February 2016 – Page 4 – Wachs Across America

Jackson Square

February 13, 2016March 6, 2016Dacen

day we went to Jackson Square to eat some Cajun food and see some street performers play music, paint, do magic, dance etc. First we walked down to a restaurant (we didn’t really know where to eat). We went to Cafe Maspero to eat lunch. Then while mom stood in line at Cafe Du Monde to get beignets we saw some street performers called the Dragon Master Showcase, but Caden thought it was Suitcase. My favorite thing they did was the Dolphin Leap which they could only do for a little bit because it was really hard to do and hurt a lot. 3 guys would jump back and forth doing flips without hitting each other! Another cool one was the helicopter where a guy was just on his hand and spun his legs around really fast.

After that we went over to Jackson Square near the Cathedral to eat our beignets.

Next we went to the Mississippi River. At the river we saw this guy named AWOL. He told us about how Lake Pontchartrain flooded New Orleans, not the Mississippi River. Then he gave us beads.

We walked back over to Jackson Square because we really wanted to see the Magician. We saw the end of his act.

Then we walked a few of the streets of the French Quarter. We saw some more performers playing music. One band played a song called Bow Wow Blues. There were others but I don’t remember the names. They each played different types of music.

We saw so many fortune tellers, smokers, and drunk people. We also saw a lot of homeless people.

New Orleans was my favorite destination so far!

Saturday in New Orleans!

February 13, 2016March 6, 2016Steph

I was excited to get into New Orleans to have Huck and the kids see and experience the town. We had a list of suggestions of where to go, what foods to eat, where to park. It was still a little overwhelming figuring out what to do. 🙂

We walked straight to Jackson Square to people watch and enjoy the sites and sounds.

Of course we had to ask about public bathrooms. I swear we had way too many trips to this indoor mall. BUT we met 2 really nice gentlemen who were Veteran’s helping Veterans. One called over our kids and insisted on giving them mints. (In hind sight, really?? Don’t you know we teach the kids not to take candy from strangers? Oy! I could tell the man was so nice, but it does confuse the kids a bit.) We asked for a lunch suggestion as the other recommendations we had been given had a 1-2 hour wait. They were such genuine, nice, happy guys and commented on our nice family. They suggested a great place across the street to eat lunch. The neat thing was at the end of the day we passed the candy guy as we were walking down a street headed back to the car. It was obviously a nice surprise for both of us! I thanked him for his service, but he was genuinely happy to have served and to be serving. What a great heart he has!

The Big Easy

February 13, 2016March 6, 2016Huck

Our arrival in New Orleans was a bit marred by my bad experience and waste of time at the GMC service center there. But with that in the past we set out for a day of exploring in town. We followed the advice here and had no trouble getting a spot to park. We were definitely big for the parking spots but we squeezed into one, paid and headed out on foot. Had we been in a dual rear wheel truck there would have been no way.

New Orleans, Food, People, and Jazz

February 13, 2016March 6, 2016Caden

Mmmmm I can still smell the beignets right before me as I was eating them. They tasted so good as well as the other food that we had in New Orleans. The beignets sure were good but my other favorite food was the muffaletta. The muffaletta is a sandwich that has this olive sauce and some other stuff in it. Now that I’m sure I have all your mouths watering I’m going to talk about people. We saw a lot of street performers. I did like this one magician we saw, but my favorite street performers were these four guys who called themselves Dragon Master showcase. They did comedy along with acrobatics / breakdancing. They were really cool to watch as well as being really funny! I also liked the musicians. They performed a whole lot of different types of music. I don’t know what I was thinking New Orleans would look like, but it amazed me.

Mmmmmmm beignets,

Caden

Baton Rouge

February 12, 2016March 6, 2016Steph

I’m in such a hurry and I tried turning the pics, but they are not cooperating, so I’ll have to deal with that later. I just wanted to get a post up there since we are so far behind!

Leaving Galveston we got to ride a ferry, but this time we had Ava, the 5th wheel with us! I’m so glad Huck was driving and not me! He makes it look easy. The kids and I decided to walk up to the next level to get a better look around. The kids thought it was so cool we could see the top of the 5th wheel. Up to now only Huck had seen the roof.

P1070546 P1070553

Truck update

February 12, 2016March 6, 2016Huck

We had smoke coming from under the hood in Austin and then a little bit more while putzing around Galveston. So I made an appointment with GMC dealership in New Orleans where I know we would be for a few days. Our last 2 days of travel to New Orleans the HVAC fan was temperamental…wouldn’t run at all then randomly would start up again. Then in Baton Rouge I got the dash message that said I had 500 miles of DEF left…I figured I’d just have dealer top it off for me.

Life on the move

February 12, 2016February 20, 2016Huck

We’re still total newbies at this but here are a few observations about a life on the move.

FlotaSHON, ConnecSHON and DestinaSHON

February 11, 2016March 6, 2016Huck

I’m an Adam Sandler fan and love to imitate Cajun Man. Today was a drive day that took us into a new state: Louisiana! So, I had to bust out a few -tion- words to annoy my lovely wife. So now I will share with you some of the highlights of this travel day in my best Cajun Man accent.

Galveston, oh Galveston

February 9, 2016February 13, 2016Huck

Growing up my folks had a radio that sat on top of our fridge which never had its tuner knob on anything other than KSSS…”K triple S, country’s best”. Glen Campbell had a popular song called Galveston that would stream out that radio. I thought I knew the song pretty well but apparently never paid attention to the lyrics because I had Galveston pictured as a dusty cow town. But now I come to find out its an island!! Ok, ok….I didn’t just find that out, but I was an adult before I realized it was a coastal town. Hopefully my kids are smarter than their old man. Anyway, we moved from Goose Island to Galveston Island and it was not one of my favorite drives.

Uss Lexington, The Beach, and The Ferry

February 8, 2016March 6, 2016Caden

Wow. I don’t know what I thought the Lady Lex (we still don’t know why it’s called that.) would be like, but it was really fun! First thing we did were these “virtual battle stations” one of which was fun and the others downright hard! I could have flown the planes better if they acted more like planes. Yeah, I think I could fly a plane. Granted I would probably crash and burn, but I might be able to escape with only a few broken bones, or just parachute out in the air. Then, we watched this really cool 3D movie about going to mars and beyond. I think I want to be an astronaut someday, it would be fun to drink orange juice. Then we toured the foc’sle which means forecastle because it used to look like a castle on the front of the ship. Also, the top of the ship was cool with all of the planes and the big guns. After the USS Lexington, we went to this beach which was awesome. The waves were choppy, so it was even more fun than it could have been otherwise. Finally, we headed home. But not just on the bridge. We rode a ferry! It was really fun but it was fast.

Signing off,

Supreme Commander of Awesomeness a.k.a Caden