happy homeschool room: New Orleans Cont'd......

12/14/12

Since we flew in a day earlier than most of the other families attending from our dance school, Gidget and I though we wanted to go out sight seeing, decided to hang around the Hotel and wait for our fellow dancers. We had breakfast in the Concierge Lounge, Then we went back to the room where Gidget had to do her school work, where instead she bounced off the walls with excitement waiting for her friends.
We did check out our hotel lobby where the cooks from the hotel had made and set up a Gingerbread Village. Which by the way was absolutely amazing. I have pics for you, but they don't do this Village justice. Then like a light switch organized chaos ensued.
Wow what a difference a day made. That Thursday 11/29 dancers and their families from all over the southeast descended upon the Mariott. It was crazy. There were kids everywhere. There were 1660 dancers that competed in the regional competition that weekend if it helps you to picture the craziness in the hotel on the main arrival day.
Being we homeschool allowed us the luxury of spending extra days in New Orleans. [Having that flexibility is what afforded us being able to buy 2 plane tickets rather than driving. It was actually cheaper to fly for us than drive. We got our tickets through Hotwire.com, and they gave us an awesome rate. Our flight times were at the crack of dawn which kind of stunk, but other than that the whole experience was pleasant.]
We did finally start seeing kids from our school. We went to dinner with some friends at Huck Finn's. The service was stellar, the food was good, but a bit on the expensive side, and the Daiquiri's were very strong. I actually gave mine to my friend Diana to finish because it was so strong. Which normally I would enjoy, but with my pain meds I was catching a heavy buzz and thought it better not to finish my drink. Usually one drink is fine, but not that night. Made me feel like a light weight. Man I am just getting too old.
We made it an early night because we had a long day on 11/30. COMPETITION day. Before retiring to our room though, we did go up and visit all the vendors tables, and had to buy our Oireachtas program book. Veteran moms highly recommended that this book was a must have. They were right. Gidget also need new ghillies as her toes were blowing out of her old ones. Ghillies are their soft shoes. Normally it is not recommended wearing new shoes on a competition day, but ghillies are an exception because the are still tight and give the foot a nice arch and point.
After jamming with her friends, and me dropping over $100.00 in less than 15 minutes, it was time to retire to our room to get ready for the big day.
TO BE CONTINUED......