The Big Easy!

A few weekends ago I took Joe on a surprise trip to New Orleans. You see I have always had this fantasy of being picked up from school (when I was little ) or coming home from work (now...hint, hint) and having someone tell me to pack my bags because we are going on a trip (preferably on an airplane....but I'm not picky). No one has ever done this so I figured the next best thing was doing it for someone else. I called Joe and told him to pack his bags for 3 days because we were leaving when I got home. He was so confused :) I didn't tell him where we were going until we were in the car. We drove to Jackson, Ms and stayed with my brother and his wife at their adorable house. I loved this in the guest bedroom. It's an old door that my brother found on the side of the road and put chicken wire behind. Then they used clothes pins to attach pictures....so cute!

Drew cooked us some yummy food and we hung out. The next morning we got up early and drove in the yucky weather to New Orleans.

We checked into our hotel in the Garden District. It was in the perfect spot!

Our room...with a fireplace!

We went over to Magazine Street and did some macaroon eating....delish!

I fell in LOVE with this case of skeleton keys.

This place looked fun...

Look at the fountain made out of beer taps. They all had water coming out of them.

We had a delicious lunch at a place called The Rum House. It was Caribbean food and soooo yummy!

That night we took the streetcar into the French Quarter.

We had heard tales of these "Hand Grenandes" and had to taste them for ourselves....yum!

It's customary to get your picture made with the Hand Grenade himself :)

We also some delicious fried shrimp!!

After dinner we went on a ghost tour. Not gonna lie...the tour guide kinda freaked me out when she started the tour with a voodoo ritual. Apparently she's like a voodoo priestess or something...yikes!!

On our tour we saw a lot of neat things....this house was used in "Interview With a Vampire".

Brad and Angelina's House!!

I took this picture and I think it turned out really neat!

The next morning we slept in late and then took the street car back to the French Q for some yummy lunch at Crescent City Brewhouse.

The weather was beautiful, so we sat outside on the patio and did some people watching.

I love Jackson Square. The artists, street performers and all around freaks are so fun to watch.

Cafe du Monde is a mut do in New Orleans. I couldn't believe that Joe had never been here before. We grabbed a spot and ordered some beignets.

Joe tried the beignets....it was love at first bite!

Powered Sugar Mustache!!

This is the oldest bar in New Orleans at the end of Bourbon St.

We walked through the residential areas (it's what we like to do) and right to...

the cemetery.....St. Louis #1 to be exact. It's where the voodoo queens are buried. Legend says that if you make three X's on her tomb, she is give you a favor. Although we both know better than to mess with this stuff....

we couldn't help our selves. When in Rome, right?!

There were a lot of weird things that people had left on the tomb...chap stick, lip gloss, baby pictures, letters, hair barrette's, sun glasses, beads, food, dead birds....ewww...I know, right?!

After walking back through the neighborhoods and taking pictures we headed back to Jackson Square.

We watched some street performers for a while (they were pretty good!),

took some pictures,

saw some cute horses,

and listened to music.

No trip to New Orleans is complete without getting some pralines from Aunt Sally's. They are the best in the world and the store has a lot of free samples!!

We heard the most amazing jazz music at Maison Bourbon. We went here 2 nights in a row. The guys voice sounded just like Louis Armstrong.

Before starting our long drive home, we stopped at an awesome French bakery and picked up pastries and bread.

Overall we had a wonderful trip!!

Can't wait to go back. If you are ever headed down there, I would love to help you plan your trip!