewhere, and sure enough, 9:15 a.m. at old St. Patrick's church downtown was a Latin Mass.

Accordingly, I awakened the family in enough time to get us all downtown, find parking, and go to Mass.

This was a big church, old and beautiful, and full of veiled women, men in three-piece suits, and a LOT of kids. I am always uncomfortable taking photos inside a church, so I didn't get any of the altar. There are plenty online, if you're curious, but I did get this lovely photo of the morning sun coming in to light up Mary.

Our Lady of Light, indeed.

This was a long Latin Mass, and by the time we left church around 10:30 a.m., everyone was very ready for some food. Since we were downtown already, we went to the original Cafe du Monde on Jackson Square for cafe au lait and beignets.

Beignets are sort of like fried dough, Or a doughnut. Better than either of those, however, and always served with piles of powdered sugar on top. This makes them quite messy to eat, and I regretted not covering my black skirt with a napkin.

This looks vaguely galactic.

After that, we went across the square to the cathedral. This had been closed for weddings the afternoon before, so we hadn't had a chance to see it yet. The last Mass was just ending when we got there.

Another beautiful church. There are many in New Orleans.

Next we drove to Metairie, which is the suburb of New Orleans in which my mother grew up. The house she grew up in and that I visited so many times is still there, and is virtually unchanged on the outside, though no longer owned by my family. 

We also went to my grandparents' grave in Metairie.

Cemeteries in New Orleans are very unique, thanks to the above-ground mausoleums necessitated by the high water table. The cemeteries look like little villages of tiny houses. They even have street signs so you can find your way around.

I didn't think to buy flowers for the permanent urn in front of our family mausoleum, but Poppy has had enough experience with found flowers that she immediately set about picking some of the small purple flowers all over the grass to make a bunch for the grave. I added some greenery from a nearby tree, and we had a tiny arrangement for the grave.

Small and unorthodox, but made with love.

The whole month of November in the Catholic church is dedicated to the souls of those who have died, and all are encouraged to visit cemeteries to pray for them. It was very special to bring my children to their great-grandparents' grave and pray for their souls there in this particular month.

Next, A. requested we go to the New Orleans Art Museum. He loves art museums, as does one of the boys, but rarely has the opportunity to visit them. 

This is a relatively small museum, but they have a nice collection.

I was particularly amused by this giant, very realistic Hulk lunchbox in the modern art section.

A. took the one boy who also loves museums around, and I took the other three kids separately around the museum. This way, when those of us who were not as enthralled had finished, we could just go outside to the park by the museum to wait for the art lovers to finish.

Playing under the Spanish moss.

Everyone was thoroughly exhausted by that time, and we went back to the house for dinner. Also for Looney Tunes, as A. figured out how to get Youtube on one of the three smart TVs in the house.

That's a wrap on Day 2. Check back later for Day 3, in which we visit a plantation and the swamp.

Snapshots: New Orleans, Of Course

As many of you may remember, my mother is from New Orleans, and that is a large part of why I wanted to bring my family there. The only one of my children who had ever been was my eldest, and that was when we went for my grandmother's funeral when he was only seven months old. I wanted to show them the place their own grandmother grew up and the place I have so many good memories of.

And so, I did. 

With six people in our family, one hotel room is not enough. Two hotel rooms costs enough that it makes a lot more sense to rent a house through Airbnb. It's also much, much more comfortable for our family to have room to spread out and run around. The house I rented was in Gentilly, which is a residential neighborhood in New Orleans proper*. The house had three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and enough beds for all of us.

I think it was built just about ten years after my mother's childhood home was built.

Just a little old brick house.

Some of the house had been updated, but much of it was original to the house. 

This is a bathroom from an earlier era, for sure.

The kitchen was pretty well-equipped. Given that we didn't arrive until 10 p.m. on Friday night, I was particularly relieved to see there was a coffee machine and coffee already there.

There was even a mug of similar shape to my beloved mug at home.

This house was lacking a good porch to sit on, so I just brought my coffee out to the front steps to enjoy the extremely tropical morning.

It even looked tropical.

I was somewhat dismayed to find that the washing machine at the house was clearly in the middle of repairs and wasn't functional. We had brought limited clothing in our carry-on backpacks, anticipating doing laundry during the week. There was a laundromat about a mile away, but I had zero desire to spend any time in a laundromat. Thankfully, the dryer was working. So I just did a small load of laundry in the bathtub every morning, hung it over a rack in the tub to drip-dry while we were gone during the day, and then dried it the rest of the way in the dryer when we got back to the house at night.

Tub laundry: vacation edition. (I had to rotate this photo, and now it looks funny. Oh well.)

Our rental car had a fun feature on the dash where it gave us our elevation. This is particularly interesting in New Orleans because much of the city is actually below sea level.

Here we were at -5 feet. The lowest we saw was -15.

The first day we wanted to go the Garden District and the French Quarter. My main concern was parking, which is very expensive near the French Quarter. However, there are old streetcars that run around the city. These are fun to ride, so I decided we should go to the Garden District first, where we would hopefully find cheaper parking, and then take the streetcar to the French Quarter.

We ended up finding an unmetered spot on a side street in the Garden District, so parking was free this day.

We wandered the Garden District for awhile, admiring the beautiful homes.

This house had a water fountain for people, and a water bowl and treats for dogs.

The giant live oaks are fun to climb around on.

Poppy found the world's biggest Richard Scarry book at a bookstore.

Eventually we made our way to the streetcar. We rode the St. Charles streetcar to get to the French Quarter. This is the same streetcar my mother rode every day to and from school. The cars themselves are the same, so we might literally have been riding a car my mother rode many years ago. The machine for cash fares wasn't working, and the driver let us ride for free. It was very crowded initially, and we all had to ride standing up until some people got off.

We did get seats towards the end, though.

The streetcar dropped us at Canal Street, where the first order of business was feeding the children. We ended up getting fried chicken, which everyone enjoyed very much.

Poppy did not understand this sign at the restaurant, and honestly, neither did I.

Then we walked. We went down Bourbon Street, where one boy played chess with a guy who had his board set up on the street. We looked in a store that sells antique guns and weapons. We walked around Jackson Square, where a man on stilts was entertaining the gathered crowd, a wedding was happening in the garden area of the square, and psychics and voodoo practitioners were set up literally in front of the cathedral.

We stopped at the Pharmacy Museum, which has some very interesting displays about historic medicine and also a very nice courtyard.

Cool staircase, too.

At this point, everyone's late night was catching up with them, so we decided to get back on the streetcar and work our way back to the house, where the children played with the toys at the house, and I made dinner, dried laundry, and generally got us settled.

Looks like home already.

Okay, I think this is long enough for now. Stay tuned for day two of our adventures!

* The city of New Orleans transitions within blocks from nice neighborhoods to places I definitely did not want to stay. I relied heavily on the Airbnb reviews and Google streetview to find a house in a place I thought would be safe. This house was in a very safe and quiet neighborhood, although just about a mile away was not a place I would have felt comfortable.

Home for the Holiday

We just returned last night from a week in New Orleans, so I am particularly thankful for a fun and safe trip.

This is not a house you will see where I live.

 I am also extremely thankful to be home. 

Where there is precious little green to be seen, but also no chokingly humid air.

But as always, home or away, the people who came with me to New Orleans are what I am most thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. What are you thankful for?

Country Mouse in the City

The eldest child was scheduled for wisdom tooth removal yesterday morning, which is a pretty common event in the teen years these days. I myself remember doing this when I was about his age. The difference for us, of course, is how far we have to drive to do it. The only oral surgeon that takes our insurance is in Albuquerque, which is around 200 miles away.

His appointment was at 9 a.m. I briefly considered just getting up early and leaving at 5 a.m. to drive to Albuquerque. But then I considered how miserable that would be for the fasting patient, as well as for me when I had to turn right around and drive another 200 miles to get home after the surgery.

I got a hotel room for the night before.

The oral surgeon's office was near the balloon park, which is where they have the big Balloon Fiesta that Albuquerque is famous for. I was wondering why the hotel room was almost twice the regular price for Sunday night, figuring there was a graduation or something. I found out when we arrived and saw signs for "Boots in the Park."

It was a country music festival. There were something like twenty different bands playing for the weekend. The eldest child, who is a big country music fan, was incredulous that we were RIGHT THERE and were not going to be able to go see Luke Combs. I did look to see if there were any tickets available, because I actually would have taken him--it's not like we were doing anything else that night--but the only ones left were $500 VIP tickets. Sorry, kid.

The park was only a mile and a half away, though, which meant we could actually hear the music in our hotel room. Son could even identify the songs. So it was kind of like being there, right? Right.

We stayed at a Quality Inn. It wasn't the worst hotel I've ever stayed at, but it wasn't particularly nice, either. That's why this car in the parking lot was so amusing to me.

A Corvette at the Quality Inn? I guess those car payments ARE pretty steep. 

There are a lot of things I might do when I myself have GRWNKDS, but buying a Corvette is not one of them. I hope that person is enjoying it, however.

Since we were in the Big City, we had an overwhelming number of restaurants to choose from for dinner. The son with me is a big fan of sushi and sashimi, which is not something we are often in close proximity to. We were this night, though! Off we went to a Japanese restaurant.

So much raw fish.

I do not care for fish cooked, and certainly not raw, so I got literally the only thing on the menu that didn't have fish in it.

Noodles, vegetables, and beef. It was okay, although way too sweet for me. Kind of like teriyaki.

None of the dessert options were very appealing to me at this place, but I thought that surely, we must be pretty close to a Cold Stone Creamery. My phone informed me that we were only about half a mile from one, so we went there for dessert.

We got back to the hotel around 7 p.m., which is too early to go to bed. I have no interest in TV, but as it was still light outside, I went for a walk.

I think this is the biggest flag I have ever seen. Must be some really patriotic mechanics in that shop.

Albuquerque has nice mountains outside the city, which makes me feel right at home. It reminds me of Tucson, where I lived for seven years.

Then back to the Quality Inn to read for a bit before bed, and listen to the concert through our window. And to the concert-goers as they came back to the hotel in the wee hours, still very hyped up from all the excitement. They were almost certainly drunk, too, which made it quite the party scene.

I always wake up early, usually around 5 a.m., although I didn't actually get up until 6 a.m. when the breakfast stuff was put out in the lobby. 

Unbeatable dining ambiance.

I had some scrambled eggs that were almost certainly mixed up from a powder, as well as cornflakes and coffee.

Breakfast of champions.

I typically drink my coffee and chicory with only a tablespoon of heavy cream. This sort of hotel coffee needs a lot more help than that to make it palatable, though, so I added whole milk and sugar to it. 

It was still early after this. Time for another walk.

A much different scene than my typical morning walk.

Spring comes a lot sooner in Albuquerque than in does at our house, so there were many flowering plants.

I don't know what this is, but it smelled heavenly.

After my walk, we still had about an hour before the surgery. I had discovered that the oral surgeon's office was right near the big grocery store I had been to last time I was in Albuquerque. 

Source of The Good Italian Sausage.

I of course had my coolers in the car, which is why I decided to go grocery shopping right then so we could just go home after the surgery.

Then finally, the actual purpose of this trip.

Awaiting the patient.

Eldest had been referred for extraction of one tooth, but on the advice of the surgeon, ended up getting all four wisdom teeth taken out. So that was pretty much the end of anything fun. But it was a nice city adventure while it lasted.

Awe-Inspiring Abundance

It's good for me to sometimes leave my very limited remote bubble here and enter the outside world, if only to realize how odd my life is in the grander American scheme. This was really highlighted by my trip to a grocery store in suburban Albuquerque last Friday.

I went to Albuquerque to pick up the traveling kid from the airport. Because his flight was coming in on the later side and we had to drive so far back home, I did not want to stop on the way home at the grocery store. We wouldn't have gotten home until 11 p.m. So instead I went to the store before picking him up. 

The grocery store I went to was just a Smith's, but it was in what is quite clearly a major area of commerce for the Albuquerque suburbs. In fact, I entered the heart of American consumerism. My exit off the freeway brought me to a road lined with every store and restaurant I've heard of or read about, but never actually shop at. Like Chick-fil-A. And Target.

I realize these are not uncommon for most of you. But they are for me.

Thankfully, this was a big road with good traffic flow, so although it was busy (keep in mind, this was Black Friday), I made it to the grocery store without too much delay.

And there I was taken aback by the experience of sheer opulence that is American grocery shopping.

This store was as big as the entire Walmart I typically shop at, except instead of half the store being things like storage containers and camping equipment, it was all just . . . food. There was SO MUCH. So many options, so many displays, so many perishable things that I never see.

I just stood there in the produce section for a minute, staring around me in awe. 

They had a fancy cheese section! And a seafood counter! I mean, I couldn't buy anything from it because whatever I bought was going to be a sitting in a cooler for six hours and that seemed like a bad idea for fish, but still. It was there. I do not ever shop anywhere that has a seafood counter.

When you drive roads like this regularly, the nearest seafood counter will be a couple hundred miles away.

In the end, I didn't buy too much. A few of the fancy cheeses and some multi-color "snacking tomatoes" were about the extent of the indulgence for me, but it was fun to visit the Other America for a little while before returning to my little bubble.

Girls' Day Out

I mentioned already that the eldest son, Poppy, and I stayed in a hotel near the Albuquerque airport on Wednesday night. There was no reason for Poppy to come except that she doesn't like it when I go anywhere without her, especially overnight. And she does like to travel. 

I knew she was coming with us, so I purposely chose a hotel that had an indoor pool. That and proximity to the airport were pretty much the only criteria for my selection.

Of course we went swimming the night we arrived at the hotel.

I definitely did not choose to have a "pool view" room. Why on earth would anyone want to overlook--and overhear--an echoey pool?

I did not actually swim this night, to be honest. I'm not much of a water person, and the idea of having to take a shower before bed was unappealing. So I just sat there on a deck chair and monitored the fun.

Mom the lifeguard.

I had warned Poppy that coming with us would mean getting up very early and sitting at the airport for awhile, and that part would not be fun. She accepted this and was in fact very patient with our 5 a.m. wake-up and two hours checking in, going through security, and sitting at the gate until the plane left.

We left Poppy's stuffed dog, Jillian, to guard the hotel room while we were gone. She takes her job very seriously.

It's been several years since I've had the opportunity to watch a plane actually pull away from the gate, since the days of going to the gate to say good-bye or meet arrivals is now over.

But after that, it was Fun Girl Time!

The first thing we did when we got back to the hotel around 8 a.m. was eat breakfast. It was one of those buffets featuring many bread products and cereals, but this one thankfully also had scrambled eggs and ham, plus one of those ubiquitous waffle makers that you fill with the tiny cups of batter and flip over.

Poppy had a bowl of Froot Loops, some scrambled eggs and ham, a waffle, and some apple juice. This is the most I have ever seen her eat at breakfast.

After that, it was back to the pool. I do not think this pool room was heated. The water was actually steaming when we got there, even though it wasn't particularly warm water. Thankfully, there was also a functioning hot tub.

Poppy got in the hot tub first. 

This thing had some seriously intense bubbles. A bit too aggressive for me.

I got in the pool first, knowing that once I got in the hot water, I was never going to bring myself to get back in the cold pool. We spent a little bit of time working on Poppy's dog paddling and water treading before I declared myself done with the chill and gratefully switched to the hot tub. The pool had a shallow part that Poppy could stay in to play around, and I was only about two feet away in the hot tub, so I could keep an eye on her.

I did get tired of even the hot tub before she was ready to go, so I sat on a deck chair--covered in two towels because it was freezing in there after I had gotten wet--while she played happily in the hot tub.

I did have to eventually cut her fun short, however, as we had a long drive and a stop for groceries ahead of us.

After going back to the room to shower and change, we stopped by the breakfast buffet one more time as they were packing it up so I could get another cup of coffee and Poppy could get a bagel with cream cheese. 

We took these in the car with us. As we were leaving Albuquerque and she was munching her bagel, "Eye of the Tiger" came on the radio. Poppy exclaimed, "Hey, this is 'Eye of the Tiger'! I love this song!"

Then she said, "This is so great, Mom."

I asked her if she meant the song or her bagel.

"Both. I love music and I love bagels."

So easy to please, this girl.

After she finished eating, she settled herself with Charlotte's Web. Before she started reading, though, she said casually, "If you see a spa, you should stop. Since we don't have any brothers with us."

I was kind of surprised by this and asked her what we would do at a spa, wondering how she knew about spas at all. They're not places I frequent.

"Pedicures and stuff."

Oh, right. I forgot about that Fancy Nancy book. Obviously, she didn't.

In the end, we did not stop at a spa, instead stopping at Walmart to buy groceries on our way home. 

So maybe it wasn't a typical girls' day out, but Poppy sure enjoyed herself. And so did I.