Da "K" Spot: Family Reunion Weekend on the Mississippi

Fireworks over the Mississippi

The Swann Family Spent 4th of July Weekend on the Mississippi River with the kids in the Good ole' NOLA. We had a blast! This year EMF (Essence Music Festival) dedicated a full day Thursday, July 4th to that of Family and held a day for family fun on the waterfront. It was called Family Reunion Block Party or something of the like.We arrived around 3pm Thursday and promptly were treated to dance competitions, goodie bags by sponsors like McDonald's,Walmart and Tonka, wonderful foods, and concerts, and photo ops with kids characters. Biz Markie dee jayed the events and we danced and sang all night until the sky rang with a splendid array of fireworks timed to music that lasted about 15-minutes long out on two massive barges in the middle of the Mississippi. Finally the self-proclaimed "Dance Hall King" himself Cupid came out and led us all in a myriad of line dances until we felt as if we did one more coordinated step we may have died, it was awesome!

We ended out "kid friendly" night with a walk down Bourbon Street to give the boys the Ultimate experience, it was only 10pm so we figured it couldn't be that bad - well that wasn't until I looked down and saw Robbie showing his tummy to some strangers on balconies throwing him beads to which he immediately caught!!!! I instantly snapped a pic and scooped him up and high-tailed it to Canal Street for the nearest trolley to the Garden District to the B & B where we always stay for the most reasonable rates; close enough to walk but far enough for piece of mind on those rowdy nights. Nonetheless we never caught our trolley home as they were all full and simply continued to pass us with standing room only like Metro buses that can't accommodate and the 10-block walk wasn't gonna cut it so we caught a cab back to the rooms, bathed the baby who had developed a new found fright of "The Voo Doo Woman" thanks to the boys and the local attractions and put him to bed.

We then promptly headed back out to the Howling Wolf to catch an 11pm comedy show with the Legendary Mr. Paul Mooney! It was awesome, the closest you could possibly get to the comedic genius of Richard Prior himself...and if your wondering where all of my photos are, well remember that cab ride I spoke of ..... (I think that's where I last can trace it too)! Paul Mooney had me laughing soooo hard, you know he's 80? And still has every bit of whit about him. Darryl said he must be the angriest black man ever! HA!!! Love it!

So besides some candid phone snapshots that were taken by Davaughn (Ebby's son who comes down each summer, I have no pics besides that taken by Darryl at the Howling Wolf). And I had soooooo many - I like to have cried once the reality hit - I would really like to offer the camera for the pics! Man what a shame, my next camera will have automatic WiFi upload for this reason.

But Alas....the next day we visited the NOLA Audubon Museum, Butterfly Gardens, Insectarium, and IMAX theater. It was a great day. Although the aquarium is not as massive as that of the Georgia Aquarium it is extremely nice and quite a good one in comparison - we did not have a chance to visit the zoo as it was raining but at a $120 total admission for 5 people (with the military discount it was well worth it). If you have never had a family friendly day in NOLA it is possible during daylight hours - even though Garrett had the impression that we were going to "club" like he is old enough #1 and like we are friends #2! That boy is really delusional...

I did allow them to get ONE set of beads however after Robbie took the lead and showed his tummy and caught some and they began to pout as if they, 14 and 16 were toddlers...hey it is Bourbon Street!

The pics we did manage to get with the phones.....