A vacation in the Big Easy … really?
by Beth
I have been to New Orleans many times, and I’ve always considered the city a blind person’s paradise. The smell of green peppers and onions cooking in butter, the sound of live jazz in the streets, the feel of warm air, the tastes of decadent meals and drinks — New Orleans is the only city I’ve vacationed so far where sight takes a back seat to the other senses.
Our son Gus lives in a group home, and he loves music. Until I read a post on the Daily Kos blog about a family trip to New Orleans over the holidays with three children (one who has autism), though, I had never, ever considered bringing Gus to New Orleans with us.
The post urges parents to be flexible when traveling, avoid overscheduling your child with autism, and take lots of breaks:
A day in New Orleans (our most recent trip) looked like this: breakfast, an activity (aquarium, museum, whatever), break at the hotel. Lunch, activity (Mississippi River cruise, swamp tour, whatever), break at the hotel. Dinner, walk around town shopping or admiring Christmas decorations, back to the hotel early.
The blog author admitted that taking so many breaks can be “annoying and kind of boring,” but it keeps their daughter with autism on an even keel. Their kids are old enough now that they could stay alone in the hotel room for a little while, but the parents were usually pooped after dinner and had no desire to go out without the kids anyway.
The author describes a streetcar trip they had to ditch when their daughter became annoyed with a fellow passenger: “We hopped off the streetcar halfway through the ride and hoofed it back to the hotel. “It turned into kind of a funny little adventure (at least that’s how I encourage the kids to look at it).”
The author ends the post saying their family’s life is never, ever boring. “It is many things, good and bad, but never boring.”
I can believe that — laissez les bon temps rouler!