Monroe/West Monroe Louisiana: Haskell’s Donuts, Louisiana Zoo, Bubbles

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.

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Monroe/West Monroe, Louisiana: Farmer’s Market, Duck Commander, Duck & Dressing, NE LA Children’s Museum

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 :).

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Monroe/West Monroe, Louisiana: Willie’s Duck Diner

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.

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Monroe/West Monroe, LA: TownePlace Suites by Marriott

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.

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The Weekend that Was

This weekend was a whirlwind of a weekend! Saturday morning we woke up bright and early… no joke!… and headed to my aunts house. AC had the weekend off and wanted to see Abug and it worked with our schedule also so away we went.

Mom originally thought we’d stop in OKC for lunch but we got there at 11am and we thought, AC’s is just about an hour or so past OKC, let’s just head on. So I sent AC a message and asked her if she’d like to meet us for lunch. She said she and UB would meet us at Interurban. They said we were going somewhere else for dinner so we didn’t want to eat a big lunch.

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Hoffbrau Steaks – Ft. Worth, TX

Traveling makes a person hungry and steaks in Texas are the place to have! When we pulled in to Ft. Worth, we decided to take Tbug to Hoffbrau, which was just across the street from our hotel so it was perfect, eat lunch and then check in to the hotel before heading over to Will Rogers.

We were all so hungry we decided to start with Texas Pesos. Jalapeño’s deep-fried, covered in cheese, and served with ranch dressing. I was sold! I like cheese and jalapeños and ranch dressing. In fact, looking at these pictures and thinking about them has me drooling for more… (more…)

This one time I won 3rd Place in a Chili Cookoff

Growing up my dad and I made chili all the time for dinner. Now one thing about my dad’s chili is sometimes it got so spicy that I couldn’t stand to take one bite. So I say that I don’t like Chili but I really think it is most people put beans in Chili and I only like green beans and I don’t care for chili so spicy you can’t eat it. You get rid of those 2 things and truthfully I do like chili. I don’t mind a little spice, but so spicy one bite sets your lips on fire, ugh!

This year we attended (and helped with) the 3rd annual Chili Cookoff to raise money for children who might not have a Christmas otherwise. It’s such a worthy cause! The first year Hubby and Tbug entered. Last year Tbug entered and won. This year she asked grandpa (my dad) if he’d help her with chili again. She had to defend her title. At the last minute I decided I wanted to try my chances at making Chili as well.

The day of the Chili cookoff came. Hubby and I went over to help with the last minute things.

One of the exciting things this year was a bounce house. Let’s just say, I had to take my turn at playing in the bounce house :). Hubs and Jared pulled in just as I was going down the slide. I’m pretty sure hubby was proud to call me his wife. ha!

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Pumpkin Patches: Annabelle’s Fun Farm

I’ve always said that my falls just go by in the blink of an eye. I guess there is so much going on, but add three holidays in there and wow! Last year I really wanted to take Abug to a pumpkin patch and wanted Tbug to be there. This year same thing, but knowing how my October was the rest of the month, and the fact that we’re over halfway through the month already, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. In fact, it was a quick last minute decision to go to the pumpkin patch this last weekend.

This year we decided to drive to Welch, Oklahoma and go to Annabelle’s Fun Farm. A friend of mine went last year, she has a little girl who is 7 months older than Abug and then a little boy who is a couple years older and it looked like they had fun there last year so that’s kind of one of the decisions in this choice.

There was a petting farm area with a pony (which Abug hated… she loves horses but wasn’t crazy about the pony), goats (didn’t care for), pigs (didn’t like), rabbits (scared of) and birds (chickens, peacocks, etc).

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Pensacola Beach Eats: Crabs on the Beach

Saturday for lunch we met with Lee, Kiran and their clan, then after that hubby and I had appointments to get massages. When we left for the massage it started to sprinkle, while we were getting our massage it was pouring. Pouring rain so hard that we could hear it inside the building. I said the thunder and rain added to the ambiance.

When we got back to the hotel we all just hung out for a little bit before the question was posed, What’s for Dinner?

One of the recommendations we’d had was Crabs on the Beach. We decided that sounded like a good deal. So hubby went out, got the suburban, came up to the door, and chauffeured us all around.

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