7th out of towners

In keeping with tradition of traveling to a new Temple and City for our anniversary... for our 7th Anniversary we went to New Orleans, LA.

DAY 1. It was a nice 9 hour drive, and I say nice because there were no childrens movies playing, or childrens music blasting in my ear. It was 9 hours of adult conversation and music. Ah Peaceful.
So lets just start with the hotel. It was fine and great, until we looked at the pillows. Yes that is my hand, and yes the pillow is barely larger than my hand. We called the front desk to ask about it and they indeed said "They are normal sized pillows sir." WHAT? Clearly they are tiny.

Anyway, head into town for the most delish Mexican. I THINK (and this is huge since I think Dallas has the best Mexican) that this was the best Mexican we have ever had. So good. Superior Grill... The best Queso ever. That night we headed over to a movie theatre in a sketchy part of town (by the way, I think all New Orleans is a sketchy part of town) and we saw Hunger Games. My second time, Brian's first. We both Loved it.

DAY 2. WE SLEPT IN. Seriously, I cant remember the last time this happened. So Brian loves ear plugs. He wears them all the time to not be able to head our kids. I refuse every time, you know, to be responsible. So we are gone and guess who brought the ear plugs?! Thats right, I wore them and it was right, so right. I wore them and didn't hear anything until 10. Oh 10!!!! It was awesome!
Anyway, we woke up and headed down for lunch at Central Grocery. We went for the famous Muffeletta sandwhich. Italian meats, olive salad, and yummy bread. It was good. I wouldn't go back to NO for this again, but it was good to try.

As you can tell, I have been having to eat everything with knife and fork. It sucks. Sandy's with forks? Not fun. I literally carried a set of plastic cutlery around in my purse all week. (FYI this will go on until June. JUNE!)
Took a little walk down the Mississippi and took in the nice cool breeze. Can I just add this little story. On the drive down, I mentioned something about the body of water we were following to be the Mississippi. Brian them made fun of me "Jeni, whats the River called? MISSISSIPPI! Hello, are we in Mississippi?" ok soooo I felt dumb, until we discovered that indeed the MISS river goes right through the city.

The architecture in the French Quarter was really pretty. It was a lot like Paris with the way the blocks are organized with just a small entrance every few to get into the middle of the block. So it was pretty, BUT dirty and some run down. This building was tilted. It was weird and run down. This is how much of the area was.

That night we went for Seafood. I dont do Seafood, but I made a mistake a few years ago in Boston when I made Brian leave one of the oldest best seafood places in the country because the smell was aweful. Anyway, I wont ever make him miss out of food again because I dont like he smell. He got these, chargrilled oysters. He liked them. I didn't taste them.

DAY 3. Headed out early and had Breakfast at Cafe du Monde for some Beignets. They were good. It was fun. I would call them a big fat funnel cake.

We did pay for one real live tour. It was part of the Haunted Tours and it was to a cemetary. It was totally worth it. We loved the info about the city, like how the first people to come to the city were prisoners and prostitutes from England. Clearly the city hasn't changed much! The way they bury people there in the city in crazy. Lets just say, they share these with several people. They just push the remains back after a year or so and put another one in. Very interesting. Oh, also they obviously cant bury them, so they are all above ground since the city is under sea level.

Lunch, we headed over to YO MAMA'S which was a doorway in a wall. Smokey, dark bar that we almost walked out of. Im glad we didn't. It was so good. Brian got this peanut butter and bacon burger. Surprisingly delish.

That afternoon we went to the WWII museum. This was a highlight of the trip. It was very interesting and tearful. We learned so much and heard so many of the stories of those who fought for us. We spent hours there, but it wasn't long enough and we missed out on the whole Japan side of the war. Next time. ALSO please notice the strange face I am making in all the pictures. I am totally hating my smile from my surgery and it feels weird, so I dont really do it.

Also, I noticed that my hands are totally wrinkly and old looking.

That night we headed to Emerils (Yes Lagasse... BAM!) It was so yum! Especially the desserts. Lemon Ice Box Pie, Im salivating think about it now. Now, this says a lot considering that I got food poisoning later that night from Emerils. Yes that sucked, no it didn't last long.

After dindin we went to The Lion King play. I had seen it before in Toronto, and this was just as great. It was fun to experience it with Brian. haha Not to get into too much detail, I will just say that there were a lot of cheering for the animals going on. Brian knows what I mean.

DAY 4. We planned to leave early and go to the temple in Baton Rouge on the way home. Because I am so awesome and plan things out so great... turns out you can only go once a day, at 7pm. So what are we going to do all day now? We took our time heading out and went out for Mexican again. It was still so good.

Then we headed up the road to one of the many plantations that are along the Mississippi. It was really pretty, and old, and huge. However, it was not worth 40 dollars for the tour. But of course because we are who we are, we have too much fun everywhere we go!

Finally, we arrived at the highlight of the trip. The Baton Rouge Temple. Please notice Brians great Sunday attire... shorts and a plaid shirt. Once we were almost there, we realized we had left his clothes in the closet. Classic.

And then we drove home until 4am. I really enjoyed sleeping the night away in the backseat of the accord, WITH my ear plugs in. Oh, I cant wait until next year when I can put those ear plugs back in.

Happy 7th hun! New Orleans was another fabulous trip to add to our list!!