The Big Easy

Chris and I embarked on our much needed time away from Washington at 3:00 am Wednesday morning. Thanks to my dad, we were able to leave the kids in bed and sneak away. We so badly wanted to wake up the girls, especially Ryann and give them a big hug and kiss and tell them goodbye but we didn't. It made my heart hurt to know Ryann would wake up and we wouldn't be there. I knew though that she would love waking up to see Grandma and Papa Allen which made me feel better. 
 We got to the airport with enough time to jump through all the hoops. While waiting to board the plane we saw a few Russian kids that were waiting to board our plane as well. They looked like they might have been part of a band.  I couldn't help but think of them doing the song and dance that Chris learned from one of his tile subcontractors who is Russian ...untz, untz, untz, untz, untz.. As we got on the plane we were scanning for our seats and noticed that the person I would be sitting next to was one of the members of this Russian techno band. How lucky was I? He ended up switching seats with a guy behind us so he could sit next to his friend. Bummer! 

A few hours later we landed in Denver and boarded another plane that took us to New Orleans.  The weather there was very warm. It was in the mid 70's the entire time. It was muggy but definitely a nice change from the weather we were used to. Our hotel was right next to Bourbon street, which is the happening street at night. We checked in and decided to walk around and get something to eat before I had to go to my welcome reception.  I had no idea that New Orleans was so big. I pictured a couple of small narrow streets with a few shops and places to eat. It was huge! There were so many places to shop and eat. We ended up eating at a pizzeria which had amazing food. I know, I know, not very New Orleans of us. We had every intention of trying some Louisiana food throughout our trip, just not that night. When we were done we had a little time to go through a few shops. Most of the shops had the same thing, souvenirs from New Orleans. I had to go back for my welcome reception for the conference which brought us to New Orleans in the first place. When I was done we went to Bourbon Street to see what it was all about. Hmm... well, it was interesting. It was bar after bar after bar with a few Gentlemen's Clubs thrown in. They close the street after a certain time at night to allow more room for everyone to walk. Bourbon street wasn't really our scene but we thought we would try it since we were on vacation and in New Orleans. We were going to go into a bar and listen to the music that was being played but there were so many to choose from and they were all so packed that we decided not to. Their wasn't as many places to listen to jazz music as I thought there would be, in fact now that I think back on it, I think there may have been one and it was outside and very packed. I think everyone who wasn't into the bar hopping was there. Bourbon street had a distinct smell. It was the smell of garbage and stale beer. All the stores and bars along that street put their garbage cans along the road. As much as it was dirty and smelly, It was pretty cool to see and to say that we were there.

My class was from 8:30 to 5:00 on Thursday and Friday. This enabled us from being able to do a lot of sightseeing. We would have loved to take a few tours and see more of New Orleans and learn more about the history.  The architecture of the buildings we did get to see were amazing and the houses were so neat. We got to see the Mississippi River and glance in a few more shops at the Riverwalk. We pretty much repeated the same events each night which consisted of walking around, eating dinner, checking out the souvenir shops and strolling down Bourbon street.

We had to leave our hotel at 3:55 am on Saturday morning.  Standing outside our hotel and waiting for our shuttle you would have thought it was 8 in the evening. The weather was warm and there were swarms of people still wandering around, or should I say stumbling around.

Thanks to Chris's mom, we were able to have fun and relax without having to worry about our girls. They had a great time with Grandma. All in all we had a great time too.

Here are a few pictures we took: