So on Saturday, August 4, 2018, my sister Sharon delivered us to the airport. There wasn't a lot of trunk space in her SUV, so we piled some of the luggage on laps.
Everyone packed light, using just one carry-on per person (except for one medium-sized bag that could accommodate some snorkel gear). Our flight was on time, but even if it weren't, we had Adam's Bob Ross shirt to remind us that there are "No mistakes, just happy little accidents."
While we waited for our plane, we visited a big group of Kelsi's EFY friends that were flying off to Nauvoo for another grueling week of running EFY.
We had a nonstop flight, and everyone had entertainment, so it was a nice flight.
We could see the Mississippi River as we approached New Orleans.
After some effort, I had been able to rent a car at the airport that we could drop off near the cruise terminal. A van would have been nice, but was way too expensive, so the plan was for Anita to pick up some of us ("the girls", she kept saying), and the rest of us go in a full sized rental car. I called Anita that morning to make sure she we knew when and where we were meeting, since she did not have a cell phone.
When we landed, I got text messages from her neighbor saying that Anita had called to ask directions to the airport. Her neighbor didn't think it was a good idea for her to drive there, so she talked her into staying home, which was for the best.
Amazingly, we were able to upgrade to a minivan for $10 more. As luck would have it, it turned out to be a Toyota Sienna, which held all of our luggage comfortably in the trunk, and had 8 seats, so we could take Anita with us. That was so much better!
Linette and I stayed with Anita that night, but we put the kids in a nice, big hotel suite that we got for basically free ($20 in taxes) with my hotels.com points. So we checked in there on the way to Anita's house and took a quick rest. (The air conditioning was nice, since it was brutally hot and humid outside).
Soon we arrived at 8410 Pritchard Place, and had a wonderful reunion with Anita.
We visited for a while, with Anita telling us a bit about her life. Some of her favorite stories tended to be around major life milestones. She told about how she grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, and loved it there. Then her father (C. B. Wilson) was let go, and had to choose between a job in Pittsburgh and New Orleans. Anita was really hoping for New Orleans and was relieved when he chose that. (My dad says that C. B. chose New Orleans because of the food).
She said she went to an all-girls high school her senior year, which she didn't like at all ("I had to explain Shakespeare to my teacher," she pointed out). C. B. tried to get her to go to an all-girls college, too, but Anita said "No, way," and chose to go to LSU, majoring in social work. Her first job was at a telephone company, but then she worked for 30 years at Charity Hospital doing social work.
It was there that she met Larry, who was doing psychology there, and they became good friends.
Years later, after he was divorced, he showed up on her doorstep one morning and said, "Can I come live with you?"
"Come on in," she said. So he lived with her on Audubon Trace in Jefferson, and then at this house, including during Katrina. He did most of the cooking, which she enjoyed, but eventually he started falling and went to a nursing home for 3 years until he passed away. He didn't want a funeral or any notice in the paper, but his sister threw him a little funeral anyway.
We talked about a few other things, too, but those were the events she kept coming back to.
It was great for the kids to get to know her a bit.
We also explored the house, including the Mardi Gras stuff in the attic.
We loved her needlework creations.
That evening, we took Anita to Deanie's Seafood Restaurant for their famous catfish poboy sandwiches.
We also ordered stuffed flounder, onion rings, gumbo, and a wide assortment of other tasty food. While you wait for your food, they have boiled potatoes out on the table, which I thought was curious. But they were soaked in some spicy salty solution, apparently, and were actually surprisingly good. Supper set us back $165, but it was a great culinary experience.
After dinner, we drove up to a lighthouse on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, which is huge (40 miles wide).
That evening we sat on Anita's wonderful porch and chatted. (The porch was one of the main reasons she bought the house).
Archibald the local peacock strutted by while we talked, so that was fun. (Apparently he dropped all his tail feathers the next week, so we saw him just in time).
That night at 1:30am, Linette and I got a call from the kids at the hotel, saying that Jared's tongue was tingly and that his throat was closing up and he was having trouble breathing. A quick internet search confirmed that that sounded a lot like a shellfish allergic reaction. We had eaten every kind of seafood at Deanie's, and such allergies apparently tend to develop in adulthood, so that seemed like a pretty safe bet. We thought about taking him to the ER, but decided to start with Benadryl, which fixed him up for the night. (Kelsi's friend Sydney, who was the EFY medical gal, suggested that as a first step, too).
Sunday morning we drove down St. Charles Avenue to attend church. I love how the mighty oak trees form a tunnel down the road.
Anita went to choir practice at 9:30, so Linette and I walked 2 blocks down the street to the LDS church and our kids joined us there for sacrament meeting at 10am. It's always fun for me to attend church in different places and see what is the same and what is different. The organist had a blue mohawk, and I thought, "I'm so glad she's here!" A nice African American lady handed the girls a flower for their hair, and another one handed us little fleur-di-lis pins, so it was like a mini-Mardi-Gras. A cute young gal named Camilla welcomed us profusely.
Linette bore her testimony during fast & testimony meeting, and then apologized for our family having to leave early to see our Aunt sing in her choir. With that, she walked out, and we all stood up and filed out while the whole congregation watched in silence, which was a bit awkward. Afterwards I told the kids, "And that is what you call a 'grand exit.'"
Anita had been singing in the choir at Rayne's Methodist Church for 65 years, so we were excited to attend her church and hear her sing. The organist there was amazing, and played some real rip-snorters. The service was nice, and we sang along with their wonderful hymns.
Afterwards we visited with Ray Cook and his wife, who are friends of Anita's. Ray's brother Bobby was Dad's roommate in college, I believe.
It was wonderful to be able to share Sunday morning with Anita.
With that, it was time to board our ship, the Carnival Dream. We were able to drop our van at the Avis drop point at the nearby Hilton and catch a free ride to the ship.
Soon we were onboard and feeding our faces at the buffet.
That afternoon we had our "muster drill", where we all go to our assigned emergency muster station to make sure we know what we're supposed to do in the event of an emergency or evacuation.
We sat at a table with a couple of ladies and their daughters. We pointed out that while Linette and I were at this station, our 5 children were in a different one. The ladies' eyes got wide, and Linette and I said, "Oh, they'll be fiiiiine..." as though it was no big deal, and they all laughed. We also explained that our kids were ages 14-25, so it wasn't quite as crazy as it sounded. It was still a bit odd, though. I thought about getting them switched, but we decided to have the ship not go down instead.
Jared had another episode of trouble breathing that afternoon, so we took him down to the ship's doctor (like "Doc" on The Love Boat, except Ukrainian). They said, yep, probably an allergic reaction, gave him a shot, watched him for 30 minutes, and recommended that he take Benadryl. He had a couple more episodes throughout the week, so he took Benadryl as needed.
Kelsi and I had someone do a scientific analysis of our feet. The surprising result was that we should both buy his $200 magic plastic shoe inserts.
We had fun eating the fancy dinners every night.
That evening we explored the outside of the ship as the ship made its way down the Mississippi River.
It actually takes surprisingly long to get to the open ocean from New Orleans. The Mississippi River has been dropping silt for thousands of years, so the path to the ocean takes about 8 hours by ship. You can see lights on both sides from time to time the whole way, which made me wonder what all those people do out here in the middle of nowhere.
Meanwhile, the ship had some entertainers that were pretty good. The cruise director, Lee, was from the UK and did a great job. It was fun for me to think of Kelsi doing a similar job of whipping everyone up into an excited frenzy at EFY all summer.
At first we didn't know where Sienna's bed was, but they found it in the ceiling. We had three rooms (the girls, the boys, and the
Monday and Tuesday were spent at sea as we wended our way towards Jamaica. I loved the T-shirt Adam got from his work.
We spent the days eating and playing games. I started breakfast with a smoothie made of orange juice and ice cream. There was also a 24-hour pizza place, a burger joint open during the day, a BBQ place, an Indian counter, a taco bar, and various buffets and occasional dessert events, in addition to the fancy dinners at night. So we didn't go hungry.
We watched an Indian guy carve an Indian head from ice with chisels (different kinds of Indian).
Sienna and Erika played Giant Chess against Adam and Jared. Then I sort of joined the girls' team off and on.
When I wasn't helping with the game, I was jumping in the hot tub that overlooked it.
It was cute watching Sienna when she knocked over a piece, because she would walk over, give her piece a gentle but wide swing, and bonk the other piece over before hauling the body off of the board. I think my mom might have gone into hysterics watching that. In the end, "Sienna" was victorious and the boys were a bit deflated.
The ice cream machine was omnipresent.
Each morning we got cute new towel animals in our state rooms.
Monday night was Elegant Night, so we dressed fancy for the dinner.
I loved the fancy lighting there.
That evening we watched "A Wrinkle in Time" at the "Dive-in Movie" (by the pool).
I liked this extra-fancy towel elephant on the steward's cart.
On Tuesday we played miniature golf. It was windy but really hot, so when it was over, we went on the water slides, and then played various games while sneaking food and desserts.
Mostly it was just fun to spend time together.
I did a follow-up game with Adam and Jared on our second day at sea. I love this picture of them consulting on what to do. I actually made a mistake and got down a piece early on, but was able to squeak out a win in the end. It's getting harder, though.
Sienna made a new friend named Harold. Harold is a cricket.
They had a fun 80s music show one evening. We also enjoyed a couple of comedians and a magician.
In our next episode, we arrive in Jamaica, mon.
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