The Long Road Home

We are on the start if our all day journey back to Valencia. We will be in a car, 2 planes, a bus, and another car. Our first car leg to NO we went through some heavy rain just after the 17 mile bridge.

LA? No LA!

I've lived in our near Los Angeles all my life, but I have to come to Louisana to see someone arrested and handcuffed from a restaurant. The 6 men sitting at the table next to our table left went to the parking lot and took down the 4 people who sat at a table near ours. The had them down on the ground knees in their backs, and were searched. Caused a small stir, the manager was on the PA reassuring everyone that all was fine and under control. Besides this I read about 2 drive by shootings in the paper this morning. I love how save I feel in rural America.

Mmm Food

After our swamp tour we stopped by Cane's for lunch. The only have one main dish - fried chicken strips. It is one place we always stop when we are in LA. They started in 1996 and today there are over 50. The closest to our house is in LV NV. Their sauce and sweet tea make are stand out items.

Apple Pan of New Orleans

We had lunch at The Central Grocery on Decatur in New Orleans. It is the original home of the Muffuletta - a sandwich of salami, mortadella, cheese, and an olive salad. Even Cooper liked it.
After lunch we walked through the Quarter: it has gotten much better since last year. More people visiting & more shops open. We spent some time in a shop that mokes loomed rugs - four large working looms and four crazy cats. Wonderful rugs at wonderful prices.

TSA Search

In Houston everyone had to leave the plane so the TSA could do an unscheduled sweep of our plane. No one from SWA could ever remember this being done before. Perhaps someone introduced some contraband mid-flight. I thought I heard the door open over Austin. Now were are really late. I hope we can eat soon, before our minds ache.

Air Bus

C1 & C2 enjoy the fun of the Southwest air bus. iPod movies, snacks, and games. What more could they want?

Safety features

We went to see Granpa and Metella's new car. The boys wanted to see if they could fit in the trunk. The noticed the glowing emergency trunk release and wanted to try it, but Metella would not close the trunk with them inside - she's no fun.

iPhone home

On Saturday we visited 2 Apple stores to play with the new iPhones. First stop was at the Grove - the phones were fully activated, but hardly charged (they had been in non-stop use since 9am). Kerry noted that you get purchase an iPhone or a new pair of Jimmy Choos. We decided to buy neither.

Later we took C1 and C2 to the store in Northridge - C2 played games on the Mac while C1 and I waited to use an iPhone. We had about 5min before we got the low battery warning. Kerry overheard someone in the store ask what an iPhone was - they must be from Brazil.

Springfield for dinner

We read on the internet that eleven 7-11 stores had been converted onto Kwik-E-Marts as a promotion for the new Simpson's movie. The store has been transformed; They had squishees, Buzz Cola, and other Simpson related items. The clerks have special uniforms and are all Indian (I'm sure they were hired just for this event). Fortunate for us, one of the eleven is in Burbank - so we drove on down. The boys ate hot dogs and drank squishees sitting picnic style on the sidewalk . This is just another day in our life as a road trip.