My Summer Vacation

by Bridget Green

The Big Easy, Crescent City, Nawlins, New Orleans! 

This wasn't summer, but New Orleans is hot enough that it felt like summer! Last week, my family all went to New Orleans for my son Fionn's graduation from Loyola University.

Crawfish!

He has been living and studying in NOLA (that's what he calls it: NOLA -- which stands for New Orleans, Louisiana) for the last four years. His major is Music Production and he's in the Honors Program (that's my boy!). We are so proud of all of his hard, creative work so we wanted to celebrate him! 
The whole family came: James and I from Spokane, his sister and her boyfriend, Ceilan and Harry, from Scotland, his brother Zeke from France, his cousin Ryan from Seattle, and my sis and her husband, Mary and Gary from Spokane.  So that makes nine people. We all stayed in a super cool Airbnb 'shotgun' house and we had so much fun! We ate incredible food (alligator, crawfish, red beans and rice,

Ceilan and Harry with a 4-year-old alligator

cornbread!) and went on a couple of cool tours (a slave plantation, a swamp tour, and to a cooking school for a class on how to make gumbo and chicken creole) and heard Fionn sing (in a church choir and at a vocal recital)! Wow! Oh, and it was James' birthday and Mother's Day! The vacation was packed with activity and joy and new adventures.
The very best part for me was that we were all together.  I love all of those people who came to NOLA. They are the center of my world. I am especially overjoyed to see my children so happy and creative and strong and so loving to each other. I am the luckiest woman on earth!