NOLA~take 2!!

I went to New Orleans with Andy and some other couples a few months ago for a friend's 40th b-day. This time I went with 4 other girls for a "bachelorette" weekend! We had a blast! One of the girls is from NOLA so she took us to the locally loved places. I ate soooo much and everything was so yummy! I'm not the type to take pics of my food but I assure you it looked as good as it tasted!

 We rented an 8 passenger van and drove down Saturday morning. We left at 10 am and arrived in NOLA around 4 pm after stopping in Jackson, MS at Hooters :) for lunch. This was the MS river as we drove over that huge bridge whose name I'm not even going to try to spell out but you know the 30 mile bridge I'm talking about.

We stopped at a local hole in the wall food place, Kimmer's, as we drove in to NOLA. We got some crawfish and shrimp. No one seasons food like the Cajuns. :) We then went by my friend's aunt's house on the way in to town. She lives about 5 miles from downtown NOLA near the levees that broke. Her home was destroyed. She and her husband rebuilt their home after Katrina and it is beautiful. It was interesting to see a life that was actually touched by Katrina after having heard so much about it. She made us red beans and rice (one of my favorite foods) and I devoured it. It scratched my throat because I was eating it so fast. 

Aunt Gail and Bradshaw

 We got to town and got caught in a parade so it took us about 1 hour to get through downtown to our hotel~Crowne Plaza at the corner of Bourbon and Canal~yes, it was super nice and right in the middle of downtown~yet, well priced ;)

We put our stuff down and went straight out to Bourbon to see the "sights." It is Mardi Gras season so there were quite a few sights to see. Here we are posing for a pic and some random dude stuck his head in the pic and then apologized afterwards. LOL!

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 Bradshaw and I on the dance floor at Razoo's

 Still on the floor...:)

 The next morning we got up and went walking and shopping all over downtown. We made Garrett wear a "Bride to Be" sash and some body part beads. ;) She was such a good sport.

 We ate lunch at the Riverwalk

Bradshaw, me, Garrett, Hady, and Teresa

 We shopped at the French Market.

The weather was amazing! It was 60 degrees and sunny during the day and 50's at night. It couldn't have been better.

We went to dinner at the Grand Isle restaurant where I ate the best gumbo ever in life! We slept in on Monday, watched a little of the Inauguration and checked out at 11 am. We got back to Memphis around 4:30 pm. The weekend was so fun and special and great bonding time between some lifelong friends!