We just got home a few days ago from a week long trip to Pensacola, Fl and New Orleans,LA. We went to New Orleans for a couple days for Andy's anesthesiology conference, and Pensacola to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Van Brocklin since they live there half the year.
New Orleans was fun but we were ready to head back to Pensacola after a couple days. Andy and I loved the New Orleans food, with the exception of the Red Beans and Rice I ordered at Mulate's that had a bug in it. At K-Paul's I ordered Jambalaya and Breaded chicken and it was wonderful. We went to the River walk while we were there, I got the chance to try the french doughnut Beneits, which are wonderful. On our second day in New Orleans we took Anna to the New Orleans aquarium which she really enjoyed. There was this glass circle in the floor that you can see the sharks through and she laid face down on it like all the other kids and watched the sharks swim around, it was very cute. We walked on Bourbon Street a couple times while we were there, I felt out of place being there with a 17 month old so I wasn't so fond of that. On Sunday G-ma and G-pa Van Brocklin watched Anna while Andy and I went to Harrah's to gamble. Andy played Black Jack and we lost $40 pretty quick so we quit. We walked around Bourbon Street again but ended up at a bar close to the Bienville House which is where we stayed. We had a couple beers and some cheese fried there. It was nice. When we got back Anna was in bed, they told us she cried a bit when we left (she has been having separation anxiety lately). We had the hotel for another night but we headed to Pensacola instead since we done everything we wanted to in New Orleans. We would have loved to go on a ghost tour, cemetery tour, Swamp tour, or any tour really but they were all to expensive for us.
We got to Pensacola on Monday and just kinda relaxed that day, G-ma and G-pa VB made us some delicious steaks. Tuesday we went and saw G-pa and Tracy at the new Building they have for their business. Then Aunt Tracy showed us her nice apartment. Then we went for lunch. After lunch we headed to Pensacola Beach and it was so nice and beautiful. Anna had a lot of fun playing in the water and chasing sea gulls. After the beach we went to look at the beautiful house G-ma and G-pa VB ended up buying on the bay, then we went for pizza. Wednesday we spent the whole day on the beach, it was very fun but a little too windy which made Anna a little more skeptical of the water. That evening G-ma and G-pa VB grilled us burgers on the beach as we watched the sunset. Thursday we went to the aviation museum which was neat to see all the different types of aircraft, Anna had a lot of fun in the play area. And our last day which was Friday was a little more hectic. We went to a bar called Florabama, located on the Alabama-Florida border. It was an ocean front in door and out door bar, very redneck but fun and interesting. I think it is definently not a place for kids like Anna, we stayed outside most of the time since it was too smokey for our Anna.
We had a lot of fun, and really enjoyed the beautiful, warm, sunny Florida weather. The air travel was kinda hectic with Anna. We had to carry her and a lot of bags at the same time. On the plane she did not want to sit still. She was happy when she could watch her portable DVD player. We were very happy when she fell asleep on the plane. All and all she was pretty good aside from a few episodes.
We are looking forward to seeing G-ma and G-pa Fields this weekend. They are coming to see Anna as a lady bug for Halloween. We are thinking about taking her Trick-or-Treating at the mall.
