South Padre Island, Texas

It isn't actually on our way going West but while we're here we thought South Padre Island, Texas seemed like a nice place to visit so that's where we went next.

It's been a little cloudy and very windy but it is 75 plus degrees outside and it feels wonderful. (Whenever I get a little homesick, I think about the snow and the cold weather.)

We went horseback riding on the beach at the Island Equestrian Center. It was an amazing experience.

Andrew & Spanky, Kelly & Goldie, Tom & Larry, Kaitlyn & Skylar

Andrew has never ridden a horse before and he did great. Although he pretty much just held on for dear life while the guide led his horse for him. Once he figured out he wasn't going to fall off, he seemed to enjoy himself.

Andrew riding along on his horse, Spanky.

Thanks to Kaitlyn's lessons, she was right at home on her horse, Skylar.

Kaitlyn and Skylar.

30 horses on the beach is quite a sight.

We also visited a sea turtle rescue center called Sea Turtles Inc. It's amazing how many turtles they nurse back to health each year. Some are sick from pollution (eating plastic bags or oil spills), some are hit by boats or caught in fishing lines while others are attacked by sharks or other predators.

Each turtles' story is documented so you know where they were found, what they are being treated for and what their prognosis is. Some can be returned to the wild while others cannot be set free again and then they find them a home at an aquarium. Apparently, they just placed a turtle named Buddy at the Columbus Zoo.

One unique turtle living at the rescue center is missing all but one of her flippers so they came up with a prosthetic flipper. Click here to see a video of Allison swimming with her bionic flipper on YouTube.

Allison and her prosthetic flipper attached to her shell.

It would be really exciting to come back in the summer and help with the baby sea turtle release program when they take the hatchling turtles to the beach and watch them crawl to the ocean for the first time!

San Antonio, Texas

We spent the week of Christmas in San Antonio, Texas with Tom's Mom, Sue, and his Aunt and Uncle, Auntie and Graham. It was nice to be able to spend some time with family during the holidays.

We've visited San Antonio with the kids a few times now and our focus is always on the 3 F's - family, food and fun. Usually there is an "approved" list of restaurants we go to but this year we went off grid and tried a new one from Guy Fieri's show on the Food Network, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Guy recommended The Cove which, in addition to being a restaurant, is also a laundromat and a car wash. LOL

Needless to say, Sue was skeptical but she was a good sport and went along with it. Thank goodness the food was good so that made it alright.

Tom with his Mom, Sue, and Kaitlyn outside The Cove.

We also went to Mi Tierra's Restaurant and Bakery. They are always decorated for Christmas but to actually be there on Christmas Eve felt extra special. It's hard to capture it on film but the whole restaurant sparkles.

Some of the decor at Mi Tierra's



Just one little section of Mi Tierra's bakery full of Mexican pastries.



Kaitlyn and her Grandmother.

 On Christmas morning, the kids were relieved to see that Santa found them in the San Antonio. He brought their stockings to the RV and their presents to Grandma's house.

Kait and Andrew with their stockings on Christmas morning.

Santa delivered our presents to Grandma's house.

We opened our presents and enjoyed Christmas dinner with Grandma, Auntie and Graham.

The aftermath of the unwrapping frenzy.

Thankful that the kids didn't break any of the fine china.

Andrew and Auntie.

Andrew spent most of the day putting his Lego's together.

There is a lot to do in San Antonio like the Alamo, the River Walk, the zoo, and the Witte museum just to name a few. We've enjoyed these destinations in the past so it was nice just to hang out with family and enjoy our time together.

Highlands, TX

Our next stop actually led us to just outside of Houston in Highlands, TX. And although there were interesting things to do there, we didn't do a thing. We were bums so there's not much to report from Highlands, TX.

Except Tom's meltdown....which was so funny I have to tell you about it.

It all started when we were finding our way back to the campground after dinner and Texas' confusing highway system. In Tom's defense, we have traveled several hundred miles in the past month and Texas has these parallel road systems called "spurs" shooting off the main highway in several directions.

But after the third time he missed our exit, he got so mad. I tried not to laugh. Really. But eventually I couldn't help myself. And then, of course, the kids started to laugh too.

I'm not sure who was going to get left at the side of the road first, me or GPS Betty for giving Tom confusing directions or the kids for laughing at me laughing at Daddy.

It all worked out. We made it home to the RV and everyone had a good laugh. Even Tom, eventually.

Avery Island, Louisiana

After New Orleans, we headed west and made a quick stop at Avery Island, LA where the McIlhenny Co. makes Tabasco sauce. As soon as we got out of the RV, we could smell the Tabasco in the air.

We toured the factory (too bad it was Sunday so we didn't see the production line running) and of course, we went to their store. We tasted their sweet and spicy ice cream and the jalapeno ice cream not to mention all of the different sauces, salsas, and spreads.

Kait and Andrew at the Tabasco factory.

There were quite a few interesting tidbits we learned about the McIlhenny Co. For example, did you know that the pepper mash ferments for 3 years in oak barrels they get from Jack Daniels before they mix it with vinegar and bottle it? When they can't use the barrels anymore, they chop them up and sell them as spicy wood chips for your smoker. Also, Avery Island is on top of a huge underground mountain of salt (they think the dome is bigger than Mt. Everest) and they mine that salt for the factory. Pretty neat stuff.

We like seeing how things are made. Don't know why. We just do.

New Orleans, Louisiana: Day 3 and The Food

On our final day in New Orleans, we walked all over the French Quarter, we ate some great food and took a paddle boat ride on the Mississippi River.

We wanted to make the most of our last day in New Orleans so we left the RV bright and early Saturday morning and found a public parking lot in the French Quarter. We set off on foot to wander around the city and do some shopping. There are so many unique little shops in the French Quarter and of course, as in any tourist spot, there are some not so interesting shops too.

But let's face it, it all comes down to the food doesn't it?! There is so much good food to eat in NOLA! Like beignets and cafe au lait from Cafe du Monde:

I opted for a shrimp po' boy while Tom ate some jambalaya, gator sauce piquant and some red beans and rice:

It was a lot of fun to look around and watch the kids' faces when they saw weird people on the streets. There were a lot of street people trying to make some extra cash by acting like statues or playing music or just acting strange.

At one point later in the afternoon, we were trying to find a restaurant we wanted to go to and we took a turn down Bourbon St. I didn't realize we were on Bourbon St. although I new we were in an area with a very different energy - you could feel it as soon as we walked around the corner. Thankfully, it was still early enough in the day that it wasn't too crazy yet. Although, Andrew did call it the "freak street". LOL

Even though parts of New Orleans isn't really kid friendly at certain times of the day, I wouldn't hesitate to bring your kids if you are visiting the area. There were lots of other things for us to do with the kids.

For example, we went to the Art Museum and looked at the gardens and the Christmas lights:

And we took a ride of the last authentic steam engine paddle boat running on the Mississippi River, The Natchez.

New Orleans turned out to be a new favorite place for us! It may be even better than Bar Harbor, Maine!

New Orleans, Louisiana: Day 2

After exploring the city, we wanted to explore the bayou so we took a swamp tour with Cajun Encounters Tour Co.

It was cool and rainy the day of the tour and we didn't know if we would see a lot of animals but it was so beautiful and peaceful it didn't matter.

Our guide explained that the cypress trees and the other vegetation get a little gray and washed out in the winter but I thought it was beautiful. He also said that the bigger alligators go into a hibernation and won't be seen until June when there body temperatures get back to a level when they can eat again.

He said when it is warm, you might see snakes (34 varieties to choose from, yeah.), gators, birds, wild boars, raccoons and nutria. Luckily (or should I say, "Thank you Jesus!") since it was so chilly, we didn't see any snakes. We did see a few raccoons, a heron, a nutria (which are like a mix of a ground hog and a giant rat) and one small gator.

He's hard to spot, but the gator is swimming by in the center of the pic.

A nutria. (Notice his nice orange teeth.)

A hungry raccoon hoping we would throw him some food.

A heron resting on a log.

Here's an interesting tidbit to help you during your next trivia contest...Did you know a marsh is a meadow which is under water and a swamp is a forest underwater?

The swamp was unlike anything we have seen before. I'd like to come back when it's warmer so we can see how lush the trees get and how big the gators are!

New Orleans, Louisiana: Day 1

Wow! New Orleans is an amazing place. We can't wait to come back here.

Tom was really surprised by how much I liked the city and I guess I was too. I think I was a little brainwashed by the Hollywood depiction of NOLA. I thought there wasn't much more to New Orleans than Bourbon Street and spicy food.  Boy, was I wrong.

We stayed at the French Quarter RV Resort which is just on the outskirts of the French Quarter. We were close enough that we could have walked to the FQ if we didn't have the kids.

The first day we took a guided city tour so we could get our bearings and see as much as we could. Then we could decide what we wanted to go back and see more of.

We saw lots of historic buildings and monuments:

Lots of beautiful homes (this picture doesn't even scratch the surface of the beautiful homes and architecture in the city!):

We also visited the areas of the city that were flooded when the walls broke after Katrina. (It was interesting and heartbreaking to hear a local's version of what happended versus the media's interpretation.)

Many of the houses in the Lower 9th Ward still have the X's that were spraypainted on the front of the houses during the rescue and recovery searches after the floods. Don, our tour guide, explained that the top of the X had the date the house was searched, the left of the X were the initials of the team who did the search, on the right was the number of animals found and the bottom number was the number of bodies found. Needless to say, it was chilling to see those numbers still on many of the houses to this day.

I was amazed by how many homes are still boarded up while others (some right next door) are being lived in and others look completely refurbished. Don pointed out many empty lots that used to have old homes, businesses and even entire schools that were simply washed away in the flood.

We also stopped in a cemetary. Since New Orleans is below sea level, they have to bury people above ground. These cemetaries are built like little cities and some tombs hold several genrations of a family.

I especially liked the tombs with angels watching over top:

There was so much to see and do in New Orleans you quickly learn to 'laissez les bon temps rouler' (let the good times roll)!

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

We finally discovered a place that does NOT make our short list of places to return to! Bay St. Louis did not make the cut.

First, let me explain how we usually pick where we're going to stay and then you'll understand how we ended up there.

Before we hit the road, we have a general idea of the next state we are going to and, of course, we know where we are so we look at the map and see what route makes the most sense to take. Then we look at the Internet and see what campgrounds are close to the area we think might look interesting to stop at.

And then...this is where the magic happens...wait for it....we just pick a place to stay.

Yep, it's that simple.

In case you haven't noticed, we're kind of the "fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants" type of people. We don't usually spend much time investigating or researching where we are going. It's more like, "I've always wanted to go to X." or "I heard Y is a nice place to visit." So we that's where we go.

And there's the general rule that if it's on the beach, it's got to be a good place to visit.

Bay St. Louis broke the rules.

I looked at the map, it was on the coast of Mississippi (usually a plus) and the advertisement in the Good Sam Campground directory looked good (hasn't failed us before). So we programmed Betty with the address and we were off.

I wish I would have had my wits about me when we pulled up to the place we thought we were going to stay because I would love to show you a picture of that RV park. I think I was so shocked and disturbed that it didn't occur to me that it was a blog-worthy event.

Imagine a place just off the main drag, with bumpy, lumpy roads, weeds, a broken down back hoe sitting in the road, a few stray cats wandering around and a whole bunch of old campers scattered everywhere. It reminded me of a place where old campers go to die.

We sat there for a few minutes just taking it all in until Kaitlyn said, "Mommy, this place is creepy." I agreed and Tom found a way out of that place.

We ended up staying at an RV park at the local casino. No frills and mostly deserted but it felt safe and clean so we figured we could stay there for the night.

I took a few pictures when we drove down to the beach. It looks like they are still rebuilding after Katrina. They are completely replacing the sea wall and most of the roads at the shore are closed and need replace too.

This used to be a house.

Everything was washed away but the pylons.
There was a spiral staircase still attached going nowhere.

Maybe Bay St. Louis is just in a rebuilding phase but we probably won't be back to check it out again.

Gulf Shores, Alabama

We want to thank the snowbird from Minnesota we talked to in the camp office in Lillian. Goes to show that you never know what you can find out from a friendly conversation with a random stranger.

He told us that we should check out a restaurant in Foley, Alabama called Lambert's Cafe. He said they have excellent food and throw the rolls at you. Of course, once the kids heard that we had to go there. So we looked it up on the computer, programmed the address into Betty and we were off!

Lambert's Cafe was awesome and they really do throw the rolls at you! Here's a picture of Andrew catching his roll:

As you can see from the photo above, they bring you huge drinks and plenty of food. They also keep coming around with additional food they call "pass arounds" and just give it to you to eat. In addition to the rolls with apple butter and molasses, they brought us fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, black eyed peas and macaroni and tomatoes. It all tasted so good.

After lunch, while Tom made a quick stop at the grocery store to fill up the cupboards (not that we thought we would ever be hundry again), I did some school work with the kids and then we headed for Gulf Shores.

It's still so cold that the beach was deserted except for us.

Gulf Shores, AL

Of course, I found some beautiful sea shells!

Kait and Andrew at Souvenir City

Next stop, Biloxi, Mississippi...unless we get a better tip before then!

Lillian, Alabama

We left Florida and made our way over the border to Lillian, Alabama. Lillian is just past Pensacola, FL. It was really windy again so after four hours we were all glad to call it a day and settle into our campground.

The cold snap is still snapping and we woke up this morning with a frozen water hook-up! Tom had to take my hair dryer to it to thaw it out!

We decided to walk down to the beach before we took off for warmer weather. Did I mention it was cold?!?

Kait and Andrew relaxing in the morning sun.

Perdido Bay

Perdido Bay

After our walk, we stopped in at the office and talked to some of the seasonal campers who gave us a few tips about what to check out in the area so we're off to Gulf Shores, Alabama next!