Abita Springs, LA

The Legend of Princess Abita....

Back during the time of the Spanish Occupation of what is now New Orleans, there was also a tribe of Native people that lived on the northern side of Lake Ponchatrain.  They were a peaceful people that thrived on a natural Spring and the lush wetland environment.  The Spanish Capital city was busy and growing, and one weekend a young man ventured across the lake for a weekend of rest and rejuvination at the springs.  Lo and behold,  he met a beautiful native princess named Abita.  They soon fell in love and married.  He took his princess back to the city,  where she learned the new culture and city life with her young husband.

Unexpectedly, Princess Abita took ill in the city and her body slowly deteriorated.  The young Spaniard was devastated as he watched his lovely bride suffer before his very eyes.  What became her dying wish was to return to her native Springs across the lake.  He made the journey and laid her limp body by the water, expecting to return in a month for her burial.

A month later,  he returned to the Springs and Princess Abita ran to greet him,  full of radiant health.  Instead of a funeral, the people celebrated the wellspring of health and vitality given by the Springs... and a town was born.  A place to go to cure all the  ailments of city life!

Now,  I find it poetic that the Kalers have happened upon this town,  the same year they retired from the camping life and bought a home, and the very same year Cheryl has been recovering from surgery and new foreign health ailments.....

So we spent a week in Abita Springs,  discovering its legend and enjoying a bit of refreshment of our own.  Many locals might be familiar with Abita Beer,  made also from the Spring water.  (We dared tried some of that as well...  not bad!)  Next blog will have some shots of our campground and other interesting tidbits of the area.  Cheryl has been feeling AMAZINGLY WONDERFULLY BETTER since our time here.  Coincidence?!

Hangin with the Boys in the Bayou...

 Hello!  We are down in LA for the week and I'm doing my best to get you some snipits of our trip.  First of all,  we are camping right next to a gator farm.. (where Jo went for a field trip last year, pic on left).  We are staying in Abita Springs at a lovely RV resort,  back in Winnie.  JJ will demonstrate how we feel about that!!! 

 We are on the North end of Lake Ponchatrain.  There is a nice 24 mile bridge going across the lake to New Orleans.  I read somewhere it was the longest bridge in the world, but could have sworn we'd already been on that!  Guess I'm remembering the tallest one.  Anyway,  it is surely long indeed.

 New Orleans has a nice flair of intertwining cultures and unique history.  Above is the St. Johns cathedral,  where the Pope has visited.  It's right across from a historical landmark- what used to be the capital when it was a Spanish province. 

 We had heard all about Bigneittes and Cafe Dumond, so we had to try us some.  The verdict:    YUMMMMM,  those French do know how to make a pastry!!  or 6!

One of our favorite New Orleans moments was finding this cool statue while we were cruising the River walk along the Mississippi River.  It was fairly hot and we noticed this statue was sweating.   We thought wow,  guess it sure is hot!  Then we heard some kind of shrill and then the darn thing moved. 

Turns out it was a very movable statue,  one that talks too.  He tried to get the boys to pick their noses but they were not so into that.  This guy was really fun to watch.  Much more interactive and fun than that other statue behind them!

New Orleans has a lot more to discover....  until then we are going back to our cozy camp.  Mom has one more blog on some Bayou nature if she can get to it!  Bye for now!

Happy Birthdays!

Well Hello dear friends! Its been so long since we blogged, I will be amazed if anyone will even read this. But here's to a new house, finding our camera cord, and figuring this out on a Mac! Many things have changed for us but many things are still the same....Like our kids, playing hard and making new friends. Into sports and school and still helping mommy...

(This is how we entertain ourselves at brother's soccer tournaments. Jo fancies himself to play football next year...)

Our newest addition, "LIl Rebel" saying "I like the new house"....

Our first big hoo-rah in our new house was hosting Grandma Sue, Bob and Traci (and their little tongue dog....) to celebrate our March birthdays.

Cheryl is still rejoicing in her big kitchen and took her turn in whipping out some cakes....

(Good thing Sue helped!)

While Sue was down we went to Baton Rouge for a soccer tourney. It was fun to have a mini adventure with Grandma!

But most of all we loved getting the family together and reuniting. And for the rest of you, we are happy to get back in touch with you too..... We'll have more catch up blogs, but until then...
Happy Birthday Grandma Sue, Greg and J0!

(Thanks for the great visit!)

Hi folks. Still looking for the camera cord! But here are some pics from my phone. Above is Shayna and her friend Kai holding the team championship trophy from the Rankin County CC meet. They finished 2nd and 3rd and were leading the race at one point until they got a little off course. Below is the "All Rankin County" team. This race qualified them to run at the State Cross Country meet as 8th graders! Proud of my Shayna!

San Diego, CA

Greg says... please, can we move here??!!

Hello friends! It's been so long since we've posted... not really because we are busy (though we are...) but because we can't seem to find our camera cord to upload pictures to the computer! You'd think with such a small living space we wouldn't lose things, but...

ANYWAY, we are on a little west coast vacation and wanted to send a shout out. These pics are from LaJolla, CA- just outside San Diego. This city is Greg's "favorite place on earth"... I just can't imagine why!!

More soon!

Happy Anniversary Baby!!

Welcome back, to the Grand Bahama Island! We took a short cruise to spend the day out at our favorite little spot from last year: Paradise Cove. It's where JJ met the Eagle Ray last year, and where we decided would be the best place to celebrate 15 years!!

It was low tide for most of our day out here... which meant when we snorkeled out, we had to be extra careful not to step on or accidentally touch any of the coral.

Like a dork, Mom forgot her underwater camera. So you only get land shots this time.

We did see lots of fish, and got to swim amongst a pod of sea turtles!! One of them turned to look at us and looked like he was trying to say something. Only bubbles came out of his mouth. We think he was inviting us to follow along, cuz he didn't seem one bit bothered that we were there with him. He took us along where we got to see a bunch of his friends!! They are graceful and cute, going from eating the sea grass on the bottom to taking a breath up on top. Their big front flippers circle around in arcs and makes it look like they can fly!!

Happy Anniversary Baby!!

Ft. Lauderdale

Ft. Lauderdale is quite the contrast after coming from Stumpy and Peace River. Welcome to tourism, and a blast of big city squished right up as close to the water as possible!!
There are draw bridges going out to all the barrier islands and beaches. When we first arrived we caught the draw bridge up.

The buildings are this odd part of the landscaping... but part of what makes this town itself, so beautiful in its own way. We decided to try to find a less crowded place to enjoy the surf, and headed out to a state park a little farther south.

The boys had just as much fun trying to surf down the sand hill as out in the Atlantic!

This one is working on becoming a runner. She's pretty good about keeping mom moving when we get out and about... (oh, I do remember the days......)

We still love learning about all of God's amazing creations as we stumble upon them in our travels. Here is our treat of this trip: we think its why there was a red flag on the surf warning sign (waves were ok but there was something about dangerous creatures.?) Its a jelly fish like we've never seen out on the West coast...

Beauty, ain't it?!!

Now we're heading off for some more beach time out in the Bahamas. See you there!!