Last days in NOLA

On Thursday, S booked a spa session and we took C to Sucré for a delicious coffee served with one of their amazing cakes. C has been before with Yaya and Mum, so is well known at this special venue! They have wonderful macaroons that are famous all over New Orleans.

 After coffee we made our way across to The Rink, a lovely shopping area on the Garden District which has an excellent bookstore, The Garden District Bookshop; as well as a baby clothes shop, Mignon; and some exclusive interior design boutiques as well. We were lured into the baby shop with its promise of beautiful things for C, and we succumbed to a lovely outfit in pale blue with little monkeys embroidered on it. We also found an outfit for the baby boson, and as we don't know the flavour yet, it is a sleep suit covered in little green frogs that can be buttoned up like a sleeping bag or as a suit with legs - clever! We had hardly looked in the bookstore before S found us and as she was starving, we repaired to the coffee shop, Still Perkin, and managed a little light lunch. This was followed by a walk around the District, coming back to The Rink via the art shop on the corner. Here they had the sculpture of a baby's head called Baby G - just like our little C!

Trying on Tri stuff in a camping fitting room!

Friday came and D had to sign up for his IronMan Triathlon. We met up with him at the Hilton Hotel, then walked him across to see the Wasp that he missed on Wednesday going back to work. The selection of gear on display at the Tri sign-up is amazing and D did buy a nice T-shirt, though other stuff wasn't in his size.  He tried stuff on in a portable changing room with its  'look-out' in the top!
While we were out looking at the Wasp, the Blue Angels came screaming overhead - a taste of what they will be doing on Sunday.







Saturday was a relaxing day for our athlete and we went down to Audubon Zoo to show C the animals. Not a very warm day, we needed jackets on and cups of coffee to keep warm. But there was plenty to see and we had a lovely easy walk around most areas before it was time to go back home for a huge (for D) pasta dinner and a relatively early night as D had an early start on Sunday.

D went off at around 5am to get to the pick-up for the tri. The swim was cancelled, so he had a run/bike/run race, due to the high winds making the lake too choppy for the swimmers. We all drove down to the race a little later and found a good spot in the middle of the second run area where we could watch D go by on both sides. C had his cheer-leader onesy on and we all cheered and rang the little bell to encourage all the runners, but especially when D went by. Soon we had to move over to the Finish line and waited there for him to come through. Not a bad time, and he was glad of a seat on the folding chairs when it was all over. Plenty of water and a good rest, before we followed him across to the food area where he managed a couple of platefuls of food to replenish his energy reserves. The airshow was cancelled because of the bad weather, which was a bit disappointing, so there was little point hanging around and we decided to leave. Some folk were still running when we eventually made it back to the car and home.


So Monday D went to work and in the late morning S, C and we went off for a little coffee before meeting up with D and driving to the airport. We hated saying goodbye to them all, but especially to the little one who will grow and change so much before we see him again in July.



Sucré
The Garden District Bookshop
Mignon, baby shop
Still Perkin'
Ochsner Ironman 70.3 New Orleans Triathlon
Blue Angels
Audubon Zoo