Mini Road Trip

All good things must come to an end, so I had to take the kids back to the airport for their trip home today.  Of course I had to have a chaperone for the way home, so Dar graciously agreed to accompany us once again.

Despite some Godawful traffic, we did manage to get them to the airport in plenty of time to make their flight.  We had decided ahead of time that if the weather was decent and the mood struck that we would hit the Aquarium of the Americas after we dropped the kids off, so we headed back to Canal Street.  I managed to get us there with only one wrong turn which was easily corrected, and for that, if nothing else, I consider the entire day a rousing success.  We parked in the public parking lot that is right around the corner from the Aquarium and walked up to the ticket booth only to find out that they are closed on Mondays.  Dar was sweet about it.  As she said, "At least we were already over here and didn't make a special trip."  True, but I wasn't going all the way to the French Quarter and not going anywhere, so we walked across the boardwalk until we got to Riverwalk Marketplace, which is a half mile long collection of shops and restaurants all under one roof.  It is constructed on the site of the 1984 World's Fair, and is adjacent to the Mississippi River, so it has marvelous views of the river traffic.  We walked up and down the entire mall a couple of times (me zigzagging from one side to another from shoe shop to shoe shop BUT OF COURSE) and ate lunch before heading home.  We did make a short stop in Slidell to check out a Pecan/Praline shop, but it was nothing more than a glorified Cracker Barrel so neither of us was very impressed.  All in all, we got out of both places without either of us doing any economic stimulating other than to the fast food industry, which is nothing short of miraculous.  I mean, someone has got to give me my props here.  They had a farking CLARKS store, for crying out loud (my personal crack), and I did nothing but slobber on them and rub one or two lovingly against my inner thighs cheek and promise them I would be back to visit and perhaps adopt someone/s.  I think I showed remarkable self restraint!