Back from Our Travels

We got back on Saturday from New Orleans. It marked the end of back-to-back plane trips, a first for us as a family with a little dude. We went to Florida first, for five nights. We visited TJ's parents at their house in the Villages, an oasis for white retirees with money (over 40,000 of them, in fact). Oh, and they're all Republican from what we can tell. TJ likes to give his mom a hard time (to put it mildly) about the Villages. She was recounting the story of how she got really close to Bush when he was there, and TJ asked her how it felt to be that close to evil. Poor Mary. She and TJ's dad are so happy there, and his dad can drive his golf cart pretty much anywhere he needs to go. We make fun of it (we have to, really), but we had a relaxing time, I must admit.

So, we flew back last Wednesday, spent one night at home, and then left for a three day/two night trip to New Orleans. Oh, magical N.O. How I love thee. It would take too long to describe the whole trip, but it was wonderful and insane and beautiful and exhausting. We stayed with my friend Patty Friedmann (the author, I feel I should say), and she kindly drove us where we needed to be. She has a granddaughter who's almost two, so she had a carseat in her car that Eamon could use (not to mention a crib and toys, etc., at her house). Made things so much easier than they would've been. The trip was business and pleasure mixed, but really it was mostly pleasure. TJ and two old DC friends and colleagues are starting a company up, and they were announcing the new venture at the NTEN conference in New Orleans. TJ didn't have to go to the actual conference, he just had to help host a little soiree one night. Oh, and he "had" to go out to dinner at Galatoire's on Bourbon Street afterwards. I stayed at Patty's with E. I was thrilled that TJ got to go to Galatoire's, because I'd been last year when I visited Patty by myself and was pregnant but didn't know it yet.

We credit New Orleans with Eamon's existence, which is partly why we wanted to all go back. When I went to see Patty last year, we ended up in a voodoo shop where I picked up a doll and some candles, and we also went to St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square and lit candles and prayed for a baby. One week later I was staring at a positive pregnancy test. Patty likes to say that Eamon got glued in New Orleans.

In any case, we took a bunch of photos. I'll just post a couple of my faves.