Part 1 Travel Day
This trip has been over a year in the making. It is a special occasion as it’s my husband’s 50th birthday. Since it’s a milestone I wanted to make it special, and the best way to make it exceptional, would be to make it a surprise. As an added bonus my birthday is 7 days from his, so we could both celebrate. My ideas were epic and legendary and it really made me think that Will is a very lucky man to have me! Heck I sorta wanted to marry myself after I came up with the master plan! This will have to be amazing from start to finish right? I thought so too!
The problem with my plan, was that Will and I are Libras, and it’s almost impossible to surprise a Libra. We are very intuitive. From the very beginning Will must’ve sensed a disturbance in the force. He started making hotel reservations, food plans (he probably made the other plans around where he wanted to eat), and generally getting on my nerves. Don’t get me wrong, in ordinary circumstances, someone else handling the planning would be a dream. However now was not the time for him to play junior travel agent. Chill dude, I got this!!
I created a secret social media group to stay in contact with everyone which made it a lot easier to relay information. After taking a vote everyone thought that Nola would be feasible for the family to get to, and the arrangements were made.
This brings us up to travel week. We’ve kept the party and the cruise group a secret for 363 days, 2 hours, 12 minutes. Then I get an email from our travel agent telling everyone to have a great trip and enjoy Will’s birthday. Instant panic! OMG we’ve come too far for him to find out now! I mean I’ve canceled his hotel and restaurant reservations by standing at his computer deleting the email deleting it from the trash then making sure it wasn’t on his phone! As the agony of defeat started creeping in, I had a small thought. Maybe just maybe Will didn’t check his email before bed. I ran downstairs as quickly as my feet would take me, opened his phone and his computer email at the same time. I’ve got skills y’all! After searching for a minute, I found the offensive email in his trash. Unread! He has a rule to auto delete emails from unknown senders. He doesn’t have the travel agent saved because again, he does no planning. I deleted it from the deleted and checked the phone again. The internets can be evil. Stay woke fam!
Now that you’ve got the gist of what I went thru planning this trip, we can fast forward to travel day. I text our eldest informing her that we will be leaving shortly. She (A) and her fiancé (Z) will be accompanying us, so that will be the first part of Will’s surprise as he thought it would just be he and I. In order to accomplish this I drove ( yes I drove, the struggle was real), to pick them up. He was actually pouting when I told him I was driving at first. Since that’s usually his job, he was lost as to what in the world he would do with his time.
We fought our way thru the massive traffic nightmare that exists in Atl every single day of the year, to pick up our young uns. After Will saw where we were going he was happy. He insisted on driving after that. So we let him. Happily.
The ride down was fast. It takes around 7 hours door to door. A worked on her laptop the.entire.time. She got out once for a bathroom break. Once. She is so focused and driven. I have no idea where she gets it from, but she needs to do better at slacking. Around the time we were crossing the Louisiana state line, she closed her laptop and declared that she was done for the day. It’s about time! We had 92 conversations listened to 456 songs and picked up 9 hitchhikers and she was oblivious to it all cuz her work consumed her!
We got into town and went straight to the hotel to check in. We stayed at the Towne Place Suites in Slidell. We chose this hotel because it is relatively new, and it has Suites with 2 bedrooms, which is mandatory when we travel with the fam.
Here are some pictures of the hotel:
After we checked in, A and Z HAD to get a couples pedicure. So……we drove all the way from GA to LA for pedicures????? Supposedly. Both of them neglected their feet this week, so they had a matching set of alligator claws. Can’t get on the ship with those, cuz they are on the prohibited list. There is a huge shopping center across the street from the hotel with tons of shops and food which was very convenient. Will wasn’t feeling the nail salon visit so he took a nap. I should have done that too. Can’t believe I missed that opportunity! I’m slipping!
It took awhile for A and Z to finish in the salon. I guess their feet looked like they kicked hot rocks with flip flops, and they needed more work that we thought.
When they were finally fresh to death we went back to collect Will. He was in the pool enjoying his vacay so we left him to it. A and Z walked across the street to the Brew House. My cousin and I wanted to hang and have girl time so we went to the movies.
After the movie, I went back to the hotel and crashed. Before I fell asleep, I said a prayer thanking God for cousins and shawls. I forgot to bring my sweater, and it was freezing in the theater, so my cousin gave me a shawl. #lifesaver
Willdra’s Big Easy Birthday Bash Part 2
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