Geo: 36.5077, -118.575It took us a little over a three hour drive to get to Buckeye Flat Campground at Sequoia National Park. Unfortunately, I had some sort of stomach bug so I was pretty nauseous this entire trip. I toughed it out anyway. Chris and I have this mantra as parents now, "We're always going to be tired." It's just our faces at this point. So we might as well enjoy life, travel and do what we dream of anyway because we're never not going to be tired and we're often going to be sick since our toddler is a little petri dish of germs. That being said, we chose to camp in the foothills of the park. What I didn't realize beforehand was that even though on a driving map the campground appears very close ... read more

Geo: 37.1852, -122.23Even though the temperature the previous day had hit 100F, the nights still dropped to a chill 40F. We co-slept with the baby to make sure she stayed warm. She only occasionally thwarted this by somehow maneuvering into the most ridiculous upside down and diagonal positions, as well as taking over my pillow. Sleeping while camping is always a little rough for me, depending on how much energy I expended that day. So, I woke up alot and stared out at the stars and treetops through our open top tent. We left off the rain guard so the tent wouldn't bake during the day. I'd always fall back asleep soon enough. I was worried Arya wouldn't sleep while camping since we had so much trouble with it the previous year but she ended up ... read more

Geo: 29.9537, -90.0778This was my last day in NOLA and I was ready to head home to eat a giant salad. I'd had a long week of binging on food and drinking every night. It was time to relax again. Not that I actually know how to be still for very long. I get bored and need to move or accomplish something. Anyway, check out was 10am but my classes were going to last until 1pm. So, that meant dragging all my luggage with me class to class at the conference center. While I wasn't the only nurse doing so I think I was probably the one with the most luggage. I felt like I would have been amusing to watch- midget buried under all her own crap moving at turtle pace.After my classes, it was ... read more

Geo: 29.9537, -90.0778Today was my long day in classes so there's less to say about the goings-on of this day then the others. It was raining lightly on my morning commute walking and taking the streetcar to the convention center. It was incredibly muggy, like being in a rainforest. I also sent a quick email to the landlord of the studio, telling her what happened with the shutter being pried open (part of it was now broken) and literally asking at the end of the email if the property happened to be haunted by any chance. Yeah. I went there.I had time to go to one of the SuperSessions today and was stunned by the impressiveness of the ceremonies and speakers. It looked like a rock concert in there and the energy was intense. ... read more

Geo: 29.9537, -90.0778Amazingly, we were up about 8am after having been up so late the night before. I had really wanted to do a traditional Southern Sunday Brunch but with timing of our kayaking tour we had to settle for breakfast. I had heard Stanley's was good, and it was actually open early enough, so we headed over to Jackson Square. Anna was hungover- I felt great surprisingly. We ended up getting Bloody Mary's- hair of the dog. Anna also ordered an oyster Po'Boy with some giant freakin oysters in it, and I had a Seafood Sampler platter with egg Benedict going on. I wasn't the biggest fan of all the fried but the soft shell fried crab was impressive. I've never eaten a crab shell like that!After breakfast we started getting sleepy from the heavy ... read more