Evacuation Vacation!

Well, we survived our first hurricane evacuation, and luckily New Orleans was spared major damage. We got back from Texas on Sunday night, and our power was back on and the house was just fine. There are tree branches down all over town, but that seems to be the worst of the damage. We got lucky with this one -- let's hope the rest of hurricane season is quiet (I'm talking to you, Ike).

Being in Austin was fabulous (or, at least it was once Gustav passed and we didn't have to worry anymore about our city and home). We saw so many people, introduced Elio all around, ate a ton of food, went swimming, played with our friends' kids, and just generally enjoyed being there. All of it was made possible by the generosity of Nancy and Rodney and their kids, Atticus and Clara, who set us up with a wonderful place to stay that made things so much easier to manage. Thank you!

We decided to leave New Orleans early, evacuating on Friday before the mandatory evacuation was ordered. We caravaned to Austin with our friends Edie and Justin and their son Mose, plus dogs and cat. On our way out of town, there was a steady stream of national guard trucks headed into town the other way. See -- that's Edie and Justin on the road ahead of us, and national guard trucks on the other side.


Once in Austin, the Captain seemed unsure of things. She seemed ready to go home from the start.



We were fortunate that Kathryn was in town for Labor Day weekend. We met her at Chango's for yummy tacos. (Check out the fresh tortillas being made on the grill in the background! Soooo good.)


One of our first outings: Austin Books and Comics, the best comic shop ever. Elio stared down The Hulk.


Another important food stop: Ruby's BBQ. (This post is going to turn into a catalog of all the meals we ate... sorry. But y'all should go to Austin and eat some food.)


Awesomely, while we were at Ruby's we ran into our friends Molly and Scott and their adorable daughter Tillie. Yay!


We spent a really nice afternoon with our friends Steven and Becky and their new little cutie baby, Elsie.




Elio rockin' out with Steven.




At Nancy and Rodney's, we didn't have a high chair, so we improvised, feeding Elio his morning yogurt in the sink. A new tradition was born: bathfast.



Walking the ramp obsessively at Foodheads.


Tooling around the neighborhood in Atticus's wagon.


Atticus, Elio, and Mose and the wagon.


Elio, tuckered out from all the fun.


Encountering a gnome!






Chewing on a finger. Big development: Elio's fifth tooth has finally arrived and number six seems to be on its way as well!



No trip to Austin is complete without a trip to Allen's Boots.


I couldn't resist buying Elio the cutest little pair of cowboy boots!


Lunch at the Vespaio Enoteca with dear friend Katie.



Dinner at El Chile with Maria, Stephanie, and Leora. Maria's son, Roman, was the sweetest thing ever!


We ate so much other good food and saw so many other good people that I didn't pester with the camera. I took so many pictures and yet it still wasn't enough...

Movie time again

Elio kindly napped to let us enjoy the coolest game room in the world!

The dreamiest ranch ever

We were super lucky that Edie and Justin invited us out to their friend's ranch for a night. It was a fabulous place to stay and a really peaceful way to end our evacuation vacation. By the time we went out here, we knew that our house in New Orleans was just fine and ready for us to return to, so we could really relax and enjoy ourselves.

The bunkhouse had the most amazing screened porch.



Dune buggy! (All riders are strapped in and all driving was very safe!)


The trampoline made Elio's hair all static-y. Can you see how it's all sticking up and stuff?


Treehouse! This doesn't really give you a sense of things, but this platform is about three stories up on a tree, and that metal thing at the front of the picture is a fireplace. A fireplace up in a tree!


Elio studying the trees...


Bathfast at the ranch...

Elio's First Allen Wrench

Before I post pictures from our time in Texas, I want to get caught up with the pre-evacuation photos...

So, while we were in California, Elio had his first trip to Ikea. He seemed to tolerate it just fine.

One of the Ikea purchases was this super cute little Elio-sized lounge chair.

Charmingly, the Captain seems to love the chair even more than Elio. 

For even more Ikea fun, our friend Leora came to visit (yay!) and brought us a table from the Ikea in Houston. Elio was extremely helpful in putting together. Thus begins a lifetime of assembling Ikea furniture.

And, here are some random cutie shots...

Safe and sound

Just a quick post to let you know that we left New Orleans for Austin well before the hurricane hit, and, as far as we can tell from vigilantly scouring the internet, our house appears to be safe. We're enjoying our time in Austin so much that we're going to stay here for a couple more days, giving New Orleans a chance to clean up and get the power back on. Elio's been having a great time, meeting tons of people, going swimming, and eating good food. I have lots of good photos to post, but, silly me, I didn't bring the cable to connect the camera to the computer with us in the evacuation packing rush. Next time (?!) I'll be better prepared. Thanks for all the well-wishes and checking in -- we certainly appreciate the concern and love. Cross your fingers that things look good when we get home!