Spring Break 2023 - Day 1 - Travel to New Orleans

The week that Covid hit in 2020, we had a trip planned to New Orleans followed by a drive to Orlando. It was cancelled just days before we left. Three years later and we are attempting that same trip. Our flight to New Orleans left at 7:15am so we left for the airport around 4:00am. With the recent time change this meant we got up at 3:00am and it felt like 2:00am. Our plane boarded on time, and we were optimistic we would make our connecting flight in San Fransisco despite only a 50-minute layover. As we were taxiing however the captain announced we had to 'park' for 30 minutes due to weather issues in San Fransisco. It wasn't looking good.

Our hope was that the weather would cause our connecting flight to be delayed as well. All we could do was eat our 30-calorie airline snack and hope. When we landed, the stewardess asked if anyone had a tight connecting flight and 2/3 of the plane put up their hand. It might have only been the kids that didn't. She then clarified that people travelling to New Orleans and a couple of other destinations were the tightest and asked everyone to let us off first. It wasn't initially looking good but eventually people moved aside, and we were able to run to our gate.

I ran ahead and managed to get to the gate before it closed. There were two people in line and just as I arrived, I heard one say they "would have to close the gate after these last two". I identified the Schwab family had arrived and indicated the rest would be there shortly. They asked if we were from the Vancouver flight and said they didn't think we were going to make it. Our flight to New Orleans was uneventful and actually arrived 24 minutes early. With a 0-minute layover it felt like a direct connection.

We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel which is just a block off Bourbon Street. As I type this, I can hear the music though it is very quiet. Our hotel is a former convent and orphanage. Apparently, a nun committed suicide in one of the rooms above us and it is considered one of the most haunted hotels in New Orleans. I'm not going to say I believe in ghosts but the lights flicker, the phone mysteriously was knocked off the hook and when I was taking a nap, I swear I felt someone sit down on the end of the bed. We're going to leave a chair in the corner open for ghosts, just in case.

We arrived around 4:30pm local time so after we checked in to the hotel, we wandered around a bit to find something to eat. We weren't necessarily picky, but we found it very difficult to find a place that was open, had no line up, had food and not just alcohol and included something from our list of New Orleans food that we wanted to try. In the end, Carter and I ended up at Willie's Chicken Shack and Kerry and Callie had pizza from a place next door. The fried chicken was very good. The chicken was from the Jurassic era based on its size and the spices made it very flavorful.

We ended the evening with fudge from Kilwin's Candy store and frozen custard from Abbots. Apparently, this is 'French style' ice cream. I only had a spoonful, but it was delicious.

We went back to our hotel and went to bed around 10:00pm. With the 1-hour time change, two-hour time zone change, latitude change, up early and busy day it felt like bedtime. 

Bathroom Reno

We have one final renovation to do on our house before we start over again. We've done the entire yard, the shed, the kitchen, all the bedrooms, two of the bathrooms and we just have one final bathroom. It's been Callie's bathroom for the past few years and it still had the original oak cabinets. Other than money there wasn't any reason we had waited so long. When we first moved in the inspector indicated there might be a leak in the tile so I was expecting a lot of mold and possible rot but it was surprisingly dry with no real damage. More surprising was that it was just regular drywall behind the tile. I'm not sure how that even worked considering the length of Callie's showers and the number of guests that have showers in that bathroom. Demo went smoothly and the first step was to get the plumbers in to re-pipe the old Poly-B piping which has a history of failure. The price was cheaper than I was expecting though I wasn't able to convince them to fully install the shower. They indicated $1000 meaning they didn't really want to do it.

The drama started after the plumbers were done. They installed the bathtub and hooked up the drain but didn't want to do the shower walls and now I understand why. The first issue was that when we opened the box we discovered someone had put a forklift fork through one of the walls. It wasn't very noticeable from the box but it was definitely not usable. We took it back to Lowes and picked up a new set of walls though I had now lost a weekend. I tried again the following weekend but this time the walls were the wrong size. The box said 30 but the walls were 32 and we already had a 30 inch tub. Back to Lowes but this time they didn't have another set and might not get another set in. We went home empty handed and lost another weekend. Luckily they managed to get another set and this time I was finally able to get them installed. I couldn't really do anything else until the shower was in so by now it was too late to finish before Christmas. A few long days before new years and I managed to get everything done with Kerry doing the painting. The only final issue was that the toilet hose I was given by the Plumber had a cut in it. I caught it fairly quickly but not before a bit of water damage to the ceiling below. The only thing left as of Jan 2nd is to get the new shower door installed and repair the ceiling with a bit of paint. I don't actually mind this type of reno but I don't want to do another one anytime soon. Too many other projects that are more interesting. 

 

Christmas

Christmas 2020 was interrupted by COVID and Christmas 2021 was interrupted by province wide flooding so we were looking forward to a 'normal' Christmas which typically means Barb and Reg come down to visit. They managed to get into town just in time. The next day we got almost 13 inches of snow which is a lot for the lower mainland. It came down mostly overnight which meant it was a lot of shovelings the next day. The weather turned on a dime however with freezing rain turning to rain just a few days after Christmas. Lots of snow for Christmas and I think it officially counted as a white Christmas because YVR got a few flakes of snow before it turned to rain on Christmas Day.

Kerry and I went light on the presents this year because we have some big trips planned for 2023 but the kids felt they had no such restriction. Callie set the budget by requesting an e-reader and Carter came close behind with a detailed list that matched that budget. The only thing that wasn't ideal was that due to issues I will write about in the next post we only had a single shower in the house. We had started a bathroom renovation in the fall with the hopes that it would be complete but things didn't go as planned. It wasn't too bad though since everyone had very different shower schedules. Overall it was a great Christmas!

 

New Car!

We have been in the market for a new car for a while. We only have a single vehicle and there are increasing moments when a second vehicle would be handy plus Callie just got her license so now we had three drivers. We were looking at electric vehicles however the price difference just didn't make sense yet and we had temporarily borrowed my Dad's truck to bridge the gap while we waited for supply chain issues to be resolved and bring prices down. Only a month after borrowing the truck though we had a potential option to purchase a Kia soul from an estate sale. The only issue was that it was bright neon green. While we were waiting for an offer on price we went to the local Kia dealership and checked out a Soul to make sure we liked it. The dealer indicated we could get a new one for $29k. Of course the full price when he was done was closer to $39k and the financing was terrible. Only a few days later Barb and Reg were at their dealership in Penticton and were offered $32k plus a set of winters with much better financing. We pulled the trigger figuring we'll look at Electric the next time around.
 

Halloween

I will admit Halloween is getting a bit out of hand. I add something every year and it's getting to the point where it takes almost a full day to get set up. Part of the problem this year was that I wasn't able to get to my annual project until the weekend before. Our house has some windows at the front door with divided light. I've always thought it would be fun to have a Halloween scene in each window so I designed and built some boxes that had CNC'd pumpkin pictures with an LED back light. The thing I like about this project is that I can install it in minutes and put it up weeks in advance without having to worry about the weather. Of course this year it went out on Halloween day as I finished painting it that morning.

This might be the last year of trick or treating though we also thought that last year. Carter dressed up in a few costumes from previous years. He had the head of a cow and the body of a hamburger. Callie bought a new costume this year. She was dressed as Velma from Scooby Doo. Kennedy came over to pick her up to go to a party and they got pictures in front of the cemetery. Overall, I'm really happy with the outside decorations except for the fact that much of it isn't very waterproof. It would be nice if I could put things out earlier and not have to worry about keeping things covered. Perhaps I will try to slowly replace things with water proof versions. 

Take Your Kid to Work Day

Once again, I won out for Take Your Kid to Work Day. It's not hard since Kerry is a principal and taught at the kids school for their entire elementary school life. They know what her job is all about. BC Hydro has a great program. We start the day by commuting to work and stopping in at my desk. I gave Carter a quick tour of my office, got him a hot chocolate from the magic hot chocolate machine, showed him some e-mail checking and then took him downstairs to check him in. The day was fully packed with free food and tours of various job types including a ride in a bucket truck, an escape room and an engineering challenge which this year was ensuring you could protect an egg dropped from a height. The highlight for Carter was that he won a prize on the spin the wheel for the Pride network which was a very nice water bottle and he managed to get at least one of every food offered during the day plus three slices of gourmet pizza. The only disappointment was that the BC Hydro mascot 'Dave' was unavailable due to a bout with Covid.  

Carter's Birthday

I don't think I've ever been this far behind on blogging Schwab family events. It's the new year and I'm still having to do Carter's Birthday so my memory may be a bit shaky on the exact details. Carter is in Grade 9 so we're figuring his formal birthday parties will start to drop off but it was still a traditional party this year with cake, an event and kids over to the house. I finally got to take advantage of my Modo subscription as we needed a second vehicle to bring kids from the trampoline park back to the house. The parents dropped them off but we needed to get them home and we had 6 kids and room for 4. The Modo pick up went smoothly and I do recommend it as a source for a backup vehicle.

Carter continues to be meticulous about what he asks for. It starts by finding out the budget based on what Callie got for her birthday in August. From there he carefully finds the best deals to take full advantage of the budget. Amazon was a big help in shopping though I admit, Kerry did all the ordering. Carter does make sure to leave a bit of room for a 'surprise' gift. 

The party finished off with video games, cake and pizza at our house. It was an ice-cream cake as some of his friends have wheat allergies. I forget what he wanted as a theme for the cake but he ended up with Luigi. The Dairy Queen we went to said they didn't have a book anymore and you had to pick from what was in the freezer. This disappointment came when we went to another Dairy Queen and they still allowed you to order.  

Overall, it was a great birthday and Carter got everything he wanted. :)