Seattle Freeze

One of my best frineds since the 5ht grade came and visited recently, I was so excited that I literally started a countdown from the day she booked her flight. This is the longest we have gone without seeing each other since we were 10 years old. She is always my travel companion, and the first to tell me to stop being such a weirdo

Janet stayed for five days and Im sure it was the best/worst vacation of her life.

For starters, you normally pick a vacation spot for their relaxing and warm attribtutes. Well, Luoisiana is hot...all the time. The only time it isnt hot, is when Janet visits. I say "Yeah, its been like 80 for the past 2 weeks, pack shorts and tanks!" 

She should have packed a damn parka.

Also, my husband goes to work at 7:00 and I drive him to work, he is always early for everything so the alarm goes off at 5:30 every morning, even though it takes 5 minutes to get ready. Whilst doing whatver he does from 530 to 7 am he makes a tremendous amount of noise and leaves all the lights on in thehouse. Janet was sleeping in the epicenter of the houe and was subjected to Charlie wandering and banging around and flicking lights on, then leaving the room and keeping the lights on. Then there is Steve. Dont get me wrong, I love my son and I love being his mother, but the child does not stop talking/moving, ever. He is like Speedy Gonzales from the time his eyes spring open at 730 until he is forced to go to bed at 8. I almost forgot to mention our Chiweenie puppy Frankie. She is overly affectionate and equallly as excitable. 

With that said, staying with the Berlin Family is not an ideal vacation.

However, she knowlingy agreed to come down to the capital of awesome for her five days of vacay and we made the very best of it.

I knew that I wanted her to try all the good food and beverages that I had experienced since being in the epicenter of fatty goodness, first on the list was crawfish and Abita.

We went nd picked her up in New Orleans, I ran up and hugged...hard. As she squirmed I just hugged harder and blinked tears out of my eyes. This was gonna be a good time!

We ran home for a quick wardrobe change and went to the most Cajun spot I know of in Lafayette, 

Randolls Restauraunt.

We ordered gator bites and three pounds of crawfish apiece along with Purple Haze Abita.

I gave some quick instrrctions like no face touching and suck out the head, even if you dont want to and just eat it all with your hands, even the red potatoes. It went over really well, the crawfish were huge and way more delicous than I remember. She even liked my new found favorite, Purple Haze Abita.

After many beers and too much food we all went and passed out in our respective areas of the house. 

I was so excited for the next day, I wanted to go and get some coffee, sit outside in the morningheat and
talk about what we wanted to do for the week. I was sadly mistaken, it was so cold the next morning that I had to wear a sweatshirt. I have not had to put one on for weeks.

We sat inside at Starbucks and I sulked. We decided on Jungle Gardens and the Tabasco Factory for the day. Charlie had to work so it was just me, Janet and Steve going up against baby gators, a factory tour and the nemesis of all, the highway. I should mention that I was born without an internal compass. I have no sense of direction, whatsover and I still use my GPS to get me around town, sometimes Steve knows where we are before I do and he is in the backseat.

Anyway, we plugged in the GPS whom we aptly named Jamal and set off towards wherever Jungle Gardens is in Louisiana.

It was still cold and I was still a little bummed but by the time we got there, without incident, it was starting to warm up a little. We started out at the Tabasco Factory where we learned all about the fascinating Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce that most people ask for by name, riveting.

They did however, have some free Tabasco ice cream and chili and let us sample all of their products by dipping a pretzel into a cup filled with various Tabasco dippers. I highly recommend the spicy mayonaise, which was my fave. The ice cream, not so much, Janet ate her whole little cup though, and remarked about how yummy it was, this is coming from a girl who will eat anything though. Steve took a bite and was confused. Ice cream is supposed to be good, isnt it?

After that whole brainwashing scheme, we went over to Jungle Gardens. This is one of my favorite things to 

do here in Louisiana, the trees are beautiful and the Alligators are always a terrifying yet amazing site to see. Ive been here several times and we have always had Charlie with us, he is always saying how little these gators are and how we shouldnt be scared and blah, blah, blah. That being said, I never realized how much I depended on my husband to keep us safe, Im assuning he would thrust himself in front of us and the gators and wrestle it to the ground Steve Irwin style, if one were to charge. 

This time is was just us three. We dubbed Steve, 'Gator Snack' and nervously giggled that we were going to throw him in front of us if one were to go all Wild Kingdom on us. I was just kidding, but I think Janet was serious.

It was a little disapointing at first, the weather was just getting warm so there werent any out sunbathing, we drove for a while until we saw another couple out of their car, I parked next to them hoping that they had seen something and werent just taking pictures of scenery.

We were in luck; a little one was in the water, not moving. We all walked up to the river bank and I started snapping some pictures when the alligator jumped around and face us. We all jumped up and laughed nervously while backing up at the same time. The man next to us yelled, "Oooh Wee! He wants to get a good look at ya!" Then the woman he was with put on a stern face and said, "If that alligator starts coming after you make sure to run in a zigzag pattern." What?! What in the hell, lady?

"They will charge at you, Im not joking. They have just come out of hibernation and are very aggressive at this time."

Well, thanks Mrs. Alligator expert for taking the possibility of Alligator related death from 476 to 1 on my things to worry about list.

I picked up Steve and we backed away, fast.

We had a few more encounters that were equally as scary, at one point we thought an alligator head was a turtle head. We got out and were walking around when Janet yelled, "Woah, there is an alligator right there!"

Apparently, it had been stalking us. We ran back to the car and I tossed Steve in and rolled up the window.

What is typically a lovely day on the bayou came to be a thrilling will-we-make-it-out-alive type adventure. 

On a side note, we did all come through with our limbs still attached.

It had warmed up by the time we left and we thought that the next day was going to be a good one for the beach.

Again I was very wrong.

The next day we plugged the beach into trusty Jamal and he led us right to it, actually he led us right into a closed road that would have led us to the beach. So, we tried to reprogram Jamal, he wouldnt listen and kept telling us to "Turn around when possible" no Jamal! We cant!

We took a ridiculously long detour when Jamal finally caught on and brought us in the right direction. We finally arrived after what was about 2 hours of driving recklessly through the country side. Once we got there the weather had turned a little nicer, it was warm anyways and got tp enjoy a little time in the sun. There werent a ton of people around so I let Frankie off her leash and we cracked some beers without a can opener and lay around for a while in the would be sun. The clouds were starting to darken and strorm was brewing along the horizon. The storms here arent little baby storms either, they are class 5 hurricane storms, thunder rattles the whole house and lightning lights up the entire sky in a brilliant and beautiful display while rain pours down so fast that it floods the whole backyard...this would have been cool for Janet to see..at the house. However, we were outside. It started to down pour all of a sudden and we had to scatter about grabbing our things and the dog and Steve and run underneath the only covered areas they had, which were lined in tin, and specifically said, "Do not stand under in the event of a storm".

Nice.

We piled into the car pretty swiftly and drove to pick up Charlie from work, narrowly escaping death by lightning.

On the way home we bought some Boudin and Cracklin which Janet deemed as delish, and we decided it was a good night to go out, we had defeated death after all. 

I called my friend Kristan and we went and drank way too much at several bars downtown and had a really good time. We learned to Douggie and do the Weeknd at Bernies dance, which is basically just throwing your head back and spazzing out, which is basically how I dance anyway. We all had far too many Vegas Bombs and went home laughing. I was thrilled that my best friend from home and my new friend had hit if off so well.

The, Janet started in with political talk. Politics and religion are something I dont talk about with people int he South, because, lets face it, we have incredibly opposing views. Im a liberal most people here are conservative, there isnt anything wrong with how I think or how they think, its just something that I dont want to bring up and discuss and fight about, its not worth it. So, as we sat in Kristens driveway I zoned out on my Taco Bell and listened in for a few minutes hoping things wouldnt get crazy. It did help that both parties were well versed and hospitable, however I was really, really uncomfortable.
Now, I know how President Obama feels.
Eventually, we motored back home and fell asleep, after a fun a intersting night out.
We topped off her little vacation here in Louisiana with a trip to New Orleans and the French Quarter. We decided to leave the night before and stay in the French Quarter. I had never been there so I didnt know what to expect. It was amazing. Old New Orleans is absolutely stunning, there is so much culture and so much going on I couldnt believe it. The houses, the shops, the bars, everything; Im going to try and convince Charlie to buy an apartment there, you know, one day.
We went on a Ghost Hunt, which was a tour guide, guiding us around the city for two hours at night and taking us to the most haunted spots. It was ok, I couldnt really hear anything he was saying and he answered his cell phone a few times, mid tour, but I guess it might have been an emergency, maybe. Steve fell asleep in my arms after an hour and I had to carry his deadweight body back to the hotel, after carrying him for two hours I felt like I had been working out for four hours, my arms were so sore.

We woke up early and looked around at all the different things they had going on. We rode a tram and had muffeleta and po' boys and hush puppies and bid Auntie Janet adios at the New Orleans airport. Having back to back visitors was a blast but super exhausting at the same time. Im so happy that I got to taste a little bit of home with Grandma Susie and Auntie Janet coming down to see us. I feel like I got to catch up on my Washington State gossip and make some new memories witht the people that I care abut.

Cheers.