ON OUR WAY!!!

We were on our way to a fun 7 day cruise vacation with an overnight stay in New Orleans. 

Then what is Taylor so bummed about?  Check out his bag.  Luckily, nothing fell out of it, but it was open like this coming around on the belt in New Orleans airport.  Time for a new bag, Tay.

So, after carrying his broken suitcase into the room, he pulls his other one in, and the handle falls off!  NO JOKE! Two suitcases needing major repair.  Too funny.

Let me back up a bit.  Before reaching our rooms, a little ways down the hall, as we are toting our bags trying to find our rooms, I lose control of one of my bags and it topples over as I try to keep all my other bags and myself from going down with it.  A woman is there in a long, flowy dress to her ankles and sees me and Mike and says, “Do you need help with that?”, and goes to reach for my fallen bag.  The woman, I thought was a woman, was actually a man, and there was no doubt AT ALL, when you heard her deep manly voice and looked up into her very heavily make-uped face.  Mike immediately says, “Oh no, we are just fine!” and hurries to help me with my bag before he thought this “he-she,” drag-queen was going to go off running with it or cause a brawl or something.  Yes.  True story.  No embellishments. 

Welcome to New Orleans.  Home to Mardi Gras.

And the craziness begins.  This is when we can act like immature kids, when the kids are gone.  We can let our hair down.

(Here is Mike.  Not saying anything more for that picture.) 

(And here’s Tay taking off down the hall, full-speed ahead, like he was on a skateboard.)

This was the gorgeous lobby to our hotel.  We were bravely venturing out for a night out in New Orleans. 

And THIS is where a little of me and a little of New Orleans truly come together.

???

Ummmmm

We heard this jazz band playing from inside a little restaurant.  He sounded amazing.  Like Nat King Cole.

And after walking around for an hour searching and debating which restaurant to eat at, we finally chose this place.  And it was a VERY wise choice.

This is where I had myself some alligator, crawfish, shrimp, and flounder.  Loved all of it except for the alligator.  Gross.

We got a few things at a CVS store while walking on Bourbon Street and Becky found a Beignet Mix!  From there, we were on the search for some real homemade beignets.  We were told by everyone to go to Café Du Monde.

And Mike got busted! 

Ok.  No, he didn’t.  But this picture is awesome.

We could see the place from a distance now, but we got caught up by this performer guy who was a little creepy.

Check out my ultra frizzy hair from all the humidity!

And then we couldn’t pull Mike away from this magician.  He would stand there all day watching his magic tricks if he could.

The beignets were goo-oo-ood.

This shirt cracked me up.  Sometimes very true. 

Back to our hotel for some R and R. 

This was our view out our window.  You can see the tail of our ship.  And down below is where the music was bumping all night long.  We happen to be right by a night club.  All part of the experience, right?