Stephen, Chris (bestfriend’s hubby) and I pulled off a great surprise for one of my best friends, Alice. Her birthday was March 16th. Chris & I started planning the surprise around Christmas for me and Stephen to come down to their house for the weekend.
Chris was already planning a crawfish boil for her birthday, so we just joined right in. I was so proud of him for not folding and keeping it all in – I know there are a few times when he wanted to just blurt it out.
We drove down to New Orleans on Friday. I had been setting her up for weeks and she was expecting a fed-ex package from me – so she thought that was who was at the door. I’m so sneaky.
Her new house is gorgeous and they did such a great job remodeling it - it got around 6" of water from Katrina. I am so happy they have found a house they want to be in for a long time. And they live in the cutest/coolest neighborhood with great neighbors!
Our two "other" nephews - Chip and Rex were such a joy to be around. They were my snuggle bugs. It really made me miss having two dogs in the house.
Stephen & I also got to experience our first New Orleans St. Patrick’s Day Parade. It was pretty cool. Nothing like the strict southern ways of Arkansas. We went with several of Alice’s friends & in-laws, so they were able to hook me up with some big beads, without having to “do something” for them....but no worries, I got them respectfully… its good to know people that know people (thanks Val!). One picture below is of me with beads about 5 minutes in to the parade. In this parade they would also throw a bunch of cabbages, carrots, potatoes, and green onions. By the time we left, all we needed was the meat.
Here are several pictures.
Amy & Stephen in the French Quarter
"MOM! That's MY rose!," says Rex-oppotomus.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALICE!! *smooch* love you!!!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
NOLA .... Surprise Ali!!!!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
The great dingy adventure!!
Off the main island there is a nationally registered island called “Buck Island” where locals and tourists spend their Sunday afternoons. You can only get there by boat and it is a mile off the mainland.
Most people take boats out there that a/b 20ft or larger. Most of the larger boats will pull a dingy (tiny boat w/ an outboard motor) so that they can take it to shore, cruise around to everyone else’s boat or take people around to the other side of the island to the snorkel trail.
Stephen wanted to take our friend’s (Dick) dingy out (funny, huh?) and ride right behind them (a 1970 60ft something) b/c he didn’t have a tow line for it. Well… this would be first time this dingy has ever been “out to sea” and the swells were a/b 2-4 ft., not bad, but not fun.
So off we go, merrily riding behind them as they pull out of the slip and out of the jetty. It looked as if we were going to keep up… until – Dick cranked it in to only about 10-knots and we were soon left in a trail of churned ocean. I thought to myself “that’s okay- it will just take us a half a day to get there.” Wasn’t happy about it, but was adjusting okay.
Then the motor dies. He cranks again, we progress a/b 15 ft (we are going in to the seas to go to the island) then it dies again. We lose our 15 ft. gain. By this point we are a/b ¼ mile or more from land. He then says “why are we taking on water?” He grabs the water pump that you use to usually pump out rain water and starts pumping. We lose more ground. He starts it again. We gain 10 more feet, maybe and it dies. The engine sits too far in to the water, so every time we would hit a high wave and the back end would drop a little the engine would get flooded. He then asks me to grab this milk jug that has half the top cut out of it so I can start bailing water. “Fine, I thought, I can do this, its not big deal, this is a tiny boat, and it’s kinda’ like being in he lake.” Then I happen to look up and the boat is bounding up and down and get my bearings all messed up and here comes the nausea.
So, now I’m nauseated, it’s hot as heck, we have nothing with us but a water pump, my mosquito bitten feet are sitting in a/b 8 inches of ocean water/ left over beverage that was spilled trying to do 3 things at once and I realize I’m burning b/c I didn’t put sunscreen on my back b/c it wasn’t supposed to be that long of a ride. I can also see that my family and a/b 12 other friends had made it to Buck Island and was starting to get a little panicked/really pissed that they were not going to come get us. If I could have screamed profanities I would have, then I thought at this point there was no point in wasting my breath.
My husband looks at me and says “Well I guess if worse comes to worse we will eat your left leg first.” I was stunned, thinking “WHAT?,” and I replied with, “Oh no(!), why my leg?" He was trying to lighten the mood and I wasn’t having it.
We notice that the big boat has turned around to come get us and they are looking a/b 1/4mile west of us. We’re screaming, waving our hands- then they finally come over.
As we are bobbing up and down as they back in to us so we can get up at the swim platform at the back of the boat, I hear something buzzing beside my left ear. I swat it, thinking it was mosquito and BAM! A STINGING SHOCKWAVE goes through my left thumb and in to my body. I’m screaming, I see the bee do a dive bomb in to the bottom of the dingy and look at my thumb to see its stinger lodged in to the top pad of my thumb and half of its intestines still attached.
So, I’m screaming, freaking out b/c all I want to do is get on the freakin’ boat – a friend reaches over grabs me underneath my armpits, and like superman lifts me to safety. Now I realize I’m okay and I lose it – I am a balling – I had had enough crap in the past 45 minutes, I was done – then I notice there are about 10 people on this boat that I have never met before and they probably think I am the biggest pansy.
They ended up finding a line to pull the dingy behind the boat, we get there, they check to see why were taking on water… Dick (our friend) had taken out the plug for something and forgot to put it back in. We found out that champagne corks work just fine for a drain plug. Let the engine out and the dingy was ready for other adventures…. That did not include me!
Here is a picture of my dad, Stephen & the infamous dingy.
VACATION
We had a wonderful vacation visiting my dad and step-mom. We didn't get to go island hopping which was a HUGE bummer b/c of some incompetent boat mechanics at the marina.
Out in the town shopping.
Us being tourists - at the eastern most point of the United States of America. Behind us is a sun dial that was built in 2000 for the millenium.
