One Down One To Go!

Vacation week is finally HERE!!!!! I am so excited!!!  My bags are packed and all I have to do is wait until Friday morning!!!  The wait is KILLING ME!!!

So, we had a little pre-vacay vacation last weekend.  We went to South Louisiana with another couple to camp for a four ay weekend.  We really had a blast!  I believe I can honestly say that there is nothing that I dislike about South Louisiana!  I know I have blogged about this before, but there is something about all the geographical area south of Alexandria that just feels like coming home.  The land gets flatter.  The soil gets darker and the mud starts to look like Gumbo!  The air feels heavier and I feel like I am being greeted by a dear old friend!

We stayed at a place called Cajun Palms RV Resort.  It was super nice!  There was a pool with a huge kiddie area and even an area roped off that was for adults only.  There was a swim up bar and the service was GREAT! 

A big storm blew through on Friday and it got pretty exciting in the campground.  We didn't lose an awning, but we did watch one blow away.  Luckily it only lasted a little while and then it was gone.  We weren't gonna let stop our adventure and as soon as the storm broke we took off!

We rode down the levee in Henderson, Louisiana and took our friends to several little places that we knew of on the basin.  They had no lights or electricity, but they were still open for business and very hospitable.  The last stop on the tour was a restaurant called Pat's Fisherman's Wharf.  I don't know if I have blogged about this place before, but if I didn't I sure should have!!!

This place has been open since the 1950's.  I can remember going there when I was a kid in the 70's or 80's and I can say that as of 2014 not much has changed!  Even one of the waitresses had been there for 40-something years.  She was there the last time we were there and she was there again this past Friday.  The food was as fabulous as I expected it to be!  It's good to know that there are still some places where nothing changes!

Saturday morning was the BEST!  We took our friends to a place called Café Des Ami in down town Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.  We got there about 7:40am and were just in time to stand in a little line for the Zydeco Breakfast.  We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast while watching folks dance to a really great live Zydeco band.  The dance floor stayed full all morning.  This was something that Johnnie and I had come to the last time we were in South Louisiana, but due to an ice storm we didn't get the live music.  All we got was the breakfast (which was still pretty yummy!)

After breakfast we were looking for more to do.  We saw the sign for Evangeline-Longfellow historic site.  The beauty in this place was absolutely breathtaking.  We got to see a 200 year old creole style home and then just a short distance away there was an old Acadian cabin.  Johnnie and I loved everything about that place.  We are such history nerds!

We found another really great restaurant in down town Breaux Bridge and that's where we had our supper.  Everyone else had burgers since that was the main thing on the menu.  I had to take advantage of one more opportunity to eat seafood and so I had a crab burger.  Everyone said that their meal was delicious.  With that I will give Angelle's Restaurant on Bridge Street 2 thumbs up!

Cajun Palms had a live Zydedco band Saturday night.  They were fabulous and it was so fun to watch the people dance.  I think that is one of the things I miss most about South Louisiana.  Family is EVERTHING!  Everyone from the oldest to the youngest were all dancing and having a ball!

So Sunday was come home day.  Usually I'd be sad about it but this time I had too much on my mind.  I still have 2 days of ESYS (Summer classes) and then we are OFF TO DALLAS for the first leg of our trip to Alaska!!!  I am all packed and ready to go.  Now I just have to wait 3 days and the suspense is killing me!!!

We well celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary on a slow boat to Alaska!  Stay Tuned!

Staycation

Happy Monday!!!

I am happy to say that Johnnie and I are on STAYCATION!!!  Did I ever mention he's a police officer?  Anyway, he is and he works twelve hour shifts.  He was really glad to get a little break, especially since this Louisiana heat is really starting to kick in!  We've had pretty mild summer temperatures, compared to the past few years, but mild or harsh August is just HOT!!!  He has been off since Friday, but staycation really didn't start until this morning.  We had a pretty busy weekend, but it was super fun!

We enjoyed going to the youngest grand-girl's birthday party on Saturday evening.  She turned 8 and is such a sweetheart. She LOVES her papa!  Lucky for the children that the party was at the aquatic club.  They stayed cool in the pool while the grown-ups did some serious sweating!!

Sunday was church day!  One of my cousins was one of the co-preachers and he did a really great job.  I really enjoyed class and church and didn't mind the drive one bit!  I was also very thankful that my husband went with me.  I hope he enjoyed it as much as I did.

I am still going strong on my quest to lose weight and get healthy!  I have not deviated from my diet once since I started.  I know it's only been a week, but usually by now I have cheated so I am proud of me!  For some reason this time is different.  I've already made some needed changes like doing away with diet drinks and drinking more water.

This time I have added some real exercise to my daily routine.  Johnnie and I have walked for around 40 minutes each morning for the past 4 days.  We try to get it done early in the morning because it's miserably hot by about 9:40am.

I also need to give a shout out to Myfitnesspal.com.  I am using it to record my daily intake of food and water and also the amount of exercising I am doing.  It's a really great site.  There are recipes, blogs and lots of real and virtual friends to turn to for support and encouragement.  I know it's going to be a slow process, but I am committed to making some healthy changes in my life.  This is a little FYI nugget - Did you know that okra and tomatoes only have 20 calories per serving?  I was very happy to learn this because I LOVE okra and tomatoes.  The great thing about Myfitnesspal is that it tells you how many calories you need to eat to achieve the goals you want to reach.  It also figures in exercise and water consumption into the equation.  The website lets you eat whatever you want to eat, you just have to make sure you don't go over the suggested calories.  I even had 2 margaritas this weekend, I just had to record them!  Can you tell how much I LOVE THIS SITE???

I am trying to lose weight by eating a cleaner diet.  A girlfriend of mine told me that she'd lost about 30 pounds by simply eating foods as close to the way that they are found in nature as possible.  It takes a little planning and a little longer in the grocery store, since label reading is a MUST, but I am finding that there are a lot of foods that I love that are also good for me so maybe I won't burn out on this!  Oh, here's another little nugget - Schwan's Live Smart Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches only have 140 lbs and the chocolate ones have 150 calories.  Yes, that's not all natural, but I am a chocoholic and I know that I better allow myself some treats or else I will break the diet for sure!  I also discovered Italian Fire Roasted Cod Fish from Schwan's.  It's a really light, white fish that does not take fishy at all!  I am kinda funny about the seafood that I eat so I was excited to discover this tasty entree!

I am on a mission to get healthy!  I am not ready yet, but once I have made some REAL progress I will post some before/during/after photos.  I may even get crazy and give my starting weight!  I am so ready for that to weight to be a part of my PAST!!!  I know this is gonna take a while..... I HATE BEING PATIENT!!!