[For a fantastic account of our trip, visit Tifani's blog; she tells it so well!]
So, I grew up across the street from the SANT family. One of the girls, Jean, was one of my best friends. Jean had an older brother named Larry. Larry was Mr. Stud and all the ladies loved him. Sometimes he drove me and Jean to school. He eventually married a girl named Tifani. They had some kids. That pretty much summarizes what I knew of Larry's life post-Richland.
Fast forward to 2006, 2007ish. [Tifani, this is the actual story of how it went down.] My friend, Elizabeth, who I knew from Hawaii, and who is also married to a Tongan, shows me a blog entry from her friend Wendi from Georgia; I can't remember what it was about--I think one of Wendi's kids or something. I'm reading the blog entry, and then I read the comments made from some of Wendi's readers, including one "Tifani Sant." I say to Elizabeth, "My neighbor married a girl named Tifani; I wonder if it's the same one." So we look at her blog (and this is where it gets fuzzy for me), and I recognize that it IS the Tifani married to my neighbor Larry.
So then we become blog/Internet friends.
A couple years ago, Tifani came to Utah for Education Week, and she, Elizabeth, and I went to dinner together. It was a BLAST. Tifani talked about it here. I wrote about it here.
About a year ago, the Sants moved to Louisiana. I've been reading about their adventures and have been quite jealous. Then a few months ago, Sione got hired by Delta, and I finally put two and two together and realized I could fly for FREE to visit Tifani and the whole Sant fam in Louisiana. So that's what Ami and I did.
Fun ensued.
Well, fun ensued once we got there. Getting there was not exactly fun. Ami and I spent a day at the SLC airport. Not fun. We got there at 12:30 pm, and eventually flew out at 1 am.
Ami napping at the SLC airport--yes, I let him sleep on the nasty floor
Sione actually came and flew with us, and I was most grateful. Twelve hours with a bored 4-year-old is a long time. Thankfully, on the flight to Atlanta, this is mostly what Ami did:
(He started out like this)
Once in the ATL, we waited a couple more hours, then boarded a flight to BTR (Baton Rouge).
Climbing through chairs and daddy's wires
Sione headed back to SLC (what a good husband to fly all that way just so I could maintain my sanity!). Unfortunately he couldn't stay and play because he had to work on Saturday.
Tifani picked us up at the airport, and THEN fun ensued.
[Please note: Any cool collage photos are courtesy of Tifani's coolness; any professional-looking photos are courtesy of Erika's professionalness.]
Ami swam with the boys. Which is good because it was no less than 374 degrees outside.
Note the haze on the photo. Everytime I pulled my camera out to take a pic, it would steam over. Tifani has encapsulated the boys' swimming (which they did everyday we were there, except Sunday) very nicely:
We arrived in Baton Rouge about 10 am on Thursday, August 19. While Ami slept in the airplane, he still had only gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep. I had gotten maybe 30-60 minutes. So we were pretty tired that day, but being someplace so beautiful and with such fun people reenergized us.
We exchanged college t-shirts:
Matthew with BYU; Ami with LSU
Not Matthew's best pic ever, but I love Ami's smile in this one
By about 8:00 that night., this was Ami; he's wrapped up in Rachel's slanket, which will NOT short out your phone:
The next day, while the kids were at school and Larry was at work, Tif, Ami, and I went on a swamp tour. FUN 'O RAMA. We LOVED it! Here are lots of pics and some videos about that:
I love this pic of Tif and Ami--so cute!
The blue heron we saw--not to be confused with a crane or red herring.
Cemetery in the swamp--final resting spot of an entire village that got wiped out
A beautiful cypress tree
And some cypress knees (yes, that's really what they're called)
This is Tripod, the three-legged alligator
It's so pretty, I didn't mind the 578 degree weather
After the swamp tour, our plan was to go to New Orleans--or NOLA, as she is affectionately referred to. But the fates had other plans--namely, us getting stuck on I-10 because of an overturned semi. Go figure. Looking back now, I'm glad it happened that way because we ended up having a fantastic girls' day out at NOLA on Saturday (more to come on that), and Ami would have been miserable--as would I have been trying to keep track of him in that crazy fun city.
So instead, we eventually made it off the freeway (in the nick of time; Svetlana, the Suburban, was done and refused to blow any more cold air on us if we didn't pick up the pace).
Instead we stopped at San Francisco plantation.
Ami tried on a Mardi Gras mask at the gift shop
While it was quite beautiful, it was not the grandiose southern plantation of my dreams. So we didn't pay the $15 tour fee. We walked around for a few, took a few pics, then hurried on our way. This time to Cajun Village, which was a hoot.
We ate beignets...YUM.
We posed with dead alligators made to look like people
A lot.
Is that there 'gator fried up yet, Mama?
This is a painting of plantation locations, but I could not get a good pic of it--but believe me, it was cool.
By then, Tifani's kiddies were on their way home, so we headed back to the BTR. At some point, Ami got hold of the camera and took some silly pics of the adults:
Later that evening, I was supposed to go with Larry and Tifani to a game night at their friend's house, but I had sorely neglected my grading, so I stayed home to try and get caught up. Of course, this silliness was going on:
Saturday was Girls' Day Out! We didn't leave until 11ish or so. Apparently, Larry takes BREAKFAST IN BED TO TIFANI EVERY SATURDAY MORNING.
Don't worry, Tif, your secret's safe with me.
Wonderful Larry agreed to watch ALL THE BOYS on Saturday (he even took them to a movie!), while me, Tif, and Erika went to NOLA. But first, we had to stop at Oak Alley Plantation (not Oak Valley, as I previously thought, or Nottaway Plantation, as Erika seemed to think). It was AMAZING. Loved, loved, loved it.
Beautiful Oak Alley
The outside porch
The outside porch through the lens of a professional photographer (i.e., Erika)
Said professional photographer trying to take a pic inside the mansion, which was forbidden
Magnolia tree with magnolia buds, but no magnolias
Our tour guide, Whitlee, who was very sweet and had memorized her lines very nicely
(there is still a raging debate on whether or not her accent is real or fake)
Sweaty me on the porch; it was approximately 723 degrees outside
Sweaty us--except Erika, who is a native, and thus does not sweat--just "glows"
Erika bought me my first mint julep--she says it was alcohol-free...hmmm.
Erika created this cool pic, which makes it look all haunted and stuff...awesome!
And then the heat drove her mad--seriously, like 877 degrees
Isn't is just amazing? Don't you wish you were there?
We then ventured onto New Orelans, NOLA, the Big Easy. Very exciting!
We first ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp--Tifani and I don't like seafood. Erika mocked us mercilessly while she ate her disgusting shrimp. Shrimp eat their poo, you know. I enjoyed some very yummy pork sliders and a fancy lemonade in a glass that lit up and could possibly send someone into a seizure.
We then walked around the fabulous French Quarter. I was wearing my very comfy slippers, but in the first 15 minutes of walking in New Orleans, I had a blister on the ball of each foot. I blame it on the heat, which was no cooler than 962 degrees. Thankfully, by the time we finished our dinner, the sun had gone down a bit and it was a wee bit cooler--probably like 920 degrees. The ctiy was wonderful--dirty, smelly, quirky, awesome, cool. Amazing. I loved it!
Beautiful buildings everywhere
There were musicians, street performers, artists--anything you could imagine.
The oldest Catholic cathedral in the nation
Erika captured this image of two men dancing
The muddy Miss
Aloha, New Orleans!
River boat--next time!
The Mighty Mississippi
And in the words of Tifani, we
then drove like crazy ALL the way across town where Erika begged herself into a closed Fleurty Girl store and we bought stuff. It was a great day!
It was a great day! When we got back to the house, Larry had survived, as had all the boys. In fact, Erika's husband, Jeff, had made his way over to the house, and he and Larry were watching Gilmore Girls with Sari. Hee, hee.
Sunday we went to church with the Sants and enjoyed the super-friendly people in their ward. Aftewards, Erika took Ami's pictures, which you saw here.
Our trip back later that afternoon was thankfully uneventful. We got back into SLC where it was a heavenly 60 degrees. But we miss our friends, the Sants, and thank them for putting up with us! We had a great time and can't wait to go back...in the winter...with Sione. :-)
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