Hurrication, Day Two......We are Outta Here!

I guess in the previous post, when I called it "Day One" of our Hurrication, that it isn't exactly accurate. See we didn't actually get in the car and leave until Friday morning, September 12th, at 7:00 am. I washed clothes, packed suitcases, cherished personal belongings, and everything I could think of to evacuate with on Thursday night and had it all by the front door. On Friday morning I woke Greg up with the update that is was headed straight for us. It was forecast to come ashore at 1:00 am the next morning.

We packed the car, got the sleepy headed boys in the car and started driving. We waited this late mostly because we didn't want a repeat of the traffic problems with hurricane Rita. But also we hoped there was a slight chance this wobbly storm would jig or jog out of our path. No such luck. Greg had made reservations in Lake Charles at L’Auberge du Lac Casino. Sounded like a fun place to wait out the storm and we were there by noon. But the storm news didn't put this part of Louisiana out of danger and we decided, while sitting in the parking lot at L’Auberge du Lac that we needed to head further east. Hey, how about New Orleans? The boys had never seen that city and Greg and I hadn't been in ages. It could be fun and only about 3 more hours down the road. So I got on the phone and booked a reservation at JW Marriott right off of Bourbon St.

Just a few hours later we were pulling into Downtown New Orleans and passing by the infamous Superdome. Our hotel was right in the middle of The French Quarter on the corner of St. Chrles and Bourbon St. We checked in and checked the tv news for updates on Hurricane Ike. All the way up here, the car radio had warned of rising water even in this part of Louisianna. The weather outside was fine with just a few sprinkles every now and then. We hoped we had traveled far enough out of Ike's reach.

Our first thing to do as Tourists' in New Orleans was to take a walk down Bourbon Street. I have to admit I was not impressed at all. It was very dirty and full of sites the boys really didn't need to see. So we quickly had a nice dinner at Bourbon House Seafood & Oysters. It was a really good meal. We walked around our hotel a little to get our bearings but it began to get dark and rainy so we headed in to watch the news about Ike.

The Hurrication had begun!!!!!!

Our "Hurrication", Day One......

The week of September 8th started off with jokes about the new tropical depression forming way off the coast. "Mrs. Vincent, we don't need to study for that test, we are going to be evacuated by Friday," my students were saying. I just laughed and told them to study, "Better safe than sorry."

By Thursday it was a real threat to the Gulf Coast and now called Hurricane Ike. I got up earlier than usual to catch the news before getting ready for school that morning. The news was a little more alarming as Ike had taken a little "jog" to the right and the Houston area was now a big part of the "Cone of Uncertainty". Many of the area schools had canceled but our's wasn't on the list. At 6:00 am I woke up the troops and hurried everyone to get dressed. Through groans and moans and disappointments about not being one of the lucky schools closing for the day, we went through our usual routine watching the news closely.

We usually leave for school at 6:40, so at 6:30 we are all just about ready to get in the car when the phone rang. It was my good friend JoAnn with the news that the school calling tree had begun and school was canceled. Yippee!!!! Just the news the boys were hoping for. Wow, if this phone call had just arrived 30 minutes earlier the boys could have slept in and I could have had a nice quiet morning watching the news. I tried to coax everyone back to bed but they were wide awake and excited about getting a few days off. Since we were dressed we decided to get in the car headed to get breakfast at McDonalds and a coffee at Starbucks.

A few side notes about this particular day, Thursday September 11th, our first day of "Hurrication".

• Christian was actually a little disappointed about not going to school because today was going to be his first 7th grade A team football game and pep rally.
• Today was also the day we were going to celebrate PawPaw's birthday. But he and MoMo were already in the Dallas area. They evacuated for the possible hurricane threat the day before to miss the possible evacuation problems that haunted everyone after Rita.
• And lets not forget the history lesson of the day. 9/11/08 was also supposed to be a day of remembering the terrorist attacks from 7 years earlier.

School Has Started.....

Well, the night before we all started back to school I started the ritual. I took the summer quilt off my bed and switched to one of my favorite quilts, my Dick & Jane. To me it is most appropriate since I learned to read with the Dick & Jane books and my kids enjoyed the reprint of the books too when they were in K-1st grade. It is a bittersweet switch but life goes on. We can't live in Summertime every day! Here is a picture of the boys on Day 1. We were hurrying out the door so I didn't get the great shot I wanted. At least we recorded history.