New Zealand

I hopped off the plane early Saturday morning. My plane flew in from San Francisco, so the time change was huge. I was still a little jet-lagged, but managed to stay up until that night. My grand parents showed Siena and I a beautiful garden near their apartment. New Zealand is amazing! The gardens (Parana Park) were full of chirping insects and birds. The gardens are practically surreal, it reminded me of the Disneyland safari rides with palm trees, but it was 100% natural. There's also a section with flowers and bushes that looks like an English garden. It's a beautiful place. On Sunday we went to church. All the girls laughed at how I said "mom"instead of mum, but they were all super nice and friendly. I can't wait to explore this land more!

New Orleans!

It took an hour and a half for our family car ride to New Orleans. Thankfully, my aunt lent us her car and watched Ben and Roger for the trip so only the six of us could go.(Only!) New Orleans is very interesting. On one block you'll see towering mansions, and then the next block will be dumpy houses and ghetto apartments. Then we stopped at the WWII  museum. The propaganda posters and info on D-Day is really well done. They also have a movie (narrated by Tom Hanks!) that has immersive details, such as vibrating seats and surround sound. It would probably be too immersive and scary for anyone under the age of 8. After touring the museum, we stopped at Café du Monde. The hot chocolate and the beignets were AMAZING! It was chilly, and the chocolate was a perfect choice. Then we walked through all the shops, listened to some street performers, and danced through the crosswalks. ;) One bookstore we entered was piled floor to ceiling with all different genres. I wanted to stay there forever. I bought a 1906 print of a Balzac mystery, it looks really good.
     When we finally got home, my uncle whipped up some shark meat tacos.(Shark?) It was surprisingly good. A little strange tasting, but kind of cool at the same time. A day made better with strawberry shortcake....:)
P.S. Siena's taco doesn't have shark meat on it. Wimp

Biloxi!

We are in Mississippi! We're visiting our cousins here, and even went to the beach yesterday! It was a little chilly, but nothing compared to winter in NY. Hopefully we can sneak in a trip to New Orleans while we are here...... :)