New Orleans

We made a 2nd trip to New Orleans in 2 years.  Rob loves New Orleans.  Actually he loves Cajun food.  I'm more interested in the history of the city.  It's amazing how much French is still there.  It's been 200 years! 

We got these crawdads in northern Louisiana, but definitely Cajun fare.  They were extremely spicy.  I asked Rob if he would leave a bad review on TripAdvisor, but he said the people there probably like it that spicy and he would excuse them for that.  (And they must because the place had a stream of take out customers.)

Another reason we love to go to New Orleans is the cheap flights.  We found out it is also cheap to fly to Dallas, which is an hour closer to my parents' house, but I think New Orleans is an easier airport get to and to navigate with children.

St. Louis cathedral (and the mule drawn carriages that Irene regretted not riding the rest of our trip.)

Little Miss Sunshine washing down some grilled oysters.

Posing in front of Central Grocery - home of the original muffaletta (or so they claim!)

We also had cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe Du Monde. 

This stop was just a tiny part of a much bigger trip.  We are getting a new kitchen and Rob ripped out the old one while we did a lot of site seeing and visiting.  More pictures to come if I get time to post them!

Home Folks

The kids and I were in Arkansas recently.  One day Annalise and I took a leisurely walk through the old Holly Springs cemetery.  I had seen at a local museum that a Civil War veteran was buried there and I wanted to find his grave.  After pointing out several relatives, we headed to a part of the cemetery far from my family plots.    We noticed a small star plaque at the bottom of a tombstone.

The tomb itself was very worn down and hard to read, however, I used a filter to photograph it and you can easily read the name "ROBERT ALEXANDER" on it. 

But it turned out I didn't need to go even to that trouble because his wife was buried right next to him.

The important thing is when I could read the name I gasped because it was not an Alexander I was looking for.  My grandmother was an Alexander and her father was named Robert and her brother is named Robert - and his son and his grandson.  And evidently his (and her) great grandfather, which would make him rather great for me! 

We also found this War of 1812 veteran a few graves away - no relation to me though.

I was planning some interesting cemetery visits on this trip, but I did not count of the one closest to my parents' house to have much new to offer - and obviously these graves aren't new, but new to me.