Adventures in The City

Yesterday we took my birthday girl out to dinner.  She chose a locally owned pizza place.  They have the best pizza around!  Afterwards, we headed into The City aka New Orleans.  Every year we go to Celebration in the Oaks.  It's a huge lighting display in City Park.  Since Hurricane Katrina, they haven't been able to bring back the driving tour or the carriage rides, so it is just a walking tour now.  Many of the trees were damaged so the displays on the driving path can't be put up.

Unfortunately everyone seemed to have the same idea!!  It rained Friday night and it is supposed to rain for the next two nights, so everyone decided Sunday was the day to go.  It was SO crowded.  It's so hard to enjoy anything when you are constantly being bumped into and have to push your way through crowds.  You can't stop to take pictures because there's a constant stream of people passing...    The whole display seemed much smaller than previous years.  Some of the things the kids were looking forward to seeing just wasn't there.  Valerie asked to leave after about an hour.  Of course we still had a nice family night out, but next year if we go it will be after Christmas or on a weekday!

On a side note, we had parked along City Park Avenue in NOLA.  Clint and I were standing outside, and we had just buckled the kids in the back when someone clipped the truck!!  We heard a loud "CRACK" as glass and plastic went flying.  The truck that hit us tapped their breaks and just kept going!!!  That's right, they didn't even stop.  Thankfully, Clint's truck was just fine.  It was their passenger's side mirror that shattered.  I don't want to think about how bad it could have been if we had actually been hit.  Crazy NOLA drivers!