Highs (9350) and Lows (-2)

One week can change everything! Well, maybe not everything. I didn’t change my name, nor did I gain or lose toes. So, there are a few minor things that stayed the same. But plenty of things changed. Speaking as a mathematician, I would say I have had great changes in two axes, the vertical and one of the horizontal axes. I’m not even in the same hemisphere as I was.

So let’s lay it out from a Wednesday to a Wednesday. On Wednesday, January third, I woke up in Leesburg, Florida where I was pet sitting a dog and two guinea pigs. On Wednesday, January tenth, I woke up in Quito, Ecuador where dogs roam the streets and people eat guinea pigs as a delicacy. That may already sound like a lot of change, but I didn’t even get into what happened in between.

That first Wednesday was the last day of our housesit in Leesburg. Note: “Our” in this case is Alrica, Syarra, and me. Syarra is on break from school and is spending her Winter Break traveling with us. We left in the late Wednesday morning and headed to Destin, Florida to visit Alrica’s sister, Adana, and Adana’s husband, Don. Destin is a very pretty area that is 26 feet above sea level. Though, you can go to the beach (which we did) and be at sea level. Because you are at the sea. See?

We had a wonderful two days in the Destin area, dare I call it the Destin destination? But then, on Friday we traveled through a rainstorm to reach New Orleans, Louisiana. Here we met Alrica’s brother, Kevin, Kevin’s wife, Mandy (or Amanda, but she has always been Aunt Mandy to my kids), and their two kids, Konnor and Rosie. The rain tapered off and we did a bit of an exploration of the French Quarter that evening.

We had a fantastic seafood dinner. We shared so I got to try crawfish etouffee, gumbo, shrimp with a heavy-in-horseradish cocktail sauce, and delicious seafood boil on flatbread. Next, we wandered Bourbon Street. We heard some lovely live music and danced in the street (which is not the least unusual for Bourbon Street.) Alrica went into a bar she had heard of after which the bouncer freaked out that maybe Syarra (holding the hands of the two elementary school age cousins) was going to follow.

On Saturday, Adana drove in to spend time with us. This was the first time the three Green siblings had all been together in, well, awhile. (I should note that Green is an appellation not a description. They are neither emerald in hue nor, at this stage of life, wet behind the ears.) We did a more thorough exploration of the French Quarter, visited some amazing art galleries, watched a street magician whose finale was “the Frodo” (where he throws a ring up in the air and catches it on his outstretched index finger), saw the Cathedral of St. Louis, ate hand pies in Jackson Square, bought pralines, and visited the French Market. We played some dice games and board games, and then we bid goodbye to Adana.

Pics or it didn't happen! Adana, Kevin, and Alrica together in front of the Cathedral of St. Louis

 

That evening, we returned to Jackson Square. There was a parade honoring the birthday of Joan of Arc, part of an unofficial start of the Carnival season in New Orleans. This was a parade unlike any I have attended. It had a plot! First, they honored various saints such as Saint Andrew (including bagpipers), and Saint George (with a huge dragon with moving parts and lit eyes controlled by several puppeteers). Then the parade went through various stages of Joan’s life, her victories, her trial for heresy, her death, her posthumous pardon, and her eventual (like 450 years later) canonization.

The next day we visited the Garden District with its amazing architecture. We had incredible Po’ Boys for lunch. There was this gravy on my Po’ Boy which was so savory and delicious, I wonder what was in it. We took a ferry across the Mississippi River and visited Algiers Point. This is an adorable neighborhood in which the houses have bright colors and beautiful detail work. We ate beignets at Café Du Monde. I got coated in powdered sugar. And you can see the ground littered with powdered sugar for a block in each direction. Also, not to neglect the most important details, I saw the distinctive fire hydrants of New Orleans. They are narrower (smaller diameter) than most other cities and they have caps of various shapes, designs, and colors. (I know, most of my regular blog readers are in it for the hydrants.)

Pair of hydrants for my peeps!

 

On Monday, we left New Orleans which has points two feet below sea level to fly to Quito, Ecuador at a staggering 9350 feet above sea level. That’s our change in the vertical axis. (For full disclosure, we actually spent a night in Miami, Florida so we didn’t reach Quito until Tuesday.) But now we are in the Southern Hemisphere! Not by a lot, we are at 0.2 degrees south latitude. But that’s still south! (For those keeping track, that is the change in the horizontal axis.) As for the other horizontal axis, well, Quito is at almost the same longitude as Miami. Still, it is a change from New Orleans.

Yes, it was a lie, not everything has changed. I was being hyperbolic (meaning I was using hyperbole, not living on a hyperbola.) But wasn’t this sufficient justification for a bit of puffery? I’ll leave it to you to decide.