Can we just move here?

I have asked Adam that many times since we got to Mobile.  Not just because they drop a moon pie at midnight on New Years Eve, but maybe that is part of it.

People are amazingly friendly.  The lady at the hotel breakfast took us in hand and told us ALL the things. A couple at Bellingrath Gardens did the same.  First they warned us about the nearby water moccasin, then they became our tour guides.  I think they would've taken us home and fed us if they sensed we needed feeding.

At the recommendation of our breakfast friend, we went to Bellingrath Gardens.  In the early 1900s, Mr. Bellingrath convinced the company to let him bottle coca-cola  here in Mobile and let's just say it was lucrative.  They built a summer home near the river and an amazing garden and then they opened it to the public in the 1930s.

It seemed like a movie set for a really beautiful period piece.  I loved it.

We went to Dauphin Island and ate blackened shrimp and went to the beach.

It was in the twenties at home.  And snowing.  The water is definitely not blue like I would expect the Gulf of Mexico to be, but I think it is still in the Mississippi River estuary.

Adam stopped to chat with some fishermen and I filled my pockets with seashells and sea glass which was on brand for both of us.

When we got back to Mobile, we drove around through some delightful neighborhoods and ended up at Mo'Bay Beignets (again, at our breakfast friend's recommendation).

Can we just move here?

LA to AL

Yesterday we left New Orleans and meandered our way across the narrowest part of Mississippi and ended up in Alabama.

We drove along the coast mostly.  We didn't always see it because of the trees and the low country, but we saw a lot of interesting things.

For miles and miles, every house was up on stilts.

The houses in Bywater and the 9th ward in New Orleans were up on cinder blocks, about 3-4 feet off the ground.  These were much higher.

This was a rest stop in Mississippi.  I have no words.

In Mississippi we got to the coast and the road went right along the beach.

I didn't take pictures of the houses on the other side of the street, but they were enormous and up on even higher stilts and all pretty new because I think those communities were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

We got to Mobile and I really like it so far.  We took a walk in the dusky light and it was lovely.

That's our hotel, looking like the moon is its lollipop.  We sat in the square outside a cathedral and listened to the bells and I told Adam I didn't want to go home.  (We had talked to Mark and it continues to snow.)

Here's the view last night from our room on the 27th floor.

Today we're going to go see what there is to see.

Serendipity with Adam

Yesterday we went to the venue where the WGU graduation was happening.  We were right there almost exactly when the jazz band marched out, leading the graduates.  We could not have timed it better.  We were by the bus, which is a hot spot for photographs and I saw so many tearful graduates hugging people that it made me a little tearful.  I just felt such joy and pride for these people I didn't even know.  Adam pointed out that without any affirmative action, it was an extremely diverse group of graduates.  "There is a lot of advertising though," he said.

I texted Mark and Emma, whose jobs are to help people pay for college, that for everyone who yells at them (because there are some), there are these jubilant graduates, posing for pictures.  

Working in education can be a grind, but it also feels like the most worthwhile thing I can do.

Adam loaded Cameron and Kaden and Brandon and a guy I never found out the name of (and Adam didn't introduce me because he wasn't sure) into the van and drove us to a sort of shady part of town to eat po boys at a place where they make the "original" po boys.  Adam dives deep into things and that is all.

I mentioned something about it to the boys (who are grown men, but it felt like a carload of teenage boys) and they said, "Yeah.  Just wait until he starts talking about the supreme court."

I am aware.

We pulled up to the restaurant and I said, "Are we really eating there?!?"

We were.  And it wasn't as sketchy as I thought and it was really good food.  

After lunch, we dropped them off and went exploring.  Besides diving deep into topics that interest him, Adam is also one for spontaneity.  We had no plan.

Adam said that New Orleans looks like it's been through something and I think that's pretty true.

We drove through some kind of rough places and then stopped at a gas station to use the bathroom.  Adam noticed on the map that we were near a National Cemetery and then he realized it was the site of the Battle of New Orleans.

And yes, I played the Johnny Horton song on my phone while we drove there.

It set the mood.

We went to the visitors center and talked to the guide and watched the videos and read all the things like we do.  It's nice that we're so compatible and want to find out about the same kinds of things.

We walked around the battlefield.  It was beautiful and serene.

But still had the ramparts and some cannons to remind you that it wasn't always so serene.

It was a pretty amazing battle.  2,000 British troops either died, were injured or surrendered and there were 20 American casualties.  

We walked up the levee to the river.  There was a staircase and it was 26 steps (I counted). Here's the view from the levee:

This house was built after the battle. The original house was burned by the troops so the British couldn't get it.  I wonder about the conversation with the homeowners.  

The view on the other side of the levee:

Bordered the battleground, there was a National Cemetery.  There were a few soldiers from the Battle of New Orleans and many many Union soldiers from the Civil War.  There were veterans buried there from World War I and II and Vietnam too.

I love a cemetery.

It's the only cemetery we've seen that isn't above ground.  

After that, we went to City Park.  The serendipity continued.  The weather was perfect and the park was pretty amazing.  There was a children's museum, art museum, sculpture park, little amusement park, sport fields, playgrounds, people picnicking and strolling.  I loved it!

We took a walk and looked at the sculpture park.  It was lovely.

We worked up an appetite to go to the Cafe Du Monde they had at the park.  We split an order of beignets.  I think the park may be my favorite part of the city.

If all I'd seen of New Orleans was the French Quarter, I would have missed out on a lot!

Today is a travel day.  We are off to Alabama.

Good times

Yesterday Adam and I drove up the river a bit to Whitney Plantation.  It is the only plantation here that is presented from the slaves' point of view and that was what we were interested in.

I really love exploring new places with Adam.  There is a lot to see in this beautiful diverse world.  We drove for awhile in this boggy cypress tree area.  It wasn't exactly water, but it didn't look like you could walk there either.

We went over a beautiful bridge over the Mississippi.  It appears my ghost hands are holding it up.

Two things are striking to me about the Mississippi River.  It is super muddy and also very busy.

I didn't take any pictures at the Whitney Plantation.  It felt slightly disrespectful, plus I was so engrossed, it didn't really occur to me to take pictures.  We did a self guided tour with a headset recording giving us information.  It was a pretty objective look at what life was like for the slaves.  It didn't feel like it was trying to make us feel guilty or manipulate our emotions, but it was sobering.  I appreciated that it didn't celebrate or glamorize the antebellum south, just gave a glimpse of what it was like.

The family historian in me loved one part in particular.   107,000 entries had been gathered from historical records to create a Louisiana slave database.  There was a memorial with the names listed.  They were the names given to them by their masters and were mostly French.  Seeing all those names was impactful.  They represented lives I can't really comprehend.  As is often the case at times like that, I consider my fortunate life and realize I better do good in the world since I have been given so much.

At the recommendation of the woman at the Whitney Plantation museum, we went to a tiny seafood restaurant on the edge of the river.  What is strange about being on the edge of the river is that there is a huge grass covered levee and you can't see the river.

It was a cultural experience eating there.  Rabbit, frog legs, and alligator were all on the menu.  I had shrimp and Adam had half a shrimp po boy and gumbo.  We split a piece of the best pecan pie of my life.

After eating, Adam said, "I think there's a road on top of the levee."  He found a dirt road leading up to it and I told him he couldn't go up there. 

He did anyway.

25% of our marriage is me telling Adam, "You can't do that!" and him doing it anyway.

We went back to our hotel and Adam talked with some coworkers in the lobby and I went and took a 15 minute nap which is usually all I need to recharge.  We went to the venue of the party for alumni and graduates, which was right outside the Superdome.  It was a festive atmosphere.

I pretended to help get the Sage Coach (the WGU bus, cleverly named by Adam because Sage is the owl mascot of WGU) ready for the event.  At one point Cameron told me I was "part of the crew now" and I couldn't tell if it was a compliment, an insult, or a threat.

There were food trucks all around the venue and one of them was Cafe Du Monde, which multiple people told us was the best place for beignets.

They weren't wrong.

Also, the amount of powdered sugar that got all over us was an adventure as well.

There was a company hired to set up a curtain that would drop for the big reveal of the new wrap on the Sage Coach.  The mechanism wasn't cooperating so Adam and his team were up on the Sage Coach to manually drop the curtain at the big moment and they tasked me with videoing it.

My photography skills are wobbly, but I did my best.

Here's the before and after:

Some of the people featured on the bus were there, which I loved.  I also loved that during the university president's speech beforehand, he talked about the impact the graduates were making in their own families and gave a statistic about the likelihood of their children getting college educations because they had.  Standing in the middle of the crowd like I was, I could see the graduates with their children and proud families beaming and it made me a little teary (I know, never happens).  I felt proud of the work that WGU does to make education accessible to so many (even though I have nothing to do with it beside videoing the unveiling of the Sage Coach).

Grateful Friday

I am grateful today to be spending extra time with Adam in a new and interesting place.  Also it is warm and humid and my cracked fingers have healed and I haven't used lotion once.  It's amazing.

Here was our day yesterday:

After a very chaotic breakfast situation at the hotel, we finally figured it out.  Confusion won't reign so supremely next time.

We went for a walk around the French Quarter.  Everything is picturesque, so pardon the photo dump.

Like New Orleans Square at Disneyland except not as clean and no Pirates of the Caribbean

This was inside a shop where they make these gas burning lanterns.  I can't imagine the amount of propane we could go through at Pleasant Hill!

This church borders Jackson Square, where the Louisiana Purchase took place (that's Jackson Square in the foreground).

I love a good cathedral...

especially if there's a statue of my girl, Joan of Arc!

I met some of Adam's co-workers.  One woman remembered me from a Salt Lake Bees game (and I remembered her--super recognizers unite).  Another woman told me she adored Adam.  I said I did too.  A guy he works with said, "I think Adam's...OK."

We went to a deli we heard about on Somebody Feed Phil, making that Netflix subscription pay for itself.  It was the kind of place Adam loves.  And the sandwiches were good too.  

We walked a bit around the Garden District, and drove around it a bit more.  We saw some amazingly opulent houses and the Mississippi River, which feels strange being higher than the city.  We saw a lot of schools, but each one was associated with a huge church.

I loved watching the tugboats churn along.

It started raining really hard and then minutes later the sky was blue.

It's a lot of water for a girl from the high desert.

Since Mardi Gras was last week, there were still platforms along parade routes.  A lot of houses were decorated with beads.

And the trees had beads and these ribbons/confetti/I don't know what in them.

Adam had to be in a virtual meeting, so we came back to our hotel room and he did that and I did my own thing, including but not limited to reading the notes from a meeting Janelle went to in my stead.  Things they are a changing in the Alpine School District so I called her to get the skinny.  She said that she couldn't believe I was thinking about work while I was on vacation.  I can't help it; I am a thinker of all the things.  She gave me a report on my sub and it seems like things are going OK.

Adam and I went to Lake Pontchartrain. I already knew the city is below sea level, but it is so striking.  We walked up this berm to get to the lake.

The lake was pretty in the dusky light.

From there, we met up with three guys that are on Adam's team for dinner.  He said he needed to take them to dinner at least once while we are here.  I said, "Doesn't the company pay for dinner anyway?"  He said yes.  I don't know.  I guess I need to just stay in my lane. 

They said that I should feel right at home with them since I teach 3rd grade.  One of them served his mission in New Orleans about ten years ago.  So I had questions.  One of them is so earnest it was endearing to me.  I asked Adam later how old he is and Adam didn't know.  He's young.  It's hard to know how old people are.  Just young.

I first googled it to see what it even was, then I ordered stuffed mirliton.  I also asked the waiter how to pronounce it.

Mirliton is, according to google, the unofficial squash of New Orleans.  Do other cities have unofficial (or even official) squashes?

It was stuffed with shrimp and crab and I think cornbread.  It was good.

I am loving my trip so far.  I don't love this picture of me, but I love this guy.  

He's funny and pleasant and up for anything and amazing with directions.  Those are great qualities to have in a travel companion.

I have not had a beignet yet, but I keep reminding Adam of that, so I'm hopeful.

So far so good

We left snow and cold and landed in a different world.

I watched the movie Emma on the plane.  It's always good to add a little Jane Austen into your life.  

Walking off the plane, I felt the warm humidity and I liked it.  I would probably feel differently about it in August, but it felt sublime.

We made our way to the rental car area.  You just pick whichever car you want in a certain section.  As soon as I saw the minivan, I knew that is what Adam would pick.  He will volunteer to give people he works with rides to and from the airport, because that is who he is and he will want them to be comfortable.  

You know how sometimes people will say they are too cool for a mini van?

That is not Adam.  Once a man in our ward in Washington, who was serving in YM with Adam, told him he was so uncool, it was cool.

That's my guy; I like him.

And he picked the minivan.

It was dark and we had no idea where to eat or what kind of neighborhood we were actually in, so we went to our hotel.  It is downtown, in the French Quarter according to my phone.

This was me taking a picture of the sky outside of our hotel.

notice my frizzy hair--it is the most humidity it has encountered in awhile

And this is the view from our room on the 14th floor.

We ended up walking down the block to the Tackle Box which was recommended by the woman at the hotel.  Adam got a shrimp po boy and I got a cheeseburger.  I asked Adam, "Am I basically just my dad, getting a cheeseburger?"

He said, "Maybe.  But I don't know if your dad would get that cheeseburger."

It had pimento cheese and bacon onion jam.  It was delicious.

I don't know what we're going to do today, or really any of the days.  Adam has work responsibilities and we are going to squeeze in sightseeing, but I don't know when or what.

That is sort of dizzying for a planner like me.

I just need to embrace the ambiguity.  That and the frizzy hair.

What more can I say?

Yesterday we had inside recess because it was too cold.

Every day for the past week, I have waded through snow or slush (depending on how long ago they plowed) to get across the parking lot to school.

I took this photograph (currently snowing) and this screenshot minutes ago:

Sign me up.