Touring (and Drinking) at Three Roll Estate

As a disclaimer, nothing in this post is sponsored – it is all my unasked-for opinion.

Also – I’m still getting used to being out and about again, so, unfortunately, I don’t have many pictures….

Recently, the hubby and I went to Baton Rouge (Louisiana) to visit my family for my sister’s birthday. The point of the trip was to do an Escape Room – we did The 13th Gate Escape, which was fun, but HARD… and, for the first time ever, we failed to escape. To drown our sorrows, we wandered over to check out the building next door – Three Roll Estate .

Three Roll Estate is self-described as Louisiana’s Single Estate Distillery – making vodka and rum from sugarcane grown at Alma Plantation and Sugar Mill in Lakeland, Louisiana. The sugarcane is pressed in, well, a Three Roll Press, to extract the sugarcane juice. We were able to try out a mini version of this and even try some of the juice. As expected, it’s pretty sweet.

As part of the tour, we were able to walk through the whole process – from the fermentation tanks, to the distillation area, to the aging barrels. Then, to finish the tour, we were able to try their vodka and multiple types of rum. The vodka was a little sweet, and very smooth. And, personally, I’m a fan of rum, so I was happy!

They do age whiskey as well, but, they readily admit that the whiskey is bought in Tennessee and floated down the Mississippi in barrels on a barge, then aged in the distillery. Being honest, I have very few whiskeys I care for (probably, only one or two), but the guys liked it.

While we were waiting to buy our two bottles of rum and bottle of vodka (!), the hubby and our bartender/tour guide offered the hubby the last taste of a limited edition barrel, which he absolutely loved.

I would highly recommend, if you’re in the area, to stop in, have a drink and take a tour!

Or – go ahead and order some rum, vodka or whiskey and support this awesome distillery!

Weekend Wine and Dine in Atlanta

As a disclaimer, nothing in this post is sponsored – it is all my unasked-for opinion. 😉 For my birthday this year, I left the little one at home with daddy and traveled to ATLANTA with my mom to visit …

Mountains, Soccer & Mormons

The hubby and I have been super busy lately with wedding-related activities (we just had 2 weddings, and have 5 more planned before the end of next April!). So when we discovered a free weekend back in early April, we …

Ducks, Dogs and BBQ

The Hubby and I are not crowd people, so it only makes sense for us to get out of Dodge (aka New Orleans) when Mardi Gras season hits. This year, we decided to visit some friends who had recently moved to …

Houston, We Have…. Food!

There is a really good reason I haven’t posted any updates about my resolutions for the new year… I haven’t really been keeping up with them. I know, January isn’t even over, but we’ve been busy! We joined a softball team and went to Houston for a long weekend.

As for softball, I can only say that I don’t suck as much as I thought I would. I’ve managed to hit the ball every time I’ve gone up to bat, I just haven’t quite made it safely to first. I’m getting some coaching from the Hubby and one of our friends, and I’m already starting to see some improvement. I’m also pretty decent when it comes to playing right field, as long as there aren’t a lot of lefties on the other team. I’m a good cheerleader, if nothing else!

As mentioned above, we also got a quick trip in to Houston last weekend. The hubby and FIL were there on business, so why not join them for a weekend of shopping, wine and, of course, FOOD! I had so much food. (I’m not good at remembering to take pictures until after I’ve eaten most of my dish, so I don’t really have anything to show on here… I’m a bad photographer.)

We ate dinner Friday night at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse (“churrascaria”), where they walk around with different types of meat on skewers and serve you as much and as many different types as you wish. I’m pretty sure I tried almost everything. I made the unfortunate mistake of trying out the salad bar first, so I did not have quite as much room for all the delicious meat that I wanted. By far, my favorite was the Parmesan Pork Loin. O.M.G.

Because the hubby doesn’t eat meat (they had bacon, but he didn’t want to pay full price for a plate full of bacon), we got dessert and after dinner drinks. He had an old, delicious, Grand Marnier, and I had (what else?) limoncello, to help the food go down. And chocolate mousse cake. You can’t not get the chocolate mousse cake.

For brunch on Saturday, we went to Kenny and Ziggy’s. SOMUCHFOOD. The menu is 3 days long (it’s a Jewish deli so it had a lot of fun words), and I had about five things picked out until we decided to stick to breakfast. I had delicious Eggs Benedict with potatoes. I’m generally not a huge fan of poached eggs, but the hollandaise sauce… The In-Laws shared a giant plate of corned beef hash and some type of Eggs Benedict. It was a lot.

We had to go shopping in the Galleria after, to walk off some of the food. Purely for exercise purposes, of course. The fact that we bought stuff is irrelevant. On a side note – I ordered some adorable and on-sale shoes from Johnston & Murphy because they were out of my size, but the shoes that I got in yesterday were not them. I was greatly disappointed. I did get a dress for a wedding we’re going to next summer!

Of course, no trip would be complete without hitting up a nice Italian restaurant. This time, it was to Maggiano’s Little Italy. Four-Cheese Ravioli in a Pesto Alfredo Sauce. Heaven. I’ve been in a pesto-mood as of late, so this was perfect for me. PLUS, this restaurant had some sort of special thing where they give you a free entree to take home if you order off a certain section of the menu. Free food? Yes, please! And creme brulee for dessert (not as good as the Grand Marnier Creme Brulee we had a few weeks ago at a small restaurant near the house, but still awesome!).

We went to the Tasting Room after dinner for wine. I love wine almost as much as I love food. It’s close. We used to get this wine from a restaurant in Baton Rouge while we were in college – a Pinot Meunier. We found one on the menu, and it was fantastic. I highly, highly recommend The Tasting Room, and wish they would open something like it here.

By Sunday, I was almost fooded-out. Almost. I wanted a burger, and no one else had any preference as to where to eat, so we went to Pappas Burgers. It was my first Pappas restaurant. The burger was huge, but really good. And I got a giant glass bottle of coke. I was happy.

We had a few hours to kill before we had to be at the airport, so I finally got my wish – to go to a Dave and Buster’s! The Hubby said it was smaller than the one he went to, but it was still a lot of fun. We shot things, we raced, I almost got sick in some airplane game. I kicked butt at skee-ball (and some horse-racing game that involved skee-ball). I lost miserably at 4-person pac-man. And the shooting games. Especially the ones involving zombies.

I’ve honestly been afraid to get on a scale since we’ve gotten back. It’s diet time! Or at least, it’s not-eat-quite-so-much-in-one-sitting time.

My next for-sure trip is to the beach in May with with my mom and sister. Hopefully, we’ll be able to plan something before then! We’ve been throwing around ideas for Mardi Gras (yes, we do actually try to leave New Orleans for Mardi Gras), but nothing has stuck yet. There are just too many places to go!

Our Grand European Adventure Part 3 – a.k.a. Dog in a Bathtub

I know you’ve all been waiting impatiently for the last installment of the Hubby and my grand European adventure, so here it is! Paris!

It’s been a while, and I’m trying to actually get this posted, so this will mostly be a few of our favorite memories and pictures from Paris.

                  View from our apartment

Our apartment had a window in the roof where you could see the city. Every night, the Eiffel Tower would light up and sparkle. It was really pretty.

Pysche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss – one of my favorites.

Venus de Milo

I can’t remember the name of this one, but David and I loved it.

We saw many other pieces of art besides the sculptures, but they are always my favorites. We went to the Louvre (obviously), but also the Musée d’Orsay. I’ve always liked Degas, and found a few others I like as well (unfortunately, I can’t remember their names at the moment…).

They have living lawnmowers in Paris.

Yes, we did add a lock to the bridge. No, I am not sorry. Yes, our names may have smudged off in the process of locking it.

The best way to take a break from sight-seeing? Feeding birds in the park, of course!

If you can’t tell, it’s the Eiffel Tower… so perty.

We waited in line FOR-EV-ER to go up the Eiffel Tower, but the view was fantastic.

Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately), I did not get any pictures of our ’90s dance party in the apartment that night, complete with GRAPPA(!!), wine and twerking. There may have been some cat-calls through the window to guys standing on the corner below us.

Our Grand European Adventure Part 2 – aka, Am-er-i-can?

When we left off, I believe the hubby, our friend and I were headed to Rome from London. We did hit a little snag on the way there, as there was a mix-up with our train tickets to the airport (yes, …

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.

Pretty Pretty Panda!

I can’t believe our Grand European Adventure is already over! The hubby and I are already deciding what we want to do when we go back! Eventually I’d like to write about everything we were able to see and do (wine was the main theme), but for now, I just want to comment on an observation I had while going through my photos. Yes, I did take around 1500 photos by myself… but we were there for 10 days, so what do you expect?

As I was attempting to pick out my favorites, I noticed something: I have a thing for taking out-of-the-box photos.

Rome

Rome

London

London

Paris

The Hubby even took one of my faves:

Rome

And finally, I have a thing for funny animal poses, so I had to add this:

Paris

What kind of things do you like to take pictures of?

Fireworks and Fishing

For the Fourth of July weekend, the Hubby and I took a long weekend trip to Grand Isle with some friends and family for some relaxation and fishing. It may not be the most upscale place, but it was fairly quiet, and sitting out on the deck in the morning with a cup of tea was very peaceful.

Now, to be fair, the water was a little smelly and the beach had more dirt than sand.  My mother-in-law insisted on bringing my dog, so I was overly anxious worrying about him for a while (I had a dream a few months ago where we were at a camp and the pup fell off the deck into the water and hit his punkin’ head). I’m also not the most useful person when it comes to fishing. I have a hard time dealing with live bait, so someone always has to bait my hooks. The hubby rolled his eyes at me a few times, but kept doing it, so it couldn’t have been that much trouble… Despite all that, we still had a great time!

Yeah, that’s brown, dirty sand…

We spent most of the days watching the World Cup matches or talking on the porch swing, and fishing out in the gulf in the afternoons. Watching the sun go down from out on a boat is absolutely amazing!

Taken by my talented mother!

We didn’t catch much, mostly Spanish Mackerel. None of us really care to eat those, so everything was thrown back. Did you know a Mackerel can bite a hook in half? Not just bite through the line, but actually snap the hook in two. Yeah, found that out. Their little teeth are scary!

On the first afternoon, we had a porpoise friend who would not leave our boat alone. He swam within 5-10 ft of our boat, scaring off all the fish. I wanted to watch him for a while, but every time I did, I would miss my cork being pulled under (I may be a little too ADD to fish regularly…) We also had a small shark or two hit the boat. I couldn’t get a good look at them because they were swirling up so much water, but my father-in-law, the experienced fisherman of the group, confirmed it was sharks. After my initial freak-out moment, I wanted them to come back to get a better look at them!

We tried to catch some crabs to boil, but didn’t catch any. Well, we caught one good size crab, but it was pregnant, so we had to let it go.  It was probably a good thing we didn’t catch any, because we had SO MUCH food left over anyway. We brought the pup out on the boat to check the crab traps in his little lifejacket… he was so cute!

Captain Louis, ready to set sail!

Maybe next time we’ll have better luck with the fish, but we definitely enjoyed our little holiday! 

God Bless America!