Saturday, January 7, 2012

End of week one...

Lake Ponchurtrain
Our walk today felt very different than yesterday.  When I would see a family of 12-15 ducks in the lake, just hanging around, I would notice one go under to get some food, and another randomly show up 7 feet away.  The one didn't come back up when I was round, and it made me laugh.
Large trees with benches below

I saw a bunch of very very old trees, whose crowns were easily 40-50 feet in width, which made me dream about how long they'd been there, and what they had endured during that time frame.  Under this batch of amazing trees were four or five benches, all occupied by day-dreaming individuals, also a calming site :-)

Then we began to head towards the homes, and I thought about the floods of Katrina, and noticed that the bulk of the homes are raised on structural piers so that they can beat the odds in a storm as such.  These homes have such history, as my mind wandered.


My favorite tree!!!!
Back to trees, on our first walk I just stopped and stared at this absolutely amazing tree.  It seems to be full of life and so absolutely massive, that you wonder how it is still standing.  Again today, I stopped and stared, unfortunately this time there was a couple sitting on the bench under the tree trying to have some quiet time, so I felt obligated to take my stares elsewhere :-)

Lila and I stopped to play on the swings, and she wanted to get back to walking so that she could finish her candy cane treat :-)  This little play area was old for what we are used to today...all plastic slides and powder coated metal railings everywhere.  Well, the slide that was just next to Lila was straight metal, and apparently very slick.  This little 2 year old slid down with excitement, shot up into the air and landed flat on her back (it reminded me of something Nora would do).  Funny to me, but not to her parents :-)

On our way back to the hotel from the lake I had made a wrong turn to get back to the main road, only allowing us to find old downtown Mandeville.  So cute!  There are adorable restaurants set up in old houses, amazing looking thrift stores, and a cute little second hand shop called "MAE".  Most of you probably know that this is Lila's middle name, so I thought it would be proper to stand her to the left of the sign, so that it states "Lila Mae" (thanks to a good diea from my sister :-).  This place was adorable!  Lila then wanted to go to a coffee shop and have some tea.  I told her that we can do just that this coming weekend :-)


This photo I like to call "Lila Mae"
So, as you can tell, we are catching up on sleep, and starting to settle in.  Lila was so tired yesterday that she went to bed at 5:45 and woke up at 6:30 a.m.  Crazy!  She woke up happy for the first time, and as we laid in bed (waking up) she sang her own words to the tune of "one little, two little, three little Indians"...."One little, two little, three little, Easter bunnies", and ended it with "all in a garbage can!"  So funny!  I love to watch her wake up happy and be so creative :-)

Therapy today, however, was about 50/50.  I think she just needed the weekend to rest.  She had decided before getting there in the morning that she only wanted to do exercises on the table, and walk on the bars.  I thought she would participate in the other activities as well, but NO.  She actually would laugh as Przemek became more and more frustrated, and just say no.  I was trying not to show my frustration, because she plays on that even more then.  Nevertheless, she did well enough for her last day of the week and now we have the weekend to rest.

It is supposed to be 75 degrees this weekend, so Sunday may be a lazy day playing in the sand at the beach.  I thought about going to the Aquarium or Zoo, but really all Lila would like to do is play in the sand, it is me that would like to give her the experience of those other attractions.  We would spend a lot of money to only be at the aquarium for an hour or two.  After talking to Matt tonight, I realized that this plan seemed very silly.  So, to the French Quarter we go, for a nice morning stroll, and back to the room for lunch and naps.

Sorry for the long post and all of the photos, just excited to be thinking of other things rather than the stress of lack of sleep :-)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

SO, I WROTE THIS YESTERDAY, AND AM NOW GOING TO ADD TO IT WITH WHAT WE DID TODAY AFTER ALL...

This morning came, as Lila woke at 5 a.m. (what the &%$^((!).  I fell back to sleep, but not sure she did.  We ended up wrangling ourselves out of bed around 7:30, and decided that we were going to head to the French Quarter for some fresh air and history...until we were in the elevator and ran into our friendly housekeeping ladies.  When we told them where we were going they thought we were CRAZY!  This is a big weekend for New Orleans, basically Mardi Gras style for sports fans!  Friday night was a professional basketball game, tonight the Saints play the Detroit Lions, and Monday night LSU is hosting the big college game.  This photo shows how excited people in the area are for these events.  They advised us to wait until tomorrow, seeing if the Saints won or lost, as most people might head out of town tomorrow, or schedule for next weekend when the professional sports are down to one game for the weekend.  So, downtown Mandeville here we come to follow our own architectural photography tour (guided by your very own)...hahah!
Old fence on a property that had been abandoned following Katrina.

This was such a fun morning around the lake, looking at the homes, bright colors, and adorable little corner restaurants, playing at the playground, and having a snack under a huge tree bordering the lake.  I hope you enjoy the photos!
Adorable Southern architecture

Love this house!  From the ceiling fans to the mailbox, and the full height doors that line the front of the house, to the wrap around porch.  Just looks like I could sit there all day and look at the lake :-)

Old 1800's hotel that is owned by the historical society and is being renovated.  They are not allowed to tear it down, and boy will it need major structural work!  Love the welcome sign above :-)


The adorable Broken Egg Cafe.
The guest house beside the old hotel.  The lower portion of the home has been totally gutted, maybe by a storm, maybe by contractors, but it amazes me that there is enough structure there from the 1800's for this home to still be 12 feet above the ground!  Also, as you walk by you can see one light bulb hanging from an electrical cord in the center hallway...pretty neat.
detail in dilapidated fence
Doors on an old, unihabited, home
Love this window!

Even the old abandoned homes have charm!  Just want to scoop it up (Gary?  Terra?)
Ok, that's enough for now.  I will add more of our photos as the weeks go on :-)  Don't want to bore my audience :-)

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