Last week we went to New Orleans on a little family vacation! Jason had a few vacation days that we wanted to use up before the end of the year and this seemed like the perfect chance to visit New Orleans. There aren't that many places within a reasonable driving distance of Austin so we thought this was perfect at only 7.5 hours away.

We left after work on Wednesday and made it to Lake Charles, LA (after only stopping for dinner at Popeye's Chicken on the way).

Nora was an angel and slept all the way there and was so cute at dinner-just happy to be out of the car seat and hanging around.

We stayed at hotel in Lake Charles and pretty much just got ready for bed and went to sleep since we knew we had a big weekend ahead of us. Nora slept in the hotel's pack and play (we realized we forgot ours on the way but it worked out!) by the door and slept straight from 10pm-7am. Once she was up, we got ready, had breakfast, met some cool Swedish people at breakfast and hit the road!

We drove straight to New Orleans and got there right around lunchtime with Nora sleeping the whole way there! Victory!

New Orleans is definitely a true city! Lots of tourists, cabs, carriage rides, homeless people, etc. But it also had that fun alive feeling that really only big cities have!

We snapped some pictures right as we arrived and explored before lunch.

Then for lunch we headed to Johnny Po' Boys-which we heard was a local favorite. We both got these huge shrimp Po Boys and they were delicious! Po Boys are really just sandwiches on French bread with a meat choice (fried shrimp, fried oysters, roast beef, crawfish etc.) and then you can choose to get it "dressed" with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise.  It was a good start to our trip!

New Orleans really is a cool city with a very European feel. It was fun exploring little streets and looking at all the architecture and culture.

After exploring we checked into our hotel for a break and to unpack. Then we headed off to dinner at Acme Oyster House for a true NOLA meal!

Delicious grilled oysters! Yum!

The sampler: red beans and rice, jambalaya, gumbo & sausage!

Dinner was a little stressful as Nora had a little breakdown and this couple was questioning our parenting (as if we were horrible parents, eating dinner at 5:15pm!). After I recovered from my first "public judging" experience, we walked around with our sweet baby (who had also recovered). We visited some shops and then stumbled on a jazz festival (so New Orleans!) in Armstrong Park. The park happened to have a bunch of hula hoops for people to hula hoop with and it was so fun and spontaneous. One of those happy moments random moments in life!

Friday morning we got up, boarded the trolley and headed to the world famous Cafe du Monde for amazing beignets!

 Walking along the Mississippi Boardwalk- Natchez Steamboat in the background

We made it to Cafe du Monde but there was a long line and worried it would take too long! As it turned out the line was fast, a nice woman offered to take our photo AND we got seats in the air conditioning. Great start to our day! Also we ate fried pastry covered in sugar. Couldn't hurt. 

After Cafe du Monde we hit up the famous French Market. It was fun to walk around but not much that tempted me to buy other than a virgin Pina Colada! And we got a muffuletta for the road!

We relaxed all afternoon at the hotel since Nora was pretty pooped and so were we from lots of walking in the heat! But isn't just hanging around doing nothing part of vacation too?

For a low key evening we decided to order pizza from a local place. We walked to pick it up and then ate dinner in Jackson Square just as a wedding was ending. It was a cool beautiful evening and really was a great end to the day. Not to mention it's always fun to get good photos with our sweet girl.

Family selfie!

Our last morning in New Orleans we headed to Cafe Beignet for you guessed it, Beignets and our tour group met there also. Their beignets were good but we preferred Cafe du Monde's. Their breakfast croissant was killer though-definitely get that! 

I'm in love with this model baby and her pursed lips and the hand behind the head. Too much.

We did a tour of the cemetery with a local tour guide and it was very informative. The cemetery was awesome-it felt like walking back in time. 

It was really hot though so we were ready to hit the road by the time it was over.

We headed out of the city of New Orleans and into the Plantation Country. It was a beautiful drive and it was nice to be out of the city.

We headed to Oak Alley plantation but it ended up pouring rain so we spent our time and money on these crabs instead! We were tired of crab by the end-it's a lot of work!! But we are glad we can say we ordered a dozen crabs in the Louisiana bayou!

The Chef at our restaurant

Then we headed to see my best friend Regan who lives just outside New Orleans! It was soooo great to catch up with, especially since we both have new babies and hadn't met them!

 Nora with Regan's cute 3 kiddos

 Dylan and Nora are 2 months apart (she's older) but they are the exact same size in height and weight-although not head size!

Dylan was putting the moves on Nora.

On Sunday we drove all the way home and enjoyed the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain views.
We had a great trip and are so glad we did it!

Nora was awesome the whole way home until about the last 40 minutes when she was like "Get me OUT of this car seat!" She did enjoy the light up tabletop at McDonald's though (we're classy like that). 

We are happy to be home now!

San Antonio Anniversary Trip

For our 3 year anniversary (can you believe it!?) we wanted to have a nice getaway. I yearned for Ireland or someplace exotic, but alas, real life prevented it. We decided we still wanted to get away and we could do just that by driving just a few hours away to San Antonio. We still hadn't officially been there since moving to Austin.

We took off Thursday and Friday and headed out Thursday morning. We stopped for kolaches on the way and then hit up the famous San Marcos outlet malls. Jason bought me some kitchen gadgets and we bought a sander to start re-doing furniture. Honestly, what could make a girl swoon more?

Then we went to the famous Centerpoint Station for some burgers and "frings." This place was this cute old fashioned store and restaurant. Adorable :)

We headed off to San Antonio next to check into our favorite hotel, The Hyatt Place. We love their rooms, spacious and they have fridges and a big TV! We love it!

Next we headed to the Riverwalk to check it out!

We wandered around exploring until we found a Mexican restaurant that was the oldest on the Riverwalk.

The next day we headed to the Alamo!

It was cool but it only took about 5 minutes! haha. Then we wandered around and grabbed a Coke before heading to Rosario's for some awesome Mexican food.

Then we hurried and changed and drove to the San Antonio LDS temple. It was so wonderful to attend the temple, it had been far too long!

And to celebrate going to the temple, we ate the best BBQ ever at Heart of Texas barbeque!

 Mmmmm best smoked chicken ever!

(random, but as we were driving around this neighborhood, these people had a dozen deer in their yard. REAL deer, just hanging around. It seemed strange...haha)

We got ice cream on the Riverwalk that night and watched far too many episodes of Pretty Little Liars :) Basically the perfect day.

The next day we explored San Antonio more, walking around, finding awesome antique stores and just enjoying the city.

We did a river cruise at night and it was fun to see the Riverwalk all lit up at night and to hear the history of San Antonio-very cool.

Recognize this stage from Miss Congeniality?

 We also ventured to Big Lou's...but since it was just the 2 of us we didn't order a 42 inch pizza, just a regular one :) It was a fun place though and we want to go back with a big group to get the 42 inch!

The 42 inch!!! Crazy!!

Anyways, if you can't tell...we had a fabulous trip! So fun to get away but not have to travel far. We can't wait to go back again one day soon! Thanks for such a great trip San Antonio!