South and SouthWest

Atlanta

After spending time with Liz’s mom in North Carolina, we went on to Atlanta. Johannes was giving a talk at Georgia State University about his newest book, so Mom and the kids decided to explore Atlanta. 

We walked to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park from our hotel. Once there, we meandered across the park, admiring the poems written by children that adorned the area. 

In the museum, we explored the exhibits before heading to a small theater that played a short film surrounding MLK. The images portrayed in the movie were very provocative and will stick with me for a long time.  

We signed up for a tour of MLK's childhood home as our final activity before heading back to our hotel. The man who led the tour gave a unique lens to MLK's childhood years. It was amazing and inspiring to see the place where MLK grew up! 

We were all really glad that we had decided to go to the museum and go on the tour! It was an incredible, interesting, moving experience and it remained in our minds for many days to come. 

New Orleans, here we come!

Biloxi, MS

We finally made it far enough south that we hit summer.

New Orleans, LA

We headed onto New Orleans in the striking approach over Lake Pontchartrain (listening to "New Orleans is Sinking" by the Tragically hip). We settled into a beautiful house by City Park right along the bayou. We loved sitting outside in the warm soft air and walking to Cafe Du Mond for morning beignets and bird watching below trees covered with Spanish moss. 

We rode the trolley downtown for a tour of the iconic French Quarter and met up with Liz’s cousin Ben for our wander. After checking out the French Market (alligator heads and original art), we sampled a number of street music shows. The highlight for Trev was the serendipitous bass lesson!

We ate mufallettas, popcorn shrimp, iconic pizza, crawfish stuffed beignets, and fabulous gelato. We are definitely country mice so we loved the quiet of our mid city location next to the park. But it was a fabulous 36 hours in NOLA!

Houston, TX

First stop in Houston was visiting our friends who were lovely hosts, showing us the finest of Texas BBQ and warm southern hospitality. Thanks to Jen, Kirby, Will, and Lincoln!

The Houston space center was amazing!We went on a trolley ride and met MECO (Main Engine Cutoff Operation), the alligator. We also learned about ARTEMIS, a mission to the dark side of the moon. It was a wonderful trip and definitely worth it!

Austin, TX

After our wonderful stay in Houston (thanks, Jen and Kirby!), we continued on to Austin. We rented bikes for part of the day and biked along the river. It was a great way to see Austin and we really enjoyed it. 

After that, we headed back to our hotel and relaxed for a little bit before heading on to our next great adventure: a cat cafe called Purr-fecto Cat Lounge! Liz took the kids for a half hour to hang out with all the cats. We were so glad that Johannes had discovered such a place and it was an awesome first cat cafe experience. 

Another great highlight was dinner that night. While Johannes met up with a colleague, Liz and the kids walked to a great vegetarian restaurant, much to the delight of the two vegetarians in the family. It was delicious food and we even got dessert afterward from an Amy's Ice Cream near our rental. 

Next up: National Parks! 

In the meantime, we wish you a lovely holidays season from Surprise Arizona!.