Well, Joey, we're back and you definitely ddn't make all that walking around New Orleans any easier. But, wow, did we have fun. One great thing about being pregnant is the appetite, Mommy loves, loves, loves food and now because I'm pregnant, I can consume two or three times as much as before. This came in extraordinarily handy in New Orleans.

We had a bit of trouble getting to New Orleans; in Atlanta there was a big lightning storm and it grounded our plane for an hour or so. It wasn't so bad though because we met a nice lady from Baton Rouge who'd just come back from traveling around Europe. She was very interested in you, when you're due, what the doctors are like in Mexico, etc. I told her all about your doctor and how he gives us an ultrasound at every visit and sends us home with a CD full of pictures of you. When I told her each visit only costs $50 for all that, she just about fell off her chair! In the USA, she said, Mommys-to-be only get a couple of ultrasounds their whole pregnancy! How sad, I look so forward to seeing you every month at our Doctor's visits, hearing your healthy heartbeat, seeing your head and belly and little feet.

When we finally landed in New Orleans, it was very late at night and I was so tired. We caught a cab and the driver was very interesting, an ex-homicide detective, he told us all about his experiences in hurricane Katrina and told us that because of it, he changed his cab company name to "You're in Bad Hands with Allstate Insurance" because he couldn't get money from them to fix his house after the flood.

We got to the hotel and our room was on the 37th floor! Our ears popped on the way up. We went to bed pretty quick we were so tired. In the morning when I woke up I took some pictures from our room.



The coolest thing about New Orleans, Joey, was the people. Mommy has been to 14 countries and has never in her life encountered such friendly people. It wasn't just the people working in the hotel and restaurants and shops either, it was every last person walking down the street. Considering what this city had been through the past couple of years, it makes it even more astonishing, how friendly they were. I guess, like Mommy's friend Mike said once, once you've lost everything, you're free to gain anything. It was pretty inspiring. Especially after we went on the Katrina tour. The bus driver took us all through the areas of New Orleans that were the worst hit by the flooding and the storm. Several times I fought back tears. It was very moving and horrifying at the same time, that a major city in the richest country in the world could suffer so much almost 3 years later. Here in Mexico, Cancun was battered by the worst storm in recorded history that literally stopped over Cancun for days (Grandma and Grandpa were in that storm!). That storm happened after Katrina hit New Orleans, and it leveled Cancun, and not only has Cancun bounced back, but it had a long time ago. And New Orleans, and American city, has not. It has a lot to do with money, the fact that Cancun is funded and occupied primarily by major American hospitality corporations, where as New Orleans is occupied mostly by poor minority groups. The bottom line is that not enough people with resources care about New Orleans. But I did learn on the Katrina tour that Brad Pitt, a great actor currently, has been in New Orleans since the storm, helping to build houses for the people who need it the most with $5 million of his own money. I thought that was pretty cool of him.

What I enjoyed the most in New Orleans, though, was the food. Joey, one day we will take you back there when you have teeth and you can enjoy it for yourself. Those people know how to cook! But I think if I ever had to live there, I would get really, really fat, because it's all comfort food, deep fried and buttery. Mommy's weakness. Some of the best food we had was at NOLA, Emeril Lagasse's restaurant. He is a very famous chef right now, who has many, many restaurants and a cooking show. He is mostly know for yelling BAM! when he's cooking, which didn't go unsaid when your Daddy and I ate at his restaurant.

We also had some po'boys. The best was at Mother's which is a very famous restaurant, so much so that the line is out the door all day long.



And Muffulettas:



And Beignets, sushi, Indian food, gumbo, jumbalaya, barbecue, and red beans and rice. It was so yummy!

Mommy and Daddy did some shopping for you:



And we saw lots of cool sights:



All in all it was a great trip, but we're glad to be back with rocky and Grandma and Grandpa and Kramer!

Technorati Tags: new orleans, food, po'boys, muffulettas, nola, emeril, legasse, hurricane, katrina

Hey Kiddo, you're kicking my tummy right now. Actually, they're probably punches. You do an awful lot of that, you know. Maybe you'll be a great boxer like Mohammed Ali.

Tomorrow we go to New Orleans! The food you'll be gettin' is gonna be fantastic, I promise you. I have mapped out an entire day-by-day itinerary for your Daddy and I, all based on food we can't get here in Playa. On our list we have a sushi restaurant, an Indian restaurant (mmmm, Mommy loves butter chicken), a Middle Eastern place, Greek, po'boys, gumbo, crawfish and last but most certainly not least, Emeril Lagasse's NOLA. We are so, so, so excited. At first, we were going to see your Auntie Carrie and Karla in Orlando, because they are there right now to visit Disneyworld (somewhere we will take you no doubt) and we haven't seen them in a long, long time. But Mommy can't go on any rides because you're in my tummy, so we really wouldn't have been able to spend much time with them. But you and I will see Auntie Carrie soon after you're born.

Some other things we would like to do, is go to see one of the famous cemeteries in New Orleans. Yes, by the time you read this, you'll know Mommy has a bit of an interest in the darker side of things - the more mystery, the better! We'd also like to go on a boat in the Mississippi, and walk down Bourbon st. and wander around the French Quarter. We are, most importantly, going to go see the 9th ward, as well. That's the area of town that was worst affected by Hurricane Katrina and, not surprisingly, a poorer part of town with a lot of minorities. The story there is very sad because the worst of the damage was done after the storm passed. These people were not helped by their own government because they were poor and they were mostly minorities. Something that Mommy wants very badly to teach you is that all human life is sacred no matter what side of the tracks you come from or what color your skin is or even if you've been convicted of an heinous crime. This is why we're going to see the 9th ward. You gotta keep reminding yourself when you live in a place like Playa Del Carmen in a beautiful new condo with a swimming pool out front, that the world is still hurting out there and that not everything is all peaches and cream.

Mmmm... peaches and cream. Dammit kid, you make Mommy hungry.
Technorati Tags: new orleans, nola, emeril, lagasse, bourbon, street, french quarter, food

Hola Joey! It's a pretty hot Saturday here in Playa Del Carmen. We spent the day looking at stuff for you, like cribs and playpens and bassinets. We also bought you your first pair of shoes, which are pretty damned cool for baby's first shoes if you ask me. Here is a photo:



Pretty neat huh? Yeah, your folks may be geeks but we're definitely the cool kind of geek.

So I guess I'll fill you in on why we're in Mexico. A long, long time ago, in 1986, your Grandma and Grandpa took me and your Uncle Bobby to live in Australia. On the way there and the way back, we visited places like Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii, Singapore and Malaysia. We also got to see Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Surfer's Paradise and Noosa Heads in Australia. Needless to say, your Uncle and I were very spoiled that year, and then again in 1992 when we returned to live in Australia and on the way and the way back we visited Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Cook Islands and Fiji again, plus while in Australia we saw the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Alice Springs (from the airport), Sydney, Adelaide and we lived in Perth and went on many, many road trips up and down the west coast. We even got to feed and pet dolphins in Monkey Mia. I was a teenager then, and I remember the whole year like it was yesterday. All of this traveling put what your Uncle Bobby calls "the bug" in us. The travel bug.

When your Uncle Bobby got older, he took a bus tour around the USA to see all the famous ballparks, then he went back to Australia and lived for over a year and had some stopovers in places like Malaysia, Thailand and Laos. He wasn't in Vancouver very long after he got back, flying off to Europe to see England and Scotland and Sweden. When he finally came back to Vancouver for a while, he missed traveling and worked very hard to make nough money to go somewhere else. Finally, in 2006, your Uncle Bobby moved to Thailand and lived near the beach in Phuket for 6 months. I hadn't been outside of North America since 1992, and your Grandpa, Grandma and I all flew to Thailand for Christmas to be with Uncle Bobby. When I was there, I remembered how much I loved to travel. Your doggy, Rocky, had always held me back from traveling but I decided in Thailand that it was silly to let our wonderful puppy take the blame for me not traveling. We all decided to move to Mexico the following year. Doggies and all.

First to go was Grandma and Grandpa. Your Daddy and I met up with them when they arrived in Playa Del Carmen last year in July. Kramer flew really well and was fine. He found it a little hot, but that just made him sleepy which, for anyone who knows Kramer, is a good thing! Your Daddy and I were only visiting for a week, but we loved it. The people are so friendly, there is hardly any crime, the weather is spectacular and everyone lives to do things outside. It was a much more active lifestyle than back home in Vancouver, as well as very laid back and just beautiful. Daddy hmmmed and hawwwed over wanting to move here but not being able to. We went back home and sat inside for the rest of the summer, the weather being the most miserable of any summer in Vancouver I can remember.

Next to move was Uncle Bobby. He left Vancouver in September. It was pretty hard on Mommy cause that was the first time she'd ever lived in a city where none of her immediate family lived. I'm sure by the time you are reading this, you already know how important my family is to me and how close our family is. I felt very lonely, but I had to look on the bright side - I was moving to Playa myself in December!

When December finally rolled around, I had sold everything I owned except a small pile of boxes, and I had said all my goodbyes to everyone in Vancouver. The hardest was saying goodbye to your Daddy. During the previous 3 years, your Daddy and I had been inseparable. We loved each other very much, and it felt like we were a part of each other. But we had to say goodbye because Mommy needed to finally travel after all of these years just dreaming about it, and your Daddy's home and work were in Vancouver, as well as your sisters, Abbey and Natasha. We said goodbye and I flew to Cancun with Rocky.

As soon as I got here I felt better. I saw your Grandma and Grandpa at the airport, and then Uncle Bobby when we got home. We had lots of fun the first few weeks, especially with Christmas coming up. Lots of beach time and swimming time and Rocky had adjusted absolutely fine. I was having a wonderful time but I was very sad as well because I missed your Daddy. He and I would talk on the phone almost every night. We would talk about how much we missed each other and how we could work things so we could be together. Daddy soon booked a flight here in January and we talked about maybe getting married and how maybe Daddy could come and work with Mommy's company here in Playa.

It was right around that time that I realized I was pregnant. I was very nervous at first, but I told your Daddy. We decided we would make sure I was pregnant before we made any plans. So I told your Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Bobby. They were all very, very excited. When I confirmed that I was pregnant, I told your Daddy and it changed everything. Soon he was making plans to move to Mexico. He still came for his visit in January and we had a wonderful time together. It was hard to say goodbye again, but only a month later, he was back. This time for good.

Joey, you brought two of the best friends ever, together again. You gave us an amazing reason to be together again. You inspired your Daddy to see that he could live somewhere else and be happy. No, we are not married right now, but we love each other and we are a part of each other, and thanks to you, we have found a way to be with each other. And we are so happy right now. Things took a little adjusting, but right now we are happy every day just looking forward to your arrival.

Thank you for such a wonderful gift, Joey!

Love, Mommy

Technorati Tags: mexico, canada, ex patriot, baby