I just came back from New Orleans where my husband and I spent 4 days with our 18 year old twin daughters . If you are planning such a thing, good luck.
Day 1 – The Departure
In order to maximize our time on this short trip, I booked a 7:15 AM flight. I didn’t mind the 4:45 AM car ride to the airport but in truth, it did not set a very good tone for the day. Most of the afternoon felt like purgatory to me, similar to the days when they when they were toddlers and missed a nap. I felt stuck in the virtual space between 5pm and bedtime during which NOTHING MADE THEM HAPPY. It didn’t help that the sky was overcast and it was not (they reminded me constantly) as warm as I had promised. I wanted to tell them they should be grateful, and I wanted to tell them how their crappy disposition was ruining my day, and I wanted to put them on the next plane back to New Jersey. But I stayed positive and optimistic which definitely helped them stay as close to positive and optimistic as they could. We managed to get to Jackson Square, through the French Market with a couple of light happy moments, past all the live jazz and noise and I didn’t even complain when the dinner I planned was cancelled because ‘everything on the menu sounded weird.’ They didn’t even want a beignet which was top on my list! After a million blocks of tolerance we found a placed called the Clover Grill where you can have acceptable diner food served by exceptional cute young men, this definitely helped the mood. The menu had some interesting choices like this one:
After fries and grilled cheese sandwiches we took our babies back to the hotel for two stoic episodes of Modern Family and a family game of UNO which turned out to be the remedy. There’s nothing more satisfying for teenagers then hearing dad call “UNO!” only to fix it so that he has to skip his next turn and add four cards to his hand on his turn after that. We went to bed on a good note but I was praying for a better tomorrow.
- Travel Tip 1 Remember that you too were once a teenager, even though it may be a painful admission of guilt, and also pack an UNO card game.
Day 2 – The Swamp
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