Getting Home and Getting School Started

Our last bit of time in the U.S. was taken over by covid.  Luckily, we were back at my parents' house. They'd both had covid already, so we didn't have to worry about getting them sick, and Mom was more than happy to take care of us.  We had lots of tea.

Vivian and I requested more split pea soup, since it's delicious and it's hard to find ham in Malaysia to use in soup making.

We also finally had time to get some "Grandpa" cookies made.  

We enjoyed some with our Virginia family, and then we packed up the rest to take back to Malaysia with us. We got to the airport extra early, because the last time we flew to Malaysia from Dulles, it took us two hours of just standing in line. Of course, this time there was no line at all, and we breezed through dropping off our bags and security. Luckily, I had staked out an Italian restaurant at the airport, so the girls and I got a table and settled in for a full dinner and dessert while we waited for our flight. The table even had outlets, which was perfect.

Since the flight to the States had been so rough, I looked online for ideas to make the trip back a bit smoother. I caved to the gift suggestion of giving the girls gifts as we went along. I gave them their first ones while we waited at the gate.

They got right into their new books, so I considered the first step to be going well.

Their new books kept them busy when we got on the plane too.

Eventually, I used my other new secret weapon, melatonin. We all got quite a bit of sleep and felt rested when we got to Doha. We had already decided that we wanted to go back to Harrod's for tea, but we came out in a totally different part of the airport, so we had to wander around a bit until we found it again. In the meantime, we found some more interesting statuary.  Doha's airport definitely wins for strange artistic choices.

We had to wait a bit for a booth, but eventually we got one, and I gave the girls their second presents.

With another dose of melatonin, we had a smooth flight home. It was wonderful to be home again and be with Jeff. He was pleased with the hot sauces we brought him from New Orleans.

But mostly we were just happy to be home together again.

Elena was especially happy to be home with all her toys.

I got home with just enough time to go out with one of our good friends before she left KL, so I dragged my jet lagged self to one of our favorite places, Pinchos y Tapas, to have some goodbye drinks and snacks.

The next week, it was off to work for me. I finally have a full time job at ISKL as a 6th and 8th grade Humanities teacher. Of course, getting my name spelled correctly on the door took some time.

The girls were a big help getting everything set up. Elena was on marker checking duty.

We used our free time before school started up to explore a bit more of KL. We went to Pavilion to try out the TWG tea place, but we had to wait a while for a table, and we were really hungry, so we tried a ramen place while we waited.

The ramen was really good. We also got some dumplings to try, and while they were delicious, they were also very explosive. The only way to eat them safely was to put the whole thing in your mouth at once, otherwise soup came shooting out at your neighbor across the table.

For dessert, we went back to the TWG place and got tea and sweets. The tea pots were especially interesting. There was a place to put the loose leaf tea into while keeping the whole thing warm.  They have a huge variety of tea flavors.

The sweets were fun to look at, and they tasted good too. It was a fun tea place, but not necessarily one we'll be repeating, since you sit right in the middle of the mall, so it's a bit chaotic.

I also finally got to try out Brussels Beer Cafe which Jeff has been raving about all summer. I'm not usually a beer person, but I tried the Leffe blond that Jeff was drinking, and I was sold.

It went perfectly with the delicious Belgian mussels. This will definitely be a new favorite place.

We also had a nice family lunch on the balcony with some of our favorite delivery burgers. You can get all kinds of good food in KL at reasonably prices, which was such a relief after the sticker shock I experienced eating out in the States.

We also had a lot of fun just hanging out with the girls. 

I finally took Viv to the fancy furniture store near our house, and we had fun looking around, although the staff there followed us around as though they thought we were going to steal one of the enormous cabinets.

Of course, some of her taste is a bit outside our price range.  While she really liked this purse, all we could afford was a picture.

Jeff took Elena with him to get a haircut, and she got beautiful curls put in. Of course, that didn't stop her from excavating her new rock kit.

Family time was a nice balance to all the time I was spending learning my new job. The school also does a really good job of building community among the staff though, and they threw us a great party to kick the year off. Jeff was invited too, so we had a fun night out. There was a lot of effort put into the food.

And they were roasting quite a bit of lamb!

Vivian's new favorite school food though is the Pretz n Beans pizza. Now that she's in high school, she's allowed to go all by herself, and she's quite pleased with herself about it.

We're ready for school to start again, but we're also making sure to enjoy the last bits of summer vacation.

New Orleans!

The last time I was in New Orleans was in December 2006 for my friend's wedding.  That was also the last time I saw her, since she married an Irishman and moved to Ireland.  She's moved back now, and even though we've kept in touch over the years, she never got to meet the girls. A top priority for me this summer was seeing her, letting the girls meet her, and showing off New Orleans.

New Orleans put on quite a show for our arrival.  My friend met us at the airport with beads for all of us, and then we had a beautiful sunset as we exited the airport and she drove us to her house.

She had pasta alfredo with chicken waiting for us, but the girls made sure to save space for the promised dessert, bananas foster.

It was a huge hit, and they said they would definitely want it again during our visit.  The sugar fest continued with breakfast the next day.  Homemade beignets, yum! 

She even served them with the powdered sugar dispenser, so the girls had a lot of fun with that.  Luckily, we had plans to burn off all that sugar.  We were meeting up with our friends who now live in Lafayette to go to the Audubon Zoo.  My friend had a family membership which got us all in.  It's a beautiful zoo, and we had such a great time exploring it with two sets of friends. 

One of the New Orleans foods on our "to try" list was Italian Ice, so when we found a cart with a persuasive operator offering all the kids free samples to taste, it was hard to say no.  The hot weather made it an even more delicious treat, so Elena wasn't about to look up for a picture.

I was mostly excited about the rhinos across from the Italian Ice stand, so eventually the girls came to check out the rhinos too, and I got a picture of all the things I was enjoying at the zoo at once.

There were lots of interesting animal areas to explore, but one of our favorites was the part that focused on Louisiana swamp and bayou life.

Elena got really into the alligator displays.

And both girls were fascinated by the white alligator.  This is different from an albino alligator in that it does have pigmentation in its eyes.

It barely moved, so Elena and her buddy settled into scientist mode to catch a bubble or a blink.  We were inside with air conditioning and places to sit, so the rest of us fully supported their scientific endeavors. 

Outside that area, there was a fun playground "kid trap".  All four of the kids clambered through it.

After all that fun in the sun, we went back to my friend's house.  She has a pool, which was the perfect place to chuck the kids and let them really wear themselves out while the adults got a chance to catch up.

The next day's planned adventure was the Garden District.  We started by driving around and just admiring all the beautiful houses.  My friend pointed out one house that has now been turned into a public library.

It was getting close to lunch time, and the natives were getting restless, so we pulled into a supermarket, bought some easy to eat food, and then headed back to the library for a garden picnic. 

We also found a little library in the garden, and it had a "choose your own adventure" book in it.  Vivi had never read one of those before, so she settled in to see in to see if she would survive.

Elena and I found some pretty flowers when we were cleaning up our picnic. 

I was especially excited to point out the street car to the girls as it went by.  Nothing says New Orleans like the street car going through the Garden District.

Eventually, we went into the building itself, and we were not disappointed.  The girls immediately settled into the front room.  Viv kept trying different paths in her book.  Elena and I went to check out the kids section, and then came back to hang out in the front room again.

We finally convinced the girls to leave the library with the promise of another New Orleans treat, snowballs.  Our friend took us to the one she insisted was the best.  The flavor list was overwhelming, but the sun was hot and encouraged some rapid decision making.

The girls even found a shady place to hide out and wait for their snowballs to be ready.

They were a hit!  We found some shade across the street and the girls inhaled their treats.

As though we hadn't had enough sugar, my friend insisted on serving afternoon tea, complete with homemade lemon drizzle cake.  She has beautiful china to serve it all on, so Vivian was in her happy place.

You'd think we wouldn't have space for dinner, but when homemade red beans and rice is on the menu, you just have to make some space.  It was a little bit spicy, so I wasn't sure how Elena would respond, but my rice lover dug right in.

My friend couldn't resist serving one more New Orleans treat for dessert, a red cream soda float.

The girls have not yet grown to appreciate the deliciousness of soda floats, so I enjoyed this one on my own and loved every bit of it.

The next morning, the girls and I headed to the French Quarter for all the quintessential New Orleans experiences.  We started with beignets at Cafe du Monde.

While the girls definitely enjoyed the beignets, they unanimously voted the homemade ones the best. It was another sunny day, so I got objections to walking them up into the sun for a picture looking over Jackson Square, "The sun is too bright! I can't open my eyes!"

Oh well, I got a picture without them too.

I also found a shady spot in the actual square for them to take a slightly happier picture with some of the cool wrought ironwork. 

Our goal though was to get to The Presbytère on the far side of the square.  The building houses a really interesting museum.  The first floor is all about the weather in New Orleans, and the second floor is all about Mardi Gras.  What better place to learn?

We started with the more interactive exhibits on the first floor.  The girls liked the ones that showed the importance of wetlands for preventing flooding.

They also learned more about how hurricanes have effected New Orleans over the years, especially Hurricane Katrina.  They already knew the story of how my friend and her son had come to live with me for a while after Hurricane Katrina, but I was glad that they got to hear more stories about it, and I really liked the video display at the end where people explained why they came back.  It was a great way for the girls to appreciate the unique soul of New Orleans that people are willing to nurture, despite the risks of another flood.

It was the perfect segue to the Mardi Gras exhibit upstairs.  The girls were suitably impressed with the incredible outfits that greeted us when we entered. 

But their favorite part of the first exhibit was where THEY could pretend to be on one of the floats, waving to the people in the streets and throwing them beads.

They had seen some beads hanging in the trees in the Garden District, and now they understood exactly how they got there.

The exhibit continued to impress with a full scale float model and a collection of the various jewels and dresses that the court members wore.  The girls had a great time picking out their favorites.

We all agreed though, that the full on costumes were the best.

The girls were winding down by then, but I had one more stop in mind, The French Market.  We had fun walking past all the shops on the way there, and we even found one with special hot sauces for Jeff.

By the time we got to the actual French Market, the girls let me take pictures, but through some gritted teeth threatening retribution.

I read it as hanger, and so I got them fresh lemonade and stopped at a crepes place.

Of course, they picked Nutella, but I went the savory route with ham and cheese.  It was fun to watch them being made.

It was a hit.

Vivian got her photo revenge by taking a series of action shots of me trying to manage the cheese in mine.

The highlight of Vivian's day though was when we got back to my friend's house and she got out her sister's Mardi Gras dress for Vivian' to try on.  She didn't have the full feather headdress, but the dress was heavy enough without it.  All the detail work was incredible, and Vivian was in heaven.

Dinner that night was homemade roast beef poboys. I'd never had the roast beef ones before, and I am now a convert.  They were delicious!

I had picked up some pralines in the French Quarter for the girls to try for dessert.  They dutifully each tried a bite, but they were not overly impressed.  Bananas foster was the clear dessert winner in their books.

Somehow, Elena still had energy leftover, so she paddled around in the pool for a while before bedtime.

The girls had requested homemade beignets for breakfast again, and I volunteered Vivian to help out.

They turned out as delicious as the first time.

In the morning, we went driving around City Park and the Metairie neighborhood.

We popped in to explore a design store, which the girls absolutely loved.

Our food objective for the day was an Italian muffuletta, so my friend took us to one of her favorite Italian delis to pick one up.

They also had some very persuasive gelato signage, so while we were waiting for our muffulatta to be prepared, we got some free samples and ended up with cannoli flavored ice cream for breakfast.

The sandwich was also delicious and large enough to feed a small army.

We had also picked up some chicken and sausage gumbo, just to get one more New Orleans flavor in.  It was delicious.

But the crowning glory of the evening was the king cake.

My friend had broken with tradition and made one outside of Mardi Gras season, just so that the girls could try this essential New Orleans treat.  She even included the plastic baby, so that one of us could be king for a day.  Vivian got the lucky piece.

She immediately requested unlimited Sweedish fish, and then forgot that she had the power to request things.  She kindly let her sister hold the little plastic baby after that, since Elena did not take her loss well.

While we had a lot of adventures around New Orleans, we all agreed that one of our favorite parts of the trip was hanging out with our friends, talking, watching movies, and generally just being together for the first time.  It was so wonderful to see that we all clicked and got along.  It will definitely be less than sixteen years before we get together again.