Southern Roadtrip

We never do things half-backed in our family, and our last 9 weeks in the States wasn't any different. We managed to cram most of our plans for 9 months into 9 weeks, including a roadtrip across the South to Orlando and a vacation at Disneyworld.

As I was picking out photos for this post, I realized that we took NO photos whilst actually on the road. No photos of the bayous across Louisiana, no photos of the swamps of Mississippi, no photos of the kids watching "Princess and the Frog" as we drove into New Orleans. Come to think of it, no pictures of New Orleans. No photos of our crawfish poh-boys, no photos our etoufee or bignets. What was I thinking? Obviously I wasn't. I guess all those images will just have to be "photos in the mind" and we'll relive them together.

But we of course got photos at Disneyworld. Finally all the Taskers smiling amidst Mickey and Minnie - no one buried in our shoulders this time!

The carousel is always a favorite, and luckily one of the shorter lines. Turns out we picked the hottest week of the year to visit Orlando - it was disgusting.

Despite all the times we've visited the Magic Kingdom, we had never stayed at a Disney Resort. We found a good package deal and stayed at the Animal Kingdom Resort - just amazing. We were on the third floor and had a perfect view of one of the Savannah's. Each day when we came home, we were greeted by five zebras and four giraffes, as well as storks, wildebeasts, Ankole cattle and so many other African animals. We'd chill out on the balcony with a wine or juice (for the kids) and watch the animals eat.

We went to Epcot one day, which I must admit I wouldn't take kids this young to again. There just wasn't a lot for them to do. Luckily there was a new, live Nemo show, and outside of it was a big Nemo character display that they could play in. They had to have their photo taken by every character. I just love John's sunglasses in this photo - he's too cool.

One great thing about Epcot was the kids' encounter with Aurora. We stopped for lunch in France, and when we came out Princess Aurora was standing in the shade and there wasn't anyone around her. So the kids went up to her and had a good 5-6 minute discussion with her. She asked Sydney if she was a Princess, and Sydney informed her that yes, she was Cinderella. Aurora then asked John if he was Prince Phillip, he replied with "No, I'm John George Tasker". It was too cute.

Further discussion revolved around the activities they were doing that day, as well as what they wanted to be when the grew up. Sydney said she wanted to be a ballerina, and John told her "I want to be a dinosaur - ROAR". Princess Aurora was in perfect character - it was so cute to see.

Eventually some other people came over, so we had to give Princess Aurora up. Its very rare that you have any more time than saying 'hi' and getting a quick photo, so the kids were thrilled. She left John with a little gift - a kiss on the cheek.

We drove back to Houston via New Orleans and spent the night there. What a depressing city. It was so sad to look around and see how rundown and destroyed the city is - and not just from Hurricane Katrina. We went to a Cajun restaurant for dinner - it was really lovely, but the kids were really tired and we weren't able to just sit and enjoy the food that much. In the morning we took a walk about 5 blocks into the French Quarter (we were staying two blocks from Bourbon Street) and it was just disgusting.

We knew it was a shady place, but we didn't know how blatant the sex and lewdness were. We kept shielding Sydney's eyes from all the posters up on all the windows as she kept asking us what they all were. We went to a little cafe to have some Bignets, which the kids weren't that in to. It was so hot and sticky that we didn't even walk down to the main square of the French Quarter. We were keen to get on the road and get back home.