Month: July 2017

Another 5 hours of driving and we arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana. We stayed at the French Quarter RV park. We unhitched faster than lightning and then headed across town to Hansen’s Sno-Bliz. They have THE best snow cones. We have been here several times on previous trips. We arrived a little bit before they opened and watched the line grow insanely long after us. Emmerson watched the sno-bliz machine with excitement. Sno-cones aren’t really his thing. He is holding out for beignets.

After snow-bliz we dropped the cars at the campground and walked to the French Quarter in search of beignets. The walk wasn’t too far, about a mile. We opted to walk up and look at the mighty Mississippi. Unfortunately, we got caught in a massive rain storm. We caught cover and stayed mostly dry. Except for Breighton who found it entertaining to run around and try to catch the rain in his mouth.

We finally made it to beignets. The place Emmerson really liked was out of business. We opted for a few servings from Cafe Du Monde, not our favorite. Mom snagged a table quickly and our orders were up quickly.

We wandered around the quarter when we were done snacking. Dad took us all to a place called M.S. Rau Antiques. Boy was this place AWESOME! They has a $1.4 million chess set! We really loves this $300,000 cabinet that was played violins! The staff member even played it for us! WOWZERS!

We had a nice seafood dinner out and then hit the swimming pool at the campground. B and E got into a larger disagreement over the pool toys so swimming ended earlier than planned.

In the morning David and Emmerson got up early and walked to the French Quarter for beignets from a different place. Success! Mom and Breighton headed to Lowe’s to purchase a few hibiscus plants for the caterpillars.

 

We all magically met up at the Audubon Insectarium about 5 minutes before they opened. We loved looking at all the fun insects in their collections. They had some neat old collecting equipment as well. We all loved the frog beetle. We popped out heads up in the cockroach room. Then on to the best part. They have a bug kitchen! You can try all different items withe bugs in them. Breighton stuck to the sweet items. Emmerson avoided this experience with gusto! Somehow Grandma and Grandpa even got suckered in to trying the bugs! The result…not too bad! Even going back to try a few more samples! Dad snuck away as there was NO WAY he was eating any of them! Mom enjoyed the classic board game area display. Remember Tickle Bee? The butterfly garden was also a treat but it is nothing compared to the one back in Gainesville!

One more evening trip to get beignets and a leaky faucet in the motorhome bathroom and we bring a wrap to New Orleans. Don’t worry we had to run out and buy a new faucet and install it! What a chore!

 

Off we go on our adventure. We have 8 stowaways in the form on io moth caterpillars in tow. We are hoping that the cocoon soon so we can not worry about finding proper food for them. We brought a huge bad of hibiscus clippings from the yard. We are keeping them moist and in the fridge to last a while.

The first days drive was long. We spent the day reading on our kindles and settling in for the long journey across the entire country. We made it to the panhandle of Florida to a town called Holt. Grandma and Grandpa arrived a little after us with their motorhome. It will be a fun adventure traveling with them.

We stayed at a really nice wooded campground called River’s Edge. It was nothing fancy but a place to rest for the night. We headed off with our bug gear in search of some new specimens for our collection.

We caught a few new critters and then spent the evening before bed getting everything pinned.

We had a fun time with A and W this week. I learned a new game called Egyptian Rat Slap. I even wrote all the rules down in my notebook so I remember later!

A was such a good teacher!

I am working on a very complex art project for January’s Insectathon contest. It is a beetle that I will color pencil in. It will then be cut and mounted and then placed on a water color on canvas background.

Working on the canvas.

My dried canvas!

Oh we also got some good retro fidget spinners. Gyroscopes!

I spent several hours spinning it.

 

 

I have been working really hard on my bug collection just like Breighton. I was so excited to find out I had to have at LEAST 10 and not just 10! I was having such a hard time fiddling it all down.

Our bug obsession rolled into Home Depot with a bug cage kids build!

My final collection easy to go to the state contest.

We spent the afternoon worth with our io moth caterpillars. We relocated them to a better hatchery and changed out the leaf litter and gave them new branches. We did let a few of the smaller ones go since we don’t need so many.

The owls are getting bigger. They have ear tufts now too!

 

We spent the 3rd of July watching baseball and fireworks with family. It was a fun night and a great fireworks show.

 

ON the 4th we used up the rest of the fireworks from a few years ago. Many were duds due to humidity but most worked. It was all stuff that stayed not he group like smoke balls, snakes and poppers.

I don’t enjoy loud noises so I wore hearing protection.

 

These things were cool but I like the old pull string confetti shooters better.