Nola - Day Four - Last Day

Sunday served as our last full day in New Orleans. We were all feeling the effects of our stay away from home. Leah and myself did not want to leave anytime soon. Pretty sure Matt was content with heading back home. Louis is just happy being outside so I don't think he cared either way.

We spent the day walking down to the Riverwalk. We spent some time walking around and had some Sno-Balls, a New Orleans treat. Sno-Balls may look a bit like Sno-Cones but the ice is different. It is shaved much like fallen snow. I especially like my with condensed milk. We got ours with various syrups. They were refreshing and very good.






Matt and Leah walked down past the barrier to the sands onto the Mississippi River.








We then walked down to the French Market and picked up some more souvenirs for family.

The night before at one of the parades we were entertained by this great marching band, the 'Get A Life Marching Band' from Portland, Oregon. They were absolutely wonderful. We saw them again during our travels in and around the Jackson Square/French Market. They are great musicians, hilarious and so much fun to watch.

This is the synopsis of the band's first trip to New Orleans.

Portland's best traveled all-adult marching band recently augmented its string of national performances with its first New Orleans Mardi Gras parade. Over 100 members of the band hit the streets to laissez les bon temps rouler in the Knights of Sparta parade on the evening of February 26. The four-mile parade, dubbed "the best parade of the first weekend" by New Orleans Magazine, followed the traditional Uptown route along St. Charles Avenue and Canal Street with hundreds of thousands of spectators.

On the day following the parade, GAL performed an hour-long show at Washington Artillery Park, just across the street from New Orleans' renowned Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral, followed by a performance at the French Market stage on behalf of New Orleans Jazz National Historic Park. (Yes, we actually got to play a national park!)

This guy has been down in Jackson Square for so many years now. He comes and goes throughout the years because he's in the Army.



We loved the street performers/artists in New Orleans. I think this one right here was one of our favorites.






Leah in front of the many art pieces in New Orleans.


This guy cracks me up every time I see him (and the other guy who does the same bit). Go by him, give him a tip and just watch what happens.


He'll likely scare the crap out of you.

Then back to normal.


We headed up to Decatur and then stopped to watch part of the Barkus Parade. The Krewe of Barkus is made of canine friends. They get dressed up and their owners walk with them through a 15 block portion of the French Quarter area.







Stopped at Leah's Pralines which are my FAVORITE pralines but they were closed :(


And one more parade for good luck on Canal Street. Not much choice in stopping as there is little way across.

Our Lil Thanksgiving

Since moving to our current home we've hosted a Post-Thanksgiving feast a few times but this year it was just the 4 of us.

Leah helped decorate for Thanksgiving/Autumn.



It was nice. I made everyone's favorites and we sat down and ate and well...ate some more.

Lake George Village

We drove down to Lake George Village a few times during our visit.

Here we are by the beach at Shepard's Park. Louis was fast asleep. We met up with our friend Brian and walked around the Village together.



We stopped by the arcade and Leah played skeeball with Brian.


We spent a few days in and out of town. In addition to playing mini golf we ate at a few local restaurants.

We always make sure to have at least one meal at the Adirondack Pub & Brewery. Adirondack Pub & Brewery. They have great beer they brew right there.

We also ate at a local cafe called Caffè Vero. Great lunch, perfect lattes and wonderful service.


We had dinner one of last nights visiting Lake George Village at the newly opened Moose Tooth Grill, same owners as the Adirondack Pub & Brewery. It is a great, kid friendly restaurant. Leah and Louis enjoyed it.


We also stopped by the Hawaiian Shaved Ice stand by the Lake George Waterfront. Leah shared a massive Watermelon Ice with Matt.


Leah got a hair wrap while in town.


Walking along the beach in her newly purchased Lake George sweatshirt. Ruth gave Leah some spending money for the trip. Leah took her purchases seriously. I lost count of how many stores we went into so Leah could find the 'right' sweatshirt.




We came back another day so Leah could go swimming.

My Big Helper

Leah rocks as a big sister. She is attentive to Louis's needs and anticipates them very well. She is a lil mom. Today she asked if it would be okay for her to feed Louis his breakfast. She was so happy and excited when I said yes. She helped me prepare his cereal, equal amounts cereal & breastmilk. She got it to the right consistency.

Off she went. She made sure to keep the bowl away from Louis's reach. As she fed him she used the spoon to scoop up what was pushed out of his mouth or fell off the spoon. She also did a great job of keeping the spoon out of Louis's grip. She did better than most adults! So proud of my little girl.