New Orleans

  I hope you all had a great week, last week.  I was in New Orleans with my mom and sister Lindy... which is why it was so quiet over here on my blog.  We flew out Tuesday morning and got back home Saturday evening.  It was the perfect amount of time to be gone.  Long enough to feel refreshed, but also long enough to be ready to get back home to my family.

My Mom had an Expo to attend, and Lindy and I decided to tag along.  After all, we couldn't let her go to New Orleans by herself.  ;)

 Early morning shuttle to the airport... do we look tired or what!

A few hours later, we were in a cab enjoying the New Orleans heat with the windows rolled down.

Hot humid weather just makes me happy!

We checked into our hotel, and they recommended eating down the street at Mothers.  The three of us shared this, and dug right into the creole cooking.

The food was good.  I haven't had much southern cooking but it seemed authentic.

 The rest of the day was spent walking around the French Quarter, listening to jazz and relaxing.

The next day, Mom headed to her expo and Lindy and I boarded a steam boat and headed down the Mighty Mississippi to the site of the Battle of New Orleans.

We were having fun, just missing our other two siblings.

 The Andrew Jackson Monument.

These cannon balls were heavy!

  It's so crazy looking out at this field.  I can picture all the soldiers, the cannons, the smoke.  I was never big into history as a kid, but the older I get the more I'm finding that I love it!
 

Back on the boat, and I couldn't get over how dirty the Mississippi river looked.

Our view headed back to the city.

Once we got back into New Orleans, we had lunch and then headed over to the World War II Museum.  It's huge!  There were 4 different buildings that were 2 or 3 floors each.  We walked quickly through it and even that took us 3 hours.  We could have easily stayed and looked around for a couple full days.  We had no idea it was so big.  

 

Our whole mission on this trip was to find Lindy's husbands, grandfather's fuselage that he was in during the war.

Found him.

And standing just outside of where he sat.  I was so excited that she got a chance to take pictures back home for his family to see.  So fun!

 After leaving the museum, we picked up Mom and headed down to dinner on Bourbon Street.

 The cab driver recommended the Red Fish Grill and it was good!!!

This is Alligator Boudin Balls.  It was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but I've learned to be a lot less picky.  It was 40% alligator, and then the rest I think was pork or chicken?  It tasted like a really good meatloaf.

My BBQ chicken with a pickled coleslaw over potato salad.

And our fun chocolate bread pudding.

I'll share the next couple of days of our trip tomorrow.  I took way too many pictures for one post.  Bless you if you actually made it through the end of this one.  I could have skipped a few of the details, but I wanted to make sure I documented it, so we can look back on this trip of ours, years from now.

Be blessed,