Visiting Mardi Gras World

Before visiting Mardi Gras World I knew very little about Mardi Gras, and as it turns out, most of what I knew was wrong. For example, I assumed that Mardi Gras was just one big parade. It’s not. There are dozens of parades, each put on by different krewes. Each krewe is responsible for coming up with a theme and decorating their own floats. Since there are a bunch of krewes, each krewe is responsible for creating a bunch of floats based on a theme. Since the theme changes each year, you can see how the creation of floats could… (read more)

Florida Vacation 2014 Day 8: A Day of Driving (And the End!)

Saturday was the last day of our vacation. We woke up in Tunica, Mississippi. Tunica is a casino town just a few miles south of Memphis, Tennessee — you might recall I went there with my friend Andy once. Obviously it is a much different experience with kids in tow. This time we stayed at Harrah’s, but had breakfast at the Hollywood Casino, which has a collection of movie cars and props to look at. After breakfast we walked around for a few minutes and looked at movie props from Goonies, Terminator, Titanic, and a few cars. After that, there… (read more)

Florida Vacation 2014 Day 7: On the Road Again

Yesterday, we drove. And drove and drove and drove. We drove from Orlando, Florida all the way to Tunica, Mississippi — roughly 850 miles. Google Maps says you can make it in 12 1/2 hours but, uh, we didn’t. Closer to 14 1/2 for us yesterday. We stopped at a few tourist stops along the way, like this one that had live baby gators. They also had quite a few dead ones. We also visited this super cool McDonald’s that was covered inside and out with awesome murals. The kids have given up on eating local or original things. We… (read more)

Florida Vacation 2014 Day 6: Snorkeling in Paradise

On day six, we woke up at the same place for a second day in a row — a rarity on this trip. After eating a small breakfast in the hotel room we hopped on the resort’s tram to see the entire property. It was nice to see the whole place. An hour later we were on the road again, driving north. For lunch we stopped at a key lime roadside shop. I had some fried fish and homemade coleslaw. Afterwards we all split some key lime pie. I bought a metal lizard as a souvenir. It wasn’t until I… (read more)

Florida Vacation 2014 Day 5: Southern Dolphins

As with every other day of this trip, this morning started with a trip to the pool. Here is a shot of our pool here in Duck Key, Florida. They never seem to tire of swimming. Our next stop was to “swim with the dolphins” at the Dolphin Research Center. Before we went I had half a dozen jokes prepared about how we got to beat the dolphins with hoses and stuff, but after touring the place I changed my mind. The Dolphin Rescue actually rescues hurt and abandoned dolphins and provides a nice place for people to come study… (read more)

Florida Vacation 2014 Day 4: King of Cartoons, Kong, and Drives

We kicked off this morning with a $70 breakfast at Disney World. … After that, the kids wanted to swim again, and so the four of us swam. No rain today — it was 70 degrees and sunny! After a couple of hours of that, we hit the road, heading south — er, more south. On our way to the Keys, we stopped and had a late lunch at Rickey’s Restaurant and Lounge. If you haven’t seen King of Kong, Rickey’s Restaurant is “owned” by Billy Mitchell, one of the subjects of the film. We were told at the restaurant… (read more)

Florida Vacation 2014 Day 3: Disney World

Last night we arrived at a hotel in a town that I cannot spell or pronounce, Apalachicola, Florida. We got to the hotel late so it was hard to tell how close to the ocean we were or what the view was like. When we woke up the next morning, this is what we saw: While I had breakfast in the hotel (it was actually a two bedroom cabin, but whatever) Susan and the kids did a bit of exploring. Apparently the ice machine was invented in Apalachicola and they have a museum dedicated to it, which for $2 a… (read more)

Florida Vacation 2014 Day 2: New Orleans

Woke up in Metairie, just outside of New Orleans. We had breakfast at City Diner in Metairie. City Diner’s specialty are pancakes the size of pizzas, and they aren’t kidding. For $8 you’ll get a short stack (3) of pancakes, each one about the size of a medium pizza. Susan, Mason and Morgan all worked on the pancakes (with some sides of eggs and bacon) while I dove into a giant bowl of shrimp and grits. There was something else in my grits, and after re-checking the menu I saw they also offer shrimp and grits and crawfish, which is… (read more)

Florida Vacation 2014 Day 1: Eatin’ and Drivin’

We hit the road bound for Florida on Saturday, driving east. I can summarize day one by saying that we ate and we drove. We had breakfast at the Hungry House Cafe in Antlers, Oklahoma. The HUngry House Cafe is the best breakfast restaurant in Antlers. From what I understand, they are also the only one. My Uncle Kenny and Aunt Barbara met us for breakfast along with my cousin David and his family and we got to see my cousin Steven too. For David’s son Caleb we brought a grab bag with 50 toys and action figures that we… (read more)

Happy 25th Birthday, WWW!

Happy birthday to the World Wide Web! According to news reports, the “WWW” turned 25 years old this week. My gateway to the internet was BBSes, which slowly began carrying Usenet newsgroups and offering internet e-mail addresses in the early 90s. I first got direct access to the internet in 1994, thanks to a co-worker who loaned me his college account. It was a Linux shell account, which meant text only — no graphics at all. With unlimited access to that account I used IRC to chat with people all around the world, FTP to download files, and Gopher, which… (read more)

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