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Well, our 11-day trip ended up getting a day longer before it ended, but we made it home safely yesterday in the late afternoon.  That was the longest trip my wife and I have ever taken together (we've been together for almost 19 years now) and taking the kids along added an extra dimension of fun and an extra layer of challenges.  I'm thankful to report that we also managed not to lose anything, and we are van-packing masters now.

The reason that our trip was extended was that we wanted to take the kids on a steamboat ride on the Mississippi River, and (despite the brochure and website info) they were only running this in the afternoons during this season, so we stayed in New Orleans and enjoyed the boat trip before heading to Baton Rouge that evening. 

The boat was a big hit with all four kids.  My two older kids took a lot of pictures with their cameras, and I've enjoyed watching them reminisce about the trip already.  My son particularly enjoyed sitting at the front of the boat with the wind in his hair, and our baby (who recently learned to walk) decided to attempt walking:

• on a slanted surface
• on something that is moving

I have little doubt that this improved her ambulatory skills in a dramatic way.

We took a ride up and down St. Charles Avenue, and we explained to the kids that this was the same one referenced in "Monopoly".  Some of the homes there are truly remarkable, and I like the fact that even the McDonald's, Borders, and Chase Bank are forced to comply with the strict historic building codes in that area.

We visited Beckham's Bookshop, which held a lot of promise, but didn't deliver in my humble opinion.  It looks like one of those old bookstores you see in movies, where couples meet and eventually marry, but it was sort of sad and rundown instead, and the books themselves seemed like something that might have been found at a yard sale, assuming the yard sale was held by people who didn't read very much.

We wanted to eat in New Orleans, but we didn't want to pay to park yet again, so we ended up finding a nice restaurant next to our hotel in Baton Rouge instead.  Although the food was excellent, the portions were pretty darn small.  I thought it was just me, but my wife also mentioned it, so I was not alone.  Ironically, the kids were served giant, oversized portions for their meals.  What?!?

We spent some time at the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge, which looks like an actual castle outside, and a cathedral on the inside.  It also contains a lot of information about the late Huey Long, who was assassinated.  After that, we headed out for Houston.  We had intended to stay with family, but my wife's dad just got released from the hospital that day, so we opted for one more night of hotel living before returning home.  My wife had an opportunity to meet some of her blogging friends for lunch, which was a treat.  They're a lovely couple, and they met via blogging, which I found to be incredibly cool.

Upon arriving home, I felt relieved and suddenly tired, although all of us were a little sad to see this trip come to an end.  We are already thinking about our next adventure.  If things work out, we might do this again in May, when we travel to Washington, DC.  I've never been there, but I am anxious to see it!

Here are the cities where we actually slept during our trip:

1. Shreveport, Louisiana
2. Jackson, Mississippi
3. Birmingham, Alabama (possibly where I will retire)
4. Marietta, Georgia (just outside Atlanta - thanks again to Ken and Myra Cook!)
5. Mobile, Alabama
6. New Orleans, Louisiana
7. Baton Rouge, Louisiana
8. Houston, Texas

I had never been to Mississippi, Alabama, or Georgia before, and some of the scenery, hills, and trees were breathtaking.  I think one of the things we all learned is that we are both tougher and more flexible than we might have realized.  I am thankful to have made some awesome memories with my family.

This is my fifth or sixth post about our 11-day family road trip.  If you want to catch up, I would just recommend reading the past few posts to see what happened before this one. I am too lazy tonight at the hotel to upload pictures.  Sorry.  :)

I have to admit that I am enjoying being away for awhile, although I bet I will sleep better at home than I have while traveling.  That being said, our road trip has been a successful one to this point, even if we hit some bumps on the road (both figurative and literal).  While we were in Atlanta, we did some of the standard tourist things, including visiting the Georgia Aquarium, which is one of the largest in the world, and well worth the trip, even if it is a little pricey for admission.  I think it was around $115 for us and the kids, but it was the cleanest and most well-organized place like that which we have ever seen.

We also spent some time at Centennial Olympic Park, where we got a chance to see the dancing Olympic ring fountain (kids loved it).  My wife visited the High Museum of Art while I was at RE Tech South, along with the kids' museum and the Science Center.  On Saturday (our last full day in Atlanta), we went to the Center for Puppetry Arts, where we saw a lifesize Big Bird, along with many other Jim Henson creations.  I often reflect on how much Henson's work impacted me as a child, and its durability is obvious when I see my kids watching "The Muppet Show" DVD collection in 2010. I managed to take quite a few pictures before we were told that this was strictly prohibited.  Oh well....

We saw a terrific one-man puppet show from Paul Mesner, which was an adaptation of Jon Scieszka's "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs".  Only afterwards did I realize that it was only one guy doing everything behind the scenes.  Amazing talent.  Our two older daughters had a chance to make puppets in the workshop following the show, and my wife bought a Wembley puppet from Fraggle Rock for sentimental reasons.  We're both basically just big kids, frankly.

After saying goodbye to our very gracious hosts, Ken Cook and his lovely wife, Myra, we hit the road bound for the Mobile, Alabama area.  We stopped in Montgomery to take a break, where we visited their Museum of Fine Arts.  We fed some geese, and we saw a large blue heron up close.  The museum was great, with a large kids' section, and it was FREE, which made it all the more appealing. The grounds were gorgeous, with a huge pond right next to the building.

We arrived in Mobile last night around 8pm.  After we found the hotel and ate some dinner, we ended up stranded on the highway with a VERY flat, undriveable tire.  Rather than unload the entire van and kids in the cold, breezy weather, I found a roadside assistance place on Google and called them.  This actually turned out to be a huge blessing, since he arrived AND finished replacing the tire in less than an hour, AND it was inexpensive.  I promised to blog about this experience in an effort to garner more business for him, and I will do that soon.  After chatting with Steve, the proprietor, about our upcoming trip to New Orleans (where I'm sitting now), he took the time to email me today with some suggested kid-friendly activities in the city.  What incredible service!

This afternoon and evening, we had a great time in New Orleans, just exploring Jackson Square and the French Quarter, where I am enamored of the architecture.  I took a TON of pictures - this town is a photographer's paradise.  I plan to upload them to Flickr and maybe Facebook as well later. 

We had dinner with my friend Lisa Heindel, who suggested a terrific place called Mulate's around the corner.  The seafood was fresh and delicious, and there was authentic live traditional Cajun music throughout, which we all loved.  My kids danced for awhile, too!  I highly recommend allowing Lisa to choose your destinations if you come to New Orleans for the NAR conference in November.  :)

One cool side note: we got a chance to witness a Bruce Willis movie being filmed, just by being in the right place at the right time.  Apparently, it co-stars Morgan Freeman and Mary Louise Parker, too.

Funniest quotes:

At the Georgia Aquarium (from Brandon, when we walked past an empty case with a piece of coral in it): "I guess that's the coral corral."  He is master of the deadpan - he comes by it honestly, believe me.

At the Montgomery Museum (from Abby): "If they have a bathroom here, I will use it.  If not, I will pee in my pants."  This was uttered so matter-of-factly that it made me laugh out loud for quite some time. 

Tomorrow, we are hoping to take a riverboat cruise, then hit the road, where we will travel through Baton Rouge and Lafayette on our way to stay with family in the Houston area.  If you actually read this whole thing, I commend you. 

Thanks for reading!

This is my fourth post in a series about my 11-day family road trip.  At the moment, I am sitting in the Marietta, Georgia home of Ken Cook, my BlogTalkRadio co-host on Social Media Edge, listening to him play guitar for all of us.  I just completed two days at RE Tech South, which I'll write about in another post sometime soon, perhaps after returning to Austin. 

So, to pick up where I left off before, we spent most of Tuesday in Birmingham, Alabama.  My wife Pam and I fell in love with the Inverness/Hoover area, where we stayed.  It was hilly and treed and lovely.  Even the air smelled sweet outside our hotel - it seemed to be a fragrant tree of some sort.  The weather was just about perfect that day, clear and sunny and about 70 degrees.  In fact, I haven't experienced a day like that in awhile.

We decided to spend the afternoon in the Birmingham Zoo, after reading some great reviews online.  We were NOT disappointed.  In fact, it might have been the finest day at the zoo that I have ever had, although part of that was almost certainly because of the weather.  The drive there from our hotel took us through a portion of town that felt like a charming small village with blooming springtime foliage.  I felt a little bit like I was in the movie "Pleasantville" (if you haven't seen this one, it's a long explanation). 

Following our visit, we tried to find a local restaurant via Yelp (and some other websites) that would be somewhat authentic and good, but the place we chose was out of business.  So much for that idea.  We ate at O'Charley's instead, which turned out to be....not all that clean and...pretty expensive. 

We drove into Atlanta and arrived here Tuesday night around 8:30pm. 

I find it to be an amazing tribute to the power of social media that I first met Ken in person that evening, yet I brought my entire family to stay at his home for almost a week.  Read that sentence again.  Yes, he invited all of us to stay here without ever meeting us in person.  :)  Ken and his wife Myra have been more than gracious hosts, and I will truly miss them when we leave.  We've had a terrific time so far, and we'll be back on the road Sunday.

Funniest quote:

From Abby (4) - "There's no giraffes or pigs, so I don't like this zoo."  I can't honestly say that I have ever seen a pig in a zoo, but there you have it.

Next stop: Mobile, Alabama

I awoke this morning in Jackson, Mississippi.  I am now in Birmingham, Alabama.  Tomorrow evening, I will arrive in Atlanta.  I could stop there, I suppose, but I'll tell you a little about our day instead.  :)

Our massive road trip continues, and I am still loving it, despite a couple of near-setbacks today.

As always, we got checked out of our hotel room about 5 minutes before noon (it's just plain hard to do it much quicker with four kids in tow).  We wanted to check out the planetarium and/or the art museum in Jackson - both were closed.  Unfortunately, we didn't figure that out until we arrived there.  To put things succinctly, Monday is not the best day to visit that particular town.  The Old Capitol Museum looked interesting (also closed on Mondays - shocker!).  We did, however, visit the War Memorial on State Street to see what it was.  I made sure to take the kids' pictures next to something called the "Gratitude Train", and I promised myself that I would look it up. 

Here's what I found, if you're interested (if not, just skip it - I'll never know anyway):

The "Merci Train" was a train of 48 boxcars (one for each state at the time) filled with gifts given to the American states from the French people in appreciation of the 1945 American "Friendship Train" boxcars which had been filled with food, given by the American people to war-ravaged France.

At the War Memorial, they have these super-heavy metal doors leading into another set of glass doors to get inside the building.  Once they open, they fit into recessed pockets like a lid on a box (i.e. no air space between the door and the wall).  Unfortunately, my wife didn't know that, and she almost lost the tips of three fingers when opening one of them.  No, I am not exaggerating.  One of her fingers is in a splint now that I found at Walgreen's for her.  If much more pressure had been applied to the door, I think our trip would have ended way eariler than intended.  Yikes.

So, we got a chance to see the Natural Science Museum in Jackson, and the kids enjoyed it, although I thought it was going to be bigger, frankly.  The outside "maze" that someone recommended was falling apart and muddy inside, but the kids seemed pleased overall. 

The baby had a pretty good day, but our timing was a little off with lunch and her nap was delayed accordingly, which made her fussier.  Thankfully, my wife earned her PhD in child entertainment years ago, so all was well.  ;)

We tried to eat an an authentic local place while in Jackson, but the two places we wanted to try were....closed.  One of them closed just before our lunch time - the other one was out of business.  We ended up eating a VERY late lunch at O'Charley's near the mall.

Along the way to Birmingham, we realized that we had booked a hotel in the wrong city.  That could be a minor problem, huh?  My wife was able to book us at the Homewood Suites, which is awesome, since it's a longtime family favorite. 

Tomorrow, I think we're going to check out the zoo with the kiddos, then head to Atlanta by around dinnertime.  If you're going to RE Tech South, please make a point to come say "Hi" to me.  I attended an event recently in Dallas, and only later did I realize that there were a handful of people that I wanted to meet who were there but we didn't get a chance to talk. 

Funniest quote from today:

Following our breakfast at the hotel, the lady working there changed the TV channel to the new "The Price is Right". 

My son said, "I LOVE watching 'The Price is Right'.  It's great to watch dumb people do stupid things for money."  So true, son, so true.

Thanks for reading!

Yesterday, We spent a good portion of our day in Shreveport, Louisiana, where we enjoyed lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger (Yes, really. I couldn't resist the name, and it was a great family restaurant experience - I'll write a real review sometime soon).  After that, we took the kids to Sci-Port, which is a large science/kids' museum nestled on the Red River.  If the weather hadn't been so bitterly cold, we probably would have checked out the steamboat ride, but it appeared to be dormant, waiting for a warmer day.

We drove into Jackson, Missisissippi last night, where I sit writing this now.  If I had it to do over again, I would have stopped in Vicksburg instead, since it sits right on the Mississippi River, right at the state line between the two states.  According to our GPS, the state line is actually in the middle of the river itself.  Vicksburg looked so charming and clean and it had some interesting attractions, so we may actually backtrack a bit and check it out more today.

After arriving in Jackson last night, we had dinner at Keifer's (review also forthcoming).  It's basically the best Greek restaurant in the area, which may not be saying a lot by itself, but their success is well-deserved.  We're staying at a Hampton Inn, which is nice enough, although I wonder why the ceiling in the bathroom is only seven feet.  :)

Our baby, Jenny, remains supremely good and non-fussy, which is part of the reason that the trip so far has been a breeze.  She barely cried at all yesterday, which is a blessing in and of itself.  The timing also worked out well, since she recently started walking, and she is really enjoying exploring new areas and places.

I had a sudden revelation last night that we will be visiting every state capital in the four states we see during our trip, which is at least moderately cool, right?

Here are some of the funniest/cutest quotes from my children (and one from my wife Pam) during the car ride:

In Shreveport, they have some lovely murals on some of the downtown buildings.  Abby said, "I like the murals.  Maybe WE can make a mural on some buildings.  But not on our house, because we live inside our house.  We can't paint the walls." 

Abby later saw a couple of "No Right Turn" signs, and she exclaimed, "Look, there are NO arrows allowed, Dad!  It says No Arrows Allowed."  This actually seems pretty intuitive for a girl who's not quite four. 

Later, when we were trying to find a place to eat, Abby observed that "We have a big family, so we need a big car.  We won't fit in a small white car with a blue flag on it."  Indeed.  I have no idea where she saw a small white car with a blue flag on it, or if she just made it up.  Either way, it was funny to me.

When we crossed the river into Mississippi, my wife said, "Part of the mystery of Mississippi is wondering what ever happened to Mister Sippi."  Yes, it's a groaner, but clever nonetheless.

My son responded with this original joke of his own:

Q. Why is Mississippi like a Martian?

A. Because it has four eyes! (Think about it.)

Thanks for reading!  Next stop: Birmingham, Alabama