Naw'leans!!

We just returned from out first trip to New Orleans!

A very short but eventful trip.

It was a blast. Actually we went for the wedding of a good friend of ours.

His new wife and her family are from there and since Chris was asked to do a reading, we decided to go ahead and make a mini vacation out of it.

New Orleans is an interesting place. When you start driving into the city it really is not very pretty. It's dirty and crowded. But when you get towards the old historic area it is everything I ever pictured and more.

There is so much to do and so much history there. And you walk everywhere unless you want to take the street trolley, which we ended up doing a few times. We only got our car out of parking once the whole time we were there. The old homes and hotels and shops are so cool.

They had this big flea market called the French Market. We took the girls and did a little shopping. It was neat to tell the girls that I used to spend a lot of time at those when I was younger.

Madison was so amazed that there were street performers and we had to stop and listen to a band that was playing even though at the time it was raining. It was real New Orleans Jazz style music.

It was so cute, Chris ran into the store to pick up some things and I stood outside with the girls and Olivia asked me if she could play her harmonica that Chris had bought the girls at the flea market. I said sure. So she took the hat she got and placed it on the ground and began to play!
It was so funny, she wanted to earn some money. I told her that she really wasn't supposed to do that but she did have a few people look at her and think she was so adorable.

There was a beautiful catholic church that had a gorgeous interior. We were allowed to walk through and see the stained glass windows and elaborately painted ceiling. It was a quiet and peaceful setting with candles lit up as offerings everywhere.
They had this plaque on the wall that listed all of the Rectors at that church beginning in the 1700s to current. Imagine the history those church walls have seen.

Our hotel was pretty nice. It was called the Pelham Hotel and it was an old historic building.

Great to look at and be in but there is NO sound proofing. They are basically old interior doors with deadbolts on them. Which is why there are safes in all the rooms.
At 4:00 in the we heard everything from people arguing to dogs barking and parakeets chirping.

We ate VERY well. The first place we went to was called the Pearl Oyster Bar.

They had really good red beans and rice and jambalaya. I had

this sandwich called a Muffelatta. It has meat and cheese and this Italian olive tapenade type salad. Pretty good.

The wedding was at this beautiful plantation called Southern Oaks.

It was so hot that day and we were glad that it was a short wedding ceremony. The best part was the parade at the end of the ceremony into the reception area inside.

It is a tradition at weddings there that ironically began at funerals.

The wedding party followed this big jazz marching band and danced waving white cloth napkins

in the air. The bride and groom carried these festive umbrellas and as they passed us, we all followed them waving our white cloth napkins until we made it into the reception area. There the band continued playing "when the saints go marching in" and others like it while all of these waiters and waitresses served hors d'oeuvre after hors d'oeuvre. Ranging from grilled tuna and jambalaya to crab cakes and fried catfish.

It was so much fun. An experience that I will never forget and am glad that I got to experience.

Probably the only disappointing thing other than it going by too fast was that we decided to hold off going to the Aquarium of the Americas for the day that we checked out. We would go there

and then head for the drive home. Unfortunately it was closed

on Mondays. Madison was so disappointed. She loves aquatic life and you may not know this but she has always wanted to be a marine biologist. So she was really bummed out. But we had a great time and I think that next time I would like to go with Chris alone some weekend. A mini getaway for the two of us!