New Orleans Pictures

It was a whirlwind of a trip. Yeah, I know, ten days sounds like a long trip but it went by in a flash of friends, food and frolic. I didn’t even take very many pictures this time but here are some of them:

I had been craving raw oysters since my trip with Roz back in October. David thinks the very idea is disgusting but he refrained from saying so.

We went to the Mr. Bingle Christmas parade along with several Facebook friends I finally got to meet in person.

What a fun bunch of gals!

Here comes Santa Claus!

I rather like the combination of Christmas trees and palm trees. The weather was great the first three days of our trip – Monday was 78 degrees! But then it dropped dramatically with daytime highs in the low 50s. I must admit it was a little funny to watch their weather reports. All the dramatic “Freeze Warning!” hoopla for approximately 2 hours hovering around 32 degrees before warming back up during the day.

I had casually mentioned to David that one of these days we should go to a Saints game while in town. Apparently that’s all he was waiting for because within a few minutes he had ordered tickets. We went to Champions Square outside the Superdome for the pre-party festivities. I tell, you, these people take their team seriously. It was a sea of black and gold as everyone got pumped up for the game.

Good seats, huh? Well, we lucked out. David had bought seats in the nosebleed section but one of the guys from his company happened to be in town (he’s from New Jersey) and had been invited to watch the game in the suite owned by one of the railroads which the company does (lots of!) business with. He and his wife met up with us before the game and he told David that if there were any extra seats available in the suite he would ask if we could join them. We didn’t really expect it so we bought our hot dogs and climbed to the top of the Dome. We had no more than sat down (and I had the beginnings of a panic attack as I looked down from that altitude) when David got a text from Bill. I want to tell you, that, my friends, is the way to watch a football game. Comfortable seats, two television monitors, free food and alcohol, AND our own bathroom. I’m now totally spoiled. It was so much fun and the Saints won. Great night!

This was our first trip to New Orleans at Christmas time and I thoroughly enjoyed all the decorations. This town loves any excuse to celebrate and decorate the French Quarter balconies. I loved this one.

Most of our trip, it was rather chilly at night. After walking several blocks through the French Quarter, I thoroughly enjoyed this coffee and Bailey’s while warming my hands over the candle.

One of our favorite little places – Mother’s. If you are ever in New Orleans, try the Ferdi Special po’boy.

There is a great little yarn shop near Jackson Square. Here’s a shot of just a tiny portion of the colorful yarns.

Another pic from the yarn store.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the prettily decorated French Quarter houses and businesses. Most of the hotels were rather spectacular.

I talked David into trying on this hat and, well, it was perfect on him. He got so many compliments on it. One person said he thought he was Kid Rock for a minute. A young woman in a store said he was “rocking the Stevie Ray Vaughan vibe”. I think he was glad I suggested the hat. 😉

We spent the first week in our condo and the last three days at the Sheraton on Canal Street. This was our view from the 41st floor overlooking the Mississippi River.

It was such a fun trip. We listened to lots of live music, ate fabulous food, spent time with friends (old and new), saw a parade, went on a Santa pub crawl with about 500 people dressed in Santa or elf costumes, and spent the last day with our dear friends, Bryan and Debi. Their daughter picked us up in the Quarter Sunday morning and drove us across the river where we had lunch with them and watched the first part of the Saints game. We then went to watch Debi and her daughter, Summer, shoot in a pool tournament. Summer won! Then back to their house for another bite to eat and back across the river to Tropical Isle to watch them perform again. It all went by so fast and as always, it was hard to say goodbye. Now we are counting the days until our next trip in April.