Poppy Ford: YouTube Video Editor

Unfortunately, we had long delays today whilst travelling from Lafayette, Louisiana to Los Angeles, California.  Not only did we have to wait forever for our flights, then the airline lost our bags!  At 1am in the morning we are waiting in the lost luggage office to give address details to have the bags couriered as soon as they arrive from San Antonio (or wherever they ended up!) tomorrow morning.  Subsequently, we’ve been informed it will be between 8 – 11pm the next day for delivery!!!  You’ve got to be joking, Continental!

Aside from that, we had a fun last day with Fred shopping, having lunch and more shopping!  He said goodbye to Poppy at the Lafayette airport and we appreciate the really cool activities he shared with us during our trip and the little red clothes he bought Poppy.

This is our last full day in Lafayette and it was jam-packed with animal entertainment!  The ZOO and the CIRCUS!  We got so hot walking around the zoo in the heat that we needed a cold bath and a sleep before preparing for the circus at 5pm.  After eating dinner when the circus was finished, we went back to the hotel for a swim along with several other kids under 10 & their parents staying here as well.

Poppy had such a fantastic time at the Children’s Museum this morning that we stopped for lunch & a sleep and went back for a couple of hours this afternoon.  It was PreSchool on steroids – lots of activities and interesting games along with other kids to interact with.  I think Poppy’s favourite thing was shopping in the grocery store….. although serving food in the restaurant came a close second.

Tonight we spent some time at the Laundromat getting some clean clothes! 

Our hotel has a basket of apples in the foyer for guests to take.  Each morning Poppy says “May I have a apple?” and I say “Sure, Poppy!” and she brings her apple to the truck and puts it in the cup holder.  During the day I ask her if she wants to eat her apple and she says “No, thank you.”  This morning she asks to have an apple again and I remind her that she hasn’t eaten the last two apples she left in the truck and she says “For Lily!”.  She has been collecting apples to give to GranJan’s pig back on the farm….

Today we had a big thunderstorm with lots of rain here in Lafayette – it reduced the temperature to 30 degrees rather than 37 degrees!  It was a visiting day today with stops to our neighbour Miss Emilie and our friend Debi Smith.  After an afternoon sleep we did a little shopping and then picked up Daddy for dinner with Chun and Yee Ling – at a different Chinese restaurant – but with the same chopsticks!

After a relaxing morning and checking out of the Hilton, we did a little shopping and had an after-lunch nap in preparation for the theme park tonight!  We picked up Fred early from work and drove about an hour to Baton Rouge to the Blue Bayou theme park where we were admitted for reduced prices after 6pm.  Poppy absolutely loved the rides and could have done them all again and again.  Fred and I wondered how we lost our roller coaster mojo since we were both feeling dizzy and sick after some of them!  Home late so no swim, just a bath tonight before crashing.

Reflecting tonight on spending so much time with Poppy and realising we haven’t spent a minute apart this whole trip….. Our relationship has a flow that is working really well whilst travelling and Poppy is such a flexible and generally happy wee girl.  Because of this blog, most people meeting her for the first time feel as if they know her and have watched her grow up… she sees them as a stranger though!  It’s been a full-on social time for her and she is coping really well.

Poppy went to her first movie today!  The Grand Cinema has a kiddie show matinee on Tuesdays at 10am for $3 each including popcorn and a drink.  They showed Jimmy Neutron and Poppy loved it!  She said “I’m at the MOVIES!” a couple of times – but generally was immersed in the story and for the rest of the day pretended she was in a spaceship going to the moon.  After the movie we called in to see my very good friend Chun whom I worked with when I lived in Lafayette.  Poppy took over his conference room computer while we caught up with each other’s news. We went to lunch with his wife Yee Ling and they taught Poppy to use chopsticks!   We couldn’t get a room at the Courtyard Marriott tonight as it was fully booked so we switched to the Hilton and had a nap before picking up Daddy from work.  We took Poppy to a wonderful park where she ran around for half an hour and then we went to the Mall for a chicken salad tea and a play on the ride-on toys.  Poppy especially liked the ice-cream van and made us lots of ice-cream cones.  The Hilton has an outside pool so we had fun swimming in the dark before Poppy went to sleep in her own bed which she told me was her “ClubHouse” and I wasn’t allowed in!