Grant Wishes

flying home, but first more food...

I finally got to check out the French Quarter last evening when we walked over to our farewell dinner at Muriel's Jackson Square, where we ate and ate and ate and I got to check out the creepy seance room in the back of the restaurant.  Spooky, with a ghost story to boot!  Completely stuffed after dinner, I of course had to meander over to Cafe Du Monde.  How could my trip to New Orleans be complete without scarfing down some beignets?  They were definitely yummy but I have to say they were basically individually-sized fried dough with a bucket of powdered sugar on top.  Hot out of the fryer, they were melt in your mouth delish.  Even more than the treats, I enjoyed watching the outdoor market restaurant and all of the hustle and bustle.  What an amazing business plan to only serve fried dough, coffee and beverages!

While I was working hard with the EC and eating like a queen, I was happy to get reports that my homestead was being kept up by young workers.  Emails were flying to me with subjects such as "child labor laws" and "Cinderquinn, Cindercole, Cinderdeclan..."  Cutie cleaning crew!

The house wasn't the only thing getting cleaned.  We are serious about our oral hygiene too.
Team toothbrushing!

Tom so graciously held down the fort in my absence and I'm extremely grateful, especially since it wasn't the easiest few days for the crew.  Everyone got sick as soon as I left -- bad coughs, cold, vomit, you name it - and Tom had to deal with it all on his own.  I was happy to return tonight to bestow Dad of the Year honors on my favorite big guy!

These hugs were what I was waiting for all weekend!

more New Orleans livin'

Our Executive Committee gatherings have kept us in meetings and events from the start of every day to late into the night.  It's all been really interesting, smart discussions and fun, fabulous meals out.  SO MUCH DELICIOUS FOOD!  We've been eating at some of the city's best restaurants...four and five course meals.  Over the top and oh so amazing.

I quickly jaunted down to Canal Street to check out the sights between the last meeting of the day and dinner yesterday.  I loved seeing the trolley and palm trees!  The weather was exceptional and all of the locals have been telling us that we truly lucked out with the sun and mild temps.

Walking to dinner at Calcasieu we passed by this.  I really, really, really wanted to go!  A future trip, perhaps...

After today's meetings, we enjoyed a fabulous meal at Commander's Palace, a New Orleans institution.  They had more servers and waitstaff than I've ever seen in one place.  It almost seemed to be a 1:1 ratio of employees to patrons.  During the meal, we were treated to some tableside music!

At the conclusion of our fabulous meal we were presented with an amazing dessert.  It was a Creole bread pudding souffle with whiskey sauce, the likes of which I had never seen.  It was huge and pretty neat to admire.

After yet another huge, delicious meal, the group had our first block of free time and we had the option to go on a walking tour of the Garden District, one of the neighborhoods of New Orleans.  Always being up for a good walk, I jumped in.  It was such a cool way to see gorgeous large houses, striking architecture and the start of some fabulous pre-Mardi Gras decorations!

Williams in New Orleans

Change of pace for me this weekend as I flew down to New Orleans for the weekend to join the Williams Executive Committee meetings.  It's an all-guys weekend back at home, and I'm not sure who is more excited - Dad or the boys.

We're not the Board of Directors, but that didn't stop the hotel from displaying this sign all weekend.

Last evening's welcome dinner was held at Mother's Restaurant where I had one of the most delicious things I've EVER eaten.  If I could have figured a way to bring home chafing dishes of it, I would have done so in a heartbeat.  The magical dish was called Grits & Debris.  The basic premise was grits as the bottom layer topped with a fantastic, shredded, seasoned roast beef concoction.  That description doesn't even do it justice.  Seriously.  Go get some.

After dinner, plans were made for people to hit up bars and the jazz scene.  A group of nine of us peeled off and headed over to Mid City Rock & Bowl.  This won the weekend!  Located off the beaten path we discovered such a hidden gem.  Bowling lanes weren't available until 11:30pm, so we paid the $10 cover and headed in to discover what else this venue had in store.

We were not prepared for the fabulousness of a full dance floor filled with people (all decked out) and a stage featuring the zydeco music of Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie.  Again, words cannot describe but it was so fun!  The room was unlike anything I'd seen anywhere else -- a bar to the left, a huge dance hall with a stage in front of us and to the right, and in the far back of the room was a full bowling alley.  Picnic tables were spread around the perimeter for all of the tired dancers to rest (but not many were sitting out.)  It was hard not to bop along to the upbeat music, even though none of us knew the dances that the crowd clearly knew how to do.

After the band was done, all nine of us climbed into a cab...together...  Not many cabs were rolling by those parts, and apparently Louisiana rules are a wee bit more lax than up in New England where they abide by "seatbelt" and "passenger" laws.

Meanwhile, I had received an email from Tom that Cole had taken a tumble at school pick up and had completely face planted on the sidewalk.  He was fine, just all scraped up.  His one request was for bandaids on all of his boo boos.  This is the email that was awaiting me in my inbox:

our singing and dancing fools!

While cooking dinner the other night we were listening to Sandra Boynton's album "Blue Moo."  The "Gorilla Song" came on (or as we call it: the banana song) and Declan stopped everything, and started bopping and singing along.  I happened to catch a portion of it on video!

 

Later in the evening Tom asked Quinn what he had done in school, to which Quinn replied "the Hamster Dance!"  I had never seen it so we dialed it up on youtube (Quinn was disappointed it wasn't as large as on his classroom smartboard) and he taught Cole the moves.  It's one of his (recent) favorite class dances.

memory with a twist

The boys upped the ante with Memory today when they laid out the cards in a race track! Quite fitting with our Cars-themed game.