New Orleans Fall…

The weather has been absolutely beautiful the last two weekends here in South Louisiana. Sunny, cool in the mornings and warm (actually, pretty hot) in the afternoons. We don’t really get much of a fall here, so I was determined to take advantage of how nice it was!

Usually the hubby and I are so exhausted by Friday that we don’t really leave the house on Saturday and Sunday if we can help it. There are some weekends we don’t even change out of our pajamas, until it’s time to put on new pajamas. Sweatpants and t-shirts are the uniform (except, of course, when the Saints or Fighting Tigers are playing – then it’s sweatpants and a jersey!).

My original plan for two weekends ago involved convincing someone to go to the zoo with me. I thought it would be pretty easy because, really, who doesn’t love the zoo? My mom had another idea – how about a graveyard tour? It was something mom, sister and I had been wanting to do, and had just never thought about it in time. Although it wasn’t the zoo, I decided it would have to do.

Now, for those of you who have never been in a New Orleans graveyard, the first thing to understand is that everything around here seems to be haunted, so you can get some good stories. Also, because we are below sea level, all of the tombs are built up instead of buried underground (apparently early settlers tried the whole burial underground here, but bodies started popping up out of the ground or something).

I was surprised at how bad the condition of some of the tombs were, especially since some were kept up so well. It went with the “haunted” theme I guess.

Tomb of Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau…

Also, Nicholas Cage built a huge pyramid tomb right in the center of the graveyard. And women kiss it to leave lipstick marks. Yeah.

Anyone want to kiss it? No? Thought so.

This past weekend, the hubby and I decided to joint S-FIL and FIL on a fishing trip. Our beloved Saints weren’t playing until Sunday night, so we figured we’d spend the beautiful morning before fishing. Unfortunately, the hubby started feeling bad so he didn’t enjoy the trip as much as hoped. We still caught a fair amount of trout and some drum. I also won for “weirdest” catch with a small jellyfish and a stingray.

Unfortunately, I didn’t trust myself to not drop my camera in the water, so I didn’t really get any pictures of the fish or the sunrise or the beautiful bayou scenery that makes up South Louisiana. You’ll just have to take my word for it that it’s gorgeous out there.

 

What do you like to do when the weather is nice?

 

Our Grand European Adventure Part 1 – a.k.a. It’s Me!!

So yes, it’s been a little over a month, and I’m finally getting around to posting about our trip. The hubby and I have been super busy, so don’t judge…. I was in the process of typing this up and apparently had a lot to say, so this post will just cover our first stop: London, England.

We started out our trip with a looooooong overnight flight from New Orleans to London (by way of Newark). It was the hubby’s first flight that long, so we came well prepared with movies: all of the Harry Potter movies, in fact. The flight really wasn’t that bad, except that the hubby didn’t eat most of the meals they were serving. Poor Hubby was absolutely starving by the time we landed.

(Side Note No. 1) We also made a huge mistake that I highly recommend anyone traveling overseas from the US take note of: just because you get to fly with a free bag doesn’t mean you should pack the biggest ones you have. Apparently you still have to lug the stupid thing all over the city. We had two large bags and two carry-on size bags, as well as my “travel purse.” Since I’m a little on the petite side, poor hubby had to carry the two large bags up and down flights of stairs while we navigated the Tube (The London underground trains) to get to the apartment where we were staying.

(Side Note No. 2) Let me also take a second also to mention, AirBnB is awesome! It’s the first time we used it, and we were thrilled with all of the places we stayed in. Also, the money we saved not staying in overpriced hotels made us happy. I highly recommend it for travelers, if you don’t mind not having complimentary breakfast, that is.

Anyway, when we finally made it to our apartment, we were exhausted and hungry. Luckily, the owner of the apartment let us drop off our bags and change, even though they had not finished cleaning. With that done, we were free to wander around the area while we waited on our friends to meet up with us from France. We stopped in a little pub for a beer and some “mini” fish and chips… I’m not a super huge fan of Cod, but it was delicious!

Ohm nom nom

Due to our extreme exhaustion, the only plan we had for the rest of the day was to attend an English Premier League game (bucket list item checked off for me and the hubby!) We watched West Ham United and Southampton play (the visiting team, the Southampton Saints, won). It was difficult not to cheer for the Saints, but we were worried we would be kicked out or jumped, so go West Ham! They had a song about blowing bubbles, which I bought a shirt to commemorate… because it was awesome.

It made me happy!

We took a detour on our way home to eat dinner at Kings Cross Station. And obviously to take a picture of Platform 9 3/4. Cue our Harry Potter flight movie marathon excitement:

OMG HARRY POTTER

Apparently wine isn’t as big in London, because the place where we were staying didn’t have wine glasses. We didn’t know this when we bought two bottles of wine at the 24-hour convenience store across the street. So we did what any normal people would do:

Cheers!

We also played a few games of Go Fish, BS and Gypsy Rose, which you probably shouldn’t play when drinking. Cards don’t always flip the right way when you’re trying to bluff.

The next day’s plans included the London Eye, The Tower of London and a walk to Buckingham Palace (which, unfortunately, we couldn’t enter). We really enjoyed all of it, but were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day. I guess that’s when you can tell you’ve had a successful day of touring though.

We were up pretty high in the London Eye.

Protect the Castle!

Did you know Ravens eat meat? Yeah, they are huge and kinda scary…

You shall not pass!

According to the British Flag, the Queen was not at home.

We also met a very friendly squirrel on our walk to the Palace. He crawled up a little girl’s leg to get the food she was offering. And the girl didn’t freak out. Neither did her parents. I would have lost it.

Feed Me!

And that basically concludes the first portion of our adventure. The next morning we got up early and navigated our way back to the airport to fly to Rome.