New Orleans: The Big Easy

Well, my wonderful husband decided to take me on a fantastic trip on my days off this last week. We went to Biloxi, Mississippi to visit some friends. Before going to Biloxi we landed in New Orleans, Louisiana, and we decided to spend the day there.  Our plane arrived three hours late, so we didn't have a lot time to spend there.  It wasn't really necessary to spend a lot of time, we had a very small agenda,  I wanted to get my fortune told, have a drink, and buy a voodoo doll. We did all those things.

It is a fascinating place, historically speaking. There are lots of really old things to look at, but it's not as cultural as I thought it would be. Most of the streets are full of the same vendors, selling the same goods.  There is a lot of masks, voodoo dolls, and drinks with crazy plastic take home souvenirs.

The cemetery was interesting, but it closed at 3pm and we missed it. So we headed downtown to Bourbon Street.  It's amazing that anyone gets in there at all. The streets are very narrow and they hard to navigate down because there is so many one way streets.  The cemeteries are above ground because of all the flooding and from the highway it looked like a little walled off city with tiny little brick houses. I suppose that's what it is, houses for the dead.

I got my fortune told by a fortune teller at Marie Laveau's voodoo parlor. It was pretty insightful. The fortune teller seemed to know a lot about me, and made fairly accurate assumptions about my health and gave me advice on my job. Looked at my palm and said I have ankle problems. Which is true. Overall, it was pretty uneventful. He said I would never be divorced, I shouldn't swim in water unless it's clear and I can see the bottom, my brother has a girl friend which he will marry and my sister was married a long time. It was all pretty strange, but I'm glad I did it.

We ate lunch at a place called "Spirits" which was on a TV show called "Bar Rescue". The history of the building was interesting. As it turns out it used to be a barber shops in olden days and it was pretty successful, until the owner, Edward, had a tragic accident at the age of 33. There is a barber chair that you can sit in and take a shot of alcohol. It's a pretty cool place. You can get a drink in a light up skull as well. It's called "The Resurrections". It used to be in a very large glass, but it was ridiculously expensive and it cost the bar a lot of money to serve it.

There is a drink that is specific to New Orleans as well, it's called "Hand Grenade". The Hand Grenade tastes like melon and some sort of bourbon, or whiskey. I thought it was pretty gross and I did not like it at all, but a lot of people do like it. It comes with a little plastic Hand Grenade as a souvenir.

Overall it was an interesting place. There were a lot of street performers, porno places, alcohol, and jazz. The Jazz permeated the air and it was everywhere. It makes you want to dance, coupled with the alcohol you may find yourself doing just that while you explore.

The Downtown Farmer's Market

There is nothing as wonderful as being able to peruse fruits and vegetables in an open air farmer's market. It's one of the things I love about spring and summer, being able to buy seasonal produce and plants from stands. It seems so much friendlier to talk to the vendors and purchase things directly from them.  Randy and I decided to go May 4th, as it was the first day of opening of the new market.

Celery Root

The market was bright and full of people. The booths all had similar stuff, honey, bread, vegetables, and even one rare beef jerky booth, which Randy wanted most of all. My favorite part of the farmer's market is the vegetables that I don't understand, like this celery root. I have no idea what a person would do with this thing. We ended up slicing it, steaming it, and mashing it with potatoes. It was delicious.

We bought potatoes (of course, they are my favorite starch and a staple in our house), the celery root, onions, potato bread, maple syrup, and Randy sampled a little be of the beef jerky. My favorite thing that we bought was the honey comb. I've never had honey comb before. It was a sweet treat.

Daffodils for sale 

Break dancers under the bridge 

There were also people break dancing and there was some other dances with hula hoops and music. It was a really busy place. I'm grateful to my husband for taking me out in the sunshine. It's nice to see such wonderful weather in Michigan, and we never take advantage of it as it's usually too hot, too cold, or there is some sort of precipitation.

This was where we went:

http://downtownmarketgr.com/

Lake Titicaca, Uros Islands, and Taquile

Lake Titicaca 

When we arrived in Puno and saw Lake Titicaca is was almost as if the water was over the land, bubbling over, that same way that water does when there is too much in a glass. It kind of arches over it and suspends there but doesn't drip. I was a little bit tired from all of the riding, the bus trip was nine hours from Cuzco and it was very exhausting. When we reached lake Titicaca we were at an altitude of about 12,000 feet which is about 3100 m. It was tiring to be walking around and breathing I had never been up that high and it turns out I'm a little sensitive to altitude sickness.

We drove through the streets in the tour bus and all we could see around us were stray dogs and animals. No beggars, but people that were very poor. Crumbling buildings (possibly from neglect and earthquakes) and street vendors filled all our views from the windows. We even saw live sheep attached to the tops of vehicles for transportation. It was surreal and I will never forget how I felt knowing this was a way of life and there was not much anyone could do to help or change it. We were driving this tour bus and we probably had more money and prosperity then any of those people would ever see. It was disheartening to see the tattered clothing. The children looked happy though, playing on the streets with bicycles they had repaired or homemade toys. I just wished they had the opportunities that I had grown up with, so I was filled with a mixed of gratitude and sadness.

View from Uros 

Reeds in Lake Titicaca 

Arriving at our bus stop we had to find our tour guide for a trip to our hotel. In the car she explain that Puno was a dangerous place for travelers.  She instructed us not to leave our hotel for any reason.   So we stayed into our rooms that night. We had dinner there and there was a large glass window with Alpacas ready for view. My dinner companion thought it was similar to a lobster tank, "I'll have some of the white one" he joked. The menu did contain alpaca, which we tried and it was delicious. We had our favorite Peruvian beer, Cusquena and then I took a walk around the hotel gardens and looked out on the over filled lake.

House made of reeds 

The next day we boarded a boat. Lake Titicaca  is a large lake and it would take three hours to get to our destination- the Isle of Taquile. About 30 other people were on with us the boat.  Our first stop was on the floating Uros Islands. These islands are the only place in the world that are man made islands that people live on and build themselves. They are built from a mixture of a reed that grows locally and mud.  They are made of this mixture and are about 14-15 meters deep. The reed is bulbous on the bottom and it tastes like an onion. I was handed one to eat and I ate it. I got a little too adventurous with their food as they shared with me their bean and fish snacks, later I found out they soak and sun dry everything, not cooking it, and my western stomach wasn't totally up to the challenge.  Walking on the reeds was really cool because it was marshy and spongy, with the straw reeds snapping as I walked on it.  They use these reeds for everything, their boats, the island, their houses, their fishing poles. All of it.

Uros Island, Apuinti 

The story behind the reed islands is the people living on them protected themselves by being able to float away from invading tribes. This way they could just move and take their houses with them. People living here were very accommodating. They left us into their homes and there are packages to purchase where you can stay with them overnight. They live communally and each island has it's own president with about 10-15 people living on it. They mainly subside by fishing. There is a couple of islands that are used strictly for restrooms and one that is an elementary school. When children are old enough they go into Puno for school all year. It was a fascinating place to be because not many people to go there, it's a very very isolated place in the world.

Uros boat built from reeds, native women in colorful
 outfits stand and watch 

When we left we started on to Taquile. It was another hour and a half. Taquile is not man made, it is a solid island in the middle of the lake. When we arrived I noticed we had to walk up another 300 feet. The view was amazing. I was exhausted.

We climbed all the way to the top and there's a souvenir shop from other handmade goods. I bought some souvenirs, I got some hats (Peru has lots of hats).  When then went to lunch. Each family on the island takes a turn making lunch for the tourists to limit competition. There was a choice of fish, eggs, or a potato dish. I had the eggs and they were fantastic. Typical Peruvian food, it was amazingly tasty. They also had coca tea for lunch which is said to ease the altitude sickness. I did not have any because my job does drug testing and coca tea is made from coca leaves, which can show up as cocaine on a drug test if you drink too much of it. When we were done with lunch we walked down a lot of steps to the boat. I think the tour guide said 550. Then it was a three hour, uneventful tour back to Puno and our hotel. I would never take those three hours back, because I got to go to these two amazing places.




Some tips on visiting this place:  it is nice to bring the children gifts. The best gifts to bring are notebooks, pencils, pens, and books. They have rules against giving candy and money, check with your guide for more details if visiting.  They are very grateful for these things. Also, buying things from them is nice, this is how they sustain themselves. 

Houses on the Isle of Taquile

They make amazing handcrafted gifts that you will not find anywhere else in the world. They have beautiful textiles.



Some youtube videos of my trip to Peru: http://youtu.be/QUjgVm7ZPKM

Disney in One Day

On the plane and ready to go! 

My husband. God bless him. He loves Disney. Really, really loves Disney. Our vacations haven't been lining up right and he wanted to go to Disney with some of our friends. We talked about it. I said, "ok, have a good time." He booked the flight, on our one year anniversary. Yes, our one year anniversary. Needless to say, I was angry, I had approved the trip, not him leaving me for Disney, on our anniversary.  Finally, we came to the conclusion that I would have to come with him for a day to celebrate our anniversary.

I've never really liked Disney. Since I was a kid. It seemed fake and cheap.  I was five years old when I went to the magic kingdom the first time. I was disappointed, at the age of five, when Cinderella's Castle seemed small. I expected a real castle, like the ones in England.  I guess my perception of Disney was pretty well cemented at that point. The second time I went was just with my mom. She's great and all but when you are 10 or 12, you don't really want to hang out with your mom but she gets props for  trying. The last time I went I was in High School. It was not the trip of a lifetime. I was with my choir class and I was miserable. Probably for no reason but none the less, it was not a good experience.

Magic Kingdom streets, empty after rain 

Going to Disney was not something I wanted to do, but  Randy was ridiculously excited. I reworked my work schedule to have two days off in a row and we went. We left Grand Rapids on a Sunday morning and I returned on Monday night. Randy continued to stay for 5 more days.

I rode a lot of rides in the short time that we were there. It rained, a lot of people left and the park was pretty slow soon after we arrived. We took refuge in the hall of presidents during one of the storms. This was a place I remembered and liked.  We didn't stay for the show, although now they have Barack Obama and it's way more updated than the last time I was here.  When the rain came down it was like a ghost town. Luckily it stopped pretty quickly, but the crowds didn't come back. I think people didn't trust the weather so they all went to dinner.

Some of the rides we went on were, The Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain (my favorite), It's a Small World (still has creepy puppets), Aerial's Grotto, Pooh's Honey pot, Thunder Mountain, we walked around the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house, Pirate's of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, the TomorrowLand Speedway (I was terrible at driving), Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, and finally I was fascinated by the mosaic in the Magic Castle.  I did not remember that at all.

Our anniversary menu 

Amazingly manicured topiaries 

We stayed at the Disney Resort, Saratoga Springs. It's amazingly easy to find transportation to and from the resort. It has buses to and from the monorail, and the monorail goes to some of the parks Magic Kingdom, Epcot and through some hotels. There is lots of transportation all around Disney. Buses go to all the parks, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood studios.

 We took a boat to get to our restaurant for dinner. We went to Narcoossee's and it was delicious.  Outside on the water around the restaurant there was a light parade.  It was pretty awesome. Then we went back to the park to ride some more rides because we stayed at a resort the park didn't close for us until 2am.

When we returned after dinner we saw another light parade on land. It was amazing to see their costumes. We also caught the end of the fireworks. Every night they have extraordinary fireworks, a tinker-bell that zip-lines down the magic castle (who wouldn't want that job?), and the light parades on the water and around the kingdom. It is an amazing place. The people that work there are amazing too. We got our picture taken with Aerial from the little mermaid and I was so amazed by how the cast members stay in character. It's really and truly amazing how everyone that works there seems to love their job.

The best time to go seems to be in the middle or end of April and probably after spring break and before summer break. The lines seemed to be pretty short. Overall, it was a great trip and I wished I had more than a day to stay (shocker).  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and the topiaries were amazing. I can see why Randy loves it so much and it's part of why I love him so much.  I want to go back and see the Animal Kingdom and Epcot for sure and spend more than a few hours.

The Storage Auction

My husband as we waited for the auction 

The idea for this adventure, as with most of my adventures, began with television. There was a marathon of "Storage Wars" on and I watched it. I was mildly intrigued by how these people buy these storage units full of junk and make money with it. Just imagine, a person's life summed up in 10x10 ft space full of stuff and another person just shifting through it to make a profit or find a treasure.  Luckily for me my husband, Randy, and our friend Joe decided to try this and it made me want to do it even more.

Joe and Randy did each purchase a storage unit. Joe found a bunch of change that was pretty close to the amount of money he paid and many other items that will be easily sold on Criagslist or eBay. The second storage unit that they went in on hasn't yielded any profits yet, but it did contain some very promising items. Seeing all the "booty" they collected from their adventure made me want to go to an auction even more. I found one for the very next day and Randy and I registered for it.

When we arrived at the storage facility there were already many people waiting around. Randy went and registered. When he was registering people kept walking up and asking the auctioneer what it was like. He kept telling them it's just like storage wars. In reality it's not exactly like storage wars because the show really only highlights the "good stuff" that is found. There is a lot of junk. As time grew closer more and more people showed up. I don't know how many people are typically at these auctions but there was at least 100 people at the one we went to and they were all very anxious. Each time the lock was broken and the door was opened a line formed and people were allowed to walk past and glance in before the auction started. 

One of the units

The first thing they explain at these auctions is that all things must be cleaned out of the unit within 48 hours. One auctioneer said, "It's just like Marriage, for better or worse you own it". It is a lot of junk with maybe some treasures inside, but really it's kind of a crap shoot. You don't really know what you are going to get inside there or what you can do with it. 

Each unit we saw was different. Randy and I spoke to the owner of the facility and he told us about all the issues he has with these auctions. All the legalities he goes through because some people pay several months in advance, then they forget. He ends up contacting them. He gives them so many months to pay up. Then he has to fill out legal papers. One of the units that we saw that day belonged to a man who had committed suicide. It just reminded me that each of the units we saw had their own story. A reason why the items were put there and why they may have been forgotten or left behind.

It felt like modern day pillaging, but at the same time it was all stuff that was long forgotten. If it were old it would be an anthropologist's dream come true. It makes me wonder about the future. Are we going to have digital storage wars? Is there going to be a place with caches of old blogs and music that one can upload and pick through? Only time will tell.

Rockford Ice Festival

My amazing husband (Ice Sculptures LTD) does several ice festivals every year. One that he has done for the last three years is the Rockford Ice Festival in Rockford, MI. Randy's team sets up ice sculptures all over the town. This festival is pretty amazing. This blog will be mostly pictures and less talking, but I would like to describe Rockford for those who have not visited. Rockford is a lovely west Michigan City. It has this "Sleepy town" kind of feel. Comforting downtown streets, with The Corner Bar (with amazing hot dogs and veggie dogs as well), they just opened a brewery (with delicious beer), and Reds on the River, just to name a few businesses around town. Randy did a live demonstration at Herman's Boy this year where he and Jake (one of Randy's team) made a grill out of ice. Complete with ice carved into meat.

This year Randy and his team added two winners of the National Collegiate Ice Carving Competition to sculpt at the festival. They made their own designs and sculpted blocks of ice at Red's on the River.  

The sun was out as well and it shined through the ice beautifully. Every idea for the sculptures came to fruition and was amazing. 

This is Randy with local business owner Jeannie, this was an excellent ice sculpture in front of Sage and Roses. The store smelled wonderful and the people were so nice. Typical Rockford. This store ran a contest for guessing how many hearts are in the ice...... it looked like a lot. 

Some of the sculptures were just really cool. Lots of color, some were really detailed and some were just simply beautiful. Some of them were excellent for posing for photos. 

SKYZONE: Super Trampolines

Tonight my sister met me somewhere that was a lot of fun. A place with trampolines everywhere! It was a little over whelming because there were a great deal of parents and children there (after all it was a Friday night and in Michigan we are covered in snow.) There were different sections, like one section was for slam dunking basketballs, another was for jumping into giant foam blocks, then there were dodgeball courts, and last but not least, there is a track. Yes, I called it a track, but it didn't look like a track. My niece actually called it a track, I think she is probably more savvy on the terminology of the place.  It was a very large room with little squares for each trampoline. It also had them on the walls so that you could jump off of them.


We all tried jumping into the foam first. This part was easy, climbing out, not as much.  I noticed my sister, who is very tall, had no problem climbing out. I however found it a little more difficult. The children climbed in and out easily. They made perfect flips and it was so cute how they waited patiently until the number of their tramp was called. Then they ran, jumped on the tramp and flung their little bodies into the sea of blue foam. I am told this is how many stunt people practice. Maybe someday Grand Rapids will have a lot them.

The track we tried next. One person per trampoline, that is the rule. This prevents double jumping (when you cause someone to jump high off of your jump.) We bounced from section to section, then off the walls. That was hard and I ended up on the ground a couple of times.

The final place we went was the basketball courts. There were three nets all different heights. Once again you had to wait for the attendant, so that no one bumps into each other, and you bounce up to try and make a slam dunk. It was really hard. In fact our friend Chris actually got hit with the Basketball trying.

There was also dodgeball courts, I didn't use them, but my nephew and his friend did. They told me it was very intense and when gets down to the last two or three people it gets really hard.

All in all it was really a lot of fun. Good exercise as well. It had been a long time since I was on a trampoline and I really enjoyed it. The experience was $13 an hour per person and I highly recommend it for people wanting good exercise and as a good extra circular activity for the children.

Where we went:

http://www.skyzonesports.com/grandrapids