NewOrleans for Beginners

I'm back from vacation.
If I had been smarter at this blogging gig, I would've followed my Social Networking Cruise Director,
Kristen Lamb, and built up a cache of posts to be scheduled for publication while I was gone.
But I had 2 teens going on their own school trip to Washington D.C., for the Air Force JROTC Eastern Regionals Championships Drill Meet, and Blitzen and Eliza knocking on my brain to get their story written down, and... well... my dog ate my posts, how's that?
So... if you're a beginner blogger like me, take Kristen's advice to heart and learn from my mistake.

Now for the regularly scheduled programming:

My hero/husband gave me a 3day cruise vacation to the Bahamas for my 50th b'day (hence, the Tan in a Can). Actually, he wanted it as much for himself as for me, but the birthday was the perfect excuse.  And the timing with the boys' school trip couldn't have been more perfect-- we left after they left, and got home an hour before them. Having family in the area where they were didn't hurt either, since we unplugged completely once we left port. We've had experience with $10 per minute phone calls and 1000 texts in one week before-- I have TEENS, 'nuff said.

On the ship I finished Leslie Tentler's  Midnight Caller on my Kindle, that was set in New Orleans.
V and K, online friends whose blog is on my blogroll on the right>, are planning to go to my hometown, New Orleans, next month (research for their book... really!)
  And shopping in the straw market in the Bahamas, vendors were eating lunch that smelled like the Creole  beans and rice I grew up with from my childhood. ( Miss Yvonne cooked the most sublime .... anything. She could've cooked grass and made it taste like heaven. She didn't, but she could've. )
Don't tell my mother I said that. 

I needed a little N'Awlins on this drizzly spring day.
David Lummis' Coffee Shop Chronicles will keep you warm in this cold spring weather. Part 1 is out now, Part 2 releases this winter.
While you sip, here's a little Vince Vance to get you wanting to go to the Big Easy soon,
thanks to Elaine (my red beans buddy) and her blog, thewriterscanvas .

The crawfish are in, the days are long and hot already, and Jazz Fest is coming up. Take your sunblock, your appetite, and leave the attitude at home. 'Cuz everybody's family in New Orleans, and you can relax around family.
Enjoy!