A WEEKEND IN THE BIG EASY

Now that Anna is living in New Orleans, we find any excuse to visit a city that we already loved spending time in. This past Thursday, I took the train from Jackson down to the Big Easy to spend some time with my girl, just the two of us.  Merry and Betsie saw me off for my big adventure.  It was the first time I'd ridden a train in a long, long time.  It was nice seeing neighbors we now know coming through the waiting area on their way to the bus station and I had a good chat and prayer time with a missionary on the train.

After Anna picked me up, we headed to Magazine Street for some looking around and then supper.

Loving Africa like we both do, we wanted to eat at the Abyssinia Ethiopian Cafe.  The food was really delicious and plentiful.

We were blessed to be joined by a fellow Mississippi University for Women alum, Del Hamilton, who lives in New Orleans.  It was fun to share this meal with her as it was her first experience with African food.

The next day, Jim drove down with the rest of the kids.  They got there just in time to explore the local Asian market and pick up lots of great food for supper.

We took Asian fruit, Vietnamese sandwiches, pad thai, Thai fried rice, and other yummies back to Anna's apartment and watched HUGO as we dined on the exotic flare.

The next morning, we crossed over the river from Algiers to center of New Orleans to visit the Audobon Insecterium. 

After the bugs, we decided that the rain was making walking around downtown New Orleans not as enjoyable as we'd like so we headed back to Algiers and enjoyed muffalettas at a "new to us" place, DiMartino's.  They were really good, in fact, I liked them just as well as the famous Central Grocery ones.

Once lunch was finished, we headed to a local shopping centre for a while.  I took the little kids to ooh and aah over the critters at PetCo while the olders went to Barnes and Noble.  We joined up for a while and then it was back to enjoy some relaxing time at Anna's.  The kids watched a new copy of TREASURE PLANET, a long-time family favorite, while a couple of us --- myself included --- napped.

Then, before we knew it, suppertime had arrived and it was time to go grab some burgers at our favorite place for that sandwich in Southern Louisiana, the New Orleans Hamburger and Seafood Company.

At the end of supper, it was time to take Anna back to her new home so we could head back to our new home. A lot of changes have happened for all of us over the last couple of months, but some things never change...like our emjoyment of good food, our itch to travel, and our love of being together as a family.