Day 13: The Big Easy

One of the most memorable trips I have taken with my family was to New Orleans.  Once again we were on a gymnastics trip for Caleb.  He had qualified to Regionals, the highest level of competition he could attain at his age.  A rarity this time is that we all got to go!

We drove down to the Big Easy on Thursday and got into town in time to explore the city by night. Caleb and his teammates had an open workout session on Friday morning and competition on Saturday around noonish.  That left us with lots of time to explore the city both as a family and together with his gymnastics team. 

Caleb had been competing with the same group of boys for a very long time so we had actually traveled together with some of these families before.  He still remains close these kids, Preston and Jakob, even today.  Eli had even formed a close friendship with Preston's older sister Mary Jean.  These five kiddos were together quite a lot for five or six years and I believe they feel as close as siblings.

We made the most of our time in New Orleans.  We ate beignets at the famed Cafe DuMond, took a ghost tour, ate seafood, and danced and sang in the streets.  The gymnastics meet just happened to fall in the middle of the New Orleans Jazz Fest.  We finished our trip with a trip out to the swamp to ride in an airboat and look for alligators and see the Spanish moss hanging off the Cypress trees.  

One of my favorite pictures from that time is one where Eli was taking the picture of Garold and me, and unbeknownst to any of the three of us was Caleb hiding behind the Cypress tree we were posing in front of.  He manages to poke his goofy, grinning head out from behind the tree at just the perfect moment to be in the picture.  I still smile with fond giggles every time I see this picture.  It brings back such good memories of a good family trip!