Instead of 5 posts on this trip to NOLA you just get one long one

You gotta love a town where just two blocks away from a street with BEAUCOUPS bars and strip joints there’s a cathedral that has been named a Basilica AND the Pope John Paul II visited in 1987. Wonder if he sprinkled Holy Water on Bourbon St.

Now, let me make myself clear, I am NOT making fun.

I just find it quite interesting that you can literally drink yourself in to a coma and then stumble on down the street and confess your sins if so inclined. God bless America.

And y’all are gonna love this part. Our hotel?

Smack dab in the middle of both those places. Literally. You walked out the front door and 1/2 a block south, towards the river, is the church and just north half a block, all kinds of debauchery. Oh and karaoke too. In some cases some of those people should totally confess their sins. On my ears.

But the point of this post is that we had a great time with our friends and neighbors in NOLA (New Orleans, LA) last weekend.

We were there to help surprise and celebrate our friend’s 40th birthday (a little early), as well as enjoy an early celebration for mine and Tim’s wedding anniversary in a few weeks.

And we did both and had a great time while doing so!

Our hotel really was in the best spot (all kidding aside. okay, maybe not “all”) and we were able to walk everywhere all weekend.

Even The Ritz, where my friend and I had fantastic pedicures on Saturday. I cannot BELIEVE I did not take a picture.

So here’s one from the interwebby for ya.

Ritzy, huh?
(get it, “ritzy”?) (oh gah, too easy, I know.)

But rewind to Friday night.

Tim and I had a great time being co-conspirators with our Friend C, who surprised her husband J, on Friday morning with the fact that we were going along on a weekend trip. And then, on Friday night three of his very best buddies (from middle school days!) came running up to him in front of the cathedral. He had NO idea they were going to be there! It was awesome.

Afterwards we all went to dinner at this more than fabulous restaurant, Irene’s, and enjoyed wine and such delicious food. We kinda wanted to go back Saturday night. That’s how good it was. And yes, we had dessert.

After dinner we hit Bourbon St. to check it out (we didn’t even go there at all last trip and now I REALLY know why). After watching the Rangers lose (wah!) we hit another bar and then came back to the one where they had karaoke, just in time for Tim to belt out “Friends in Low Places.” PERFECT timing!

Then on Saturday we hit The Old Coffee Pot for breakfast and had some good “soul food” breakfast, including “Cala Cakes“. Tasty little buggars. (apparently this is the only restaurant that makes them because when I “googled” this was the only place that came up!) Anyway, they are rice fritters and are covered in powdered sugar, just like beignets.

Y’all would think I like food or something…

After stuffing our faces we went back to the hotel and got ready for the rest of our day. The boys and girls separated and C and I did a little shopping at Anthropologie (where I bought my first and possibly ONLY pair of ‘skinny’ jeans! see twitter pic here). And then we were off to Pinkberry for a small ‘lunch’ and nice chat before our pedis.

During our pedis I told C I might consider homeschooling at some point and both of our mouths dropped to the floor. No, I was not drunk, just high on yogurt apparently.

So since this post is getting really long I’ll tell you that Tim and I visited the casino that afternoon for a bit (SO NOT my thing) and then went to get ready for our “early” anniversary dinner. After dinner we met back up with our friends and hit Bourbon again.

Let’s just say a good time was had by all.

On Sunday we slept in (gee, I can’t imagine why…), had a little tasty breakfast sandwich at a charming place by the hotel, drove around a bit and then headed home to get back to all of our kiddies.

It was indeed a great weekend and I’m SO glad that we took the time to be together as a couple and be with our friends.

I *heart* NOLA.

Oh and I’m linking up here…

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli