There was something about the weather in Louisiana. I think it rained every day except our last one there. It was CRAZY! But cool too :). Hey, I’m always up for adventure! So on Tuesday night my dad asked us if we wanted to go eat at a place called Doe’s Eat Place (300 Washington St, Monroe, LA). Sure… I don’t know what it is but sure :). Mom and dad said that this is a place that is not really a chain, but there are a few locations around. One is in Fayetteville and it’s one of the last places they took my grandma before she was diagnosed with cancer.
On Tuesday while we were out and about, at the Spice exchange we asked a gal for a suggestion on food. She told us there wasn’t anything local (not chain) that was based around kids. Then she suggested Chucky Cheese. No thank you! We told her it didn’t have to be kid based. So she suggested Trapps (113 S. Riverfront St, West Monroe, Louisiana) which was just around the corner. We decided to try it out. (Glad we did!). And I promise my mom was with us… she H.A.T.E.S. to have her picture taken and if I were to say take one and post it, she might disown me. Which kind of surprises me that I like pictures so much but anyway that’s beside the point!
So here’s a little fact… Around these parts, for us anyway, Wednesday = Donut Day. It is something we’ve been doing for at least a year now and I have no idea how it got started. All I can tell you is it did. For a long time Abug would even remind us… and while, no she didn’t know it was Wednesday per say, things clued her in that she should be having donuts.
While we were down there, I mentioned in passing to my mom this little fact. So Wednesday morning we went out on the hunt for donuts. The day before one of the ladies gave us a “tour” guide book and we had a second one, so one read through one while the other read through the other. Funny how that works, huh?
Mom picked out a donut shop there in Monroe, we went and they were closed. As in, closed, for sale, etc. So I got out the book, found us one over in West Monroe that was only 2.7 miles away (where as another one in Monroe was 4.7 miles away. See very closely connected!), we plugged Haskell’s Donuts (413 Thomas Road, West Monroe, Louisiana) into the GPS and away we went.
When we got there, we decided to order Abug half a dozen glazed donut holes. I thought the ones with chocolate icing looked good so I ordered half a dozen of them.
Wow, our first full day in Louisiana was Tuesday. Now I mentioned that Monroe and West Monroe are just separated by the Ouachita River so we were back and forth over the river.
Our first stop was the West Monroe Farmer’s Market. (1700 N. 7th St. West Monroe, Louisiana). We decided we needed to hit up the Farmer’s Market first thing in the morning so all the good stuff wasn’t taken :).
When we got to town, we decided to go exploring. We wound up at Duck Commander but it was pouring and no one wanted to get out. In the parking lot was a sign that said Willie’s Duck Diner was down by Academy so we decided to go on a hunt. Again, it was pouring and only 4:30, so way to early for dinner anyway so we went around a few other places and back to the hotel before winding back up at Willie’s Duck Diner for dinner. And it was only like 7 miles away. Not bad at all!
Every so often I am mean and send pictures to people of different things. In this case, I shot this picture to Hubby and Jared. I didn’t get the response I wanted. Oh well! Later I tried to send photos of our food, hubby didn’t get them, I’m not sure if Jared did or not because no response.
Abug and I got an opportunity to head to Monroe/West Monroe, Louisiana last Monday, and we took the opportunity. This is driving down I-49 through Arkansas just south of Fayetteville.
She is the best traveler. She just naps. When she’s not napping, she’s usually happy as a lark. I think out of the 14+ hours in a car (total both ways) we had one melt down.
Oh hai, did you know I went on a semi-impromptu trip? haha… no? Well, I did :). I headed to Monroe/West Monroe, Louisiana. Did you know that Monroe and West Monroe are two different towns that are only separated by a river? The Ouachita River to be exact.
Anyway we left Monday. Basically it was like a straight drive down through Arkansas. In fact, most of the 7 hour trip was through Arkansas… 30 minutes from Missouri to Arkansas and then like an hour and a half or so into Louisiana. The rest of the time was spent in Arkansas. But the drive wasn’t bad! Anyway around 1:30 we decided to stop for lunch in the town of Monticello, Arkansas. We decided to eat Mexican so La Terraza it was. (more…)
We just had our Safari Hunt! This is a time of year that we look forward to with our dive group because, well, it’s a lot of fun! Our SCUBAPRO Rep was on site with some fun new equipment that I got to try out. Yes, I’m bragging. One of the pieces is still more like a prototype really than anything. In fact, he asked my opinion on what I thought and said he was going to take my comments back to SCUBAPRO. Whether he does or not, that’ll be determined, but still I got to try it out.
I made 2 dives with this BC and Dive Computer. One was with Tbug before the Safari Hunt, the other was to hide animals for the Safari Hunt. Dan gave me 3 animals, and then the rest of the time I was to dive around and create diversions. I spent time hanging out in different areas of the cove playing with the dive computer underwater. Hey it was a good diversion.
Oh my goodness, this hotel was so awesome! Deb and Grady definitely didn’t steer us wrong! This is a view of the lobby. Seriously, the lobby!
As we were checking in, they brought us this drink. I’m not really sure what it was, although I do know that it was virgin (aka no alcohol). It had a pineapple taste and it was good and interesting! At check in they took a copy of a credit card and a copy of our passport or our drivers license. And then we were off to our room. Hubby left me to get the luggage to the room while he and Grady went off to get weights for our shore dive that afternoon, but we had a bell hop to help with that. I was so lost though so Deb took me under her wing, thankfully!
When it came down to the actual dives, we let Deb and Grady help us out. They chose the dives as well as who to dive with. They always use Cozumel Marine World, and why would I question that? Seriously! Grady said that he’s now made 50 some dive trips just to Cozumel… Think about that. So Deb requested the Nuria for our boat with Clemente as our Dive Master. Again, who am I to question! They did us good too!
Now with Deb and Grady, Cozumel Marine World knows their routine. When Grady tells his people boat time is 8am, that means your butter better be there and you better be on the boat. When Grady told them he wanted the boat there at 9 that first morning, they didn’t believe him I guess because they were at the doc 30 minutes early.
So about the boat. Deb requested the Nuria. This is the mid size boat that probably holds 16 max comfortably. Deb said the small boat is about 8 people and the larger boat is about 20 people.
Grady also said that any group he takes can be on the boat in 5 minutes whether there are 5 people or 25 people. The gear goes in the middle, people get on, and once the boat is off, then you situate your gear as you please.
