King of New Orleans

L and I went to New Orleans recently both to attend the wedding of a long-time friend of mine and also to have a weekend getaway/ celebrate being married approximately 6 months.  Yes, we cheesily celebrated 6 months of being married.  It's just a good excuse to take a trip, and the trip was much-needed by me.  I credit it with fully pulling me out of my funk slump; I came back feeling more like myself than I have in a really, really long time.  Such a nice feeling! 

The weekend was fantastic.  We left early on a Saturday morning and came back late on a Monday.  I highly recommend doing this- flights are so much easier to book and the trip as a whole was less expensive and WAY less crowded (key to me).  We packed as many meals in as possible and worked it off by walking everywhere (double points for me since I was in heels for a many hours on Saturday and Sunday nights).  My feet definitely came home worse for the wear, complete with blisters on the balls of my feet and on my toes (just a tip: don't take heels you've only worn at your rehearsal dinner and another brand new, even taller pair unless you want to feel like amputating your own feet at the end of the trip).  Lovely!  Also, just in general, flip flops and open-toed shoes are not the best idea in NO, but I hate wearing running shoes with normal clothes.  Such a touristy look. 

The wedding was amazing- the bride looked beautiful, the groom was so handsome, and it was so fun to see that group of friends and catch up.  L's favorite part was the Second Line- complete with brass band, police escort, and personalized napkins to wave- that ended the wedding.  It took us through the Quarter and back to the hotel where the whole wedding took place, whereupon the whole crowd started chanting, "Who dat say they gonna beat them Saints?"  Perfection.  Oddly enough, this is not the first wedding I've been to with this same group of friends that has resulted in chanting.  Weird. 

Anyway, we had some GREAT food while we were there, namely at Mother's (lunch one day) and Emeril's Delmonico (dinner on Sunday night as our faux-6-month anniversary). 

Of course there were trips to Cafe Du Monde in there as well. 

We actually didn't eat nearly as many places as we'd originally intended due to a certain someone overindulging at the wedding (in all fairness, the bride at this wedding spent the morning after my wedding hugging the toilet, so she challenged me and L to do the same at hers.  L obliged).  If you ever have the opportunity to eat at Delmonico, DO IT.   Best gumbo I have ever eaten in my entire life.  While I would strongly suggest going and ordering as many bowls of gumbo as you can fit in your stomach, the entire meal was fantastic and just as good.  The gumbo stands out, though, because it's just SO GOOD.  Also it's hard to find gumbo at all here, let alone good gumbo.  Now I'll stop saying gumbo.  It's not in the quarter, but it's definitely on a trolley line so you can hop on and off directly in front of the restaurant.  We also had drinks at a variety of places, but my two favorites were the bar at Loew's Hotel and Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone (their rooftop pool and bar was also very fun). 

We ended the trip by doing a little gambling at Harrah's on Monday, and I'm proud to say that L's semi-drunken Craps lesson during the big blizzard in February paid off!  I was totally a winner, and thus, the whole table won quite a few times due to my lucky dice rolling.  Woo hoo!  We pooled our winnings and we now own a new Blu-Ray dvd player, complete with wireless internet so that we can stream Netflix and Pandora.  Very fun to have a new toy.

All in all, a fantastic weekend.  Can't wait to go back again sometime soon!