The 45th AS wives - trip to New Orleans!

Two full days and one night in New Orleans - just the girls. Eight of us ended up going, which worked out perfectly with vehicles and the hotel rooms. Starbucks was our meeting place - we loaded up on caffeine and then hit the road!

Nice shirt, Cindy! You can tell we live in a small-town area... we all shop at the same stores.

We stayed at the historical Hotel St. Marie - located just one block from Bourbon Street. I absolutely love the hustle and bustle of big cities and the French Quarter was so much fun. I walked out the front door of the hotel just to listen to the sounds of the city! We were in the heart of it all.

The hotel rooms surrounded this pretty little courtyard below.

After we checked into the hotel, we headed out on the town. It started raining, about two blocks down the road. Nice. So, we ducked into the nearest sports pub for lunch. GREAT place (can you hear the sarcasm?). I ordered a grilled chicken salad. When I began to cut into it, a LIVE beetle crawled out of my lettuce and then back in. I spoke to the server and she had the manager come by... his excuse??? "It's not my fault. It came in the bag [of lettuce]." Discount, perhaps. NADA.

After lunch, we decided to call it a day on the sight-seeing, and drove to the nearest mall. Retail therapy was needed by all. See this picture? It looks like a picture of Abby buying cologne, but in reality, I was attempting to capture the woman's haircut behind her. Stealth photography! After our 2 hours of shopping... Joy and Anita definitely found the best deals. Joy left with over 40 shirts and spent about $58.00. She SAVED $700.00!!!! Who ever heard of such a thing?! Insane sales.

We dropped off our bags, changed clothes, and headed downtown to see the night life. The French Quarter definitely comes alive at night!! Here we are at Pat O'Briens... Joy, Cindy, Alexis
Anita, Crystal (lovely eyes, my dear) and DeannaAbby and me

The girls - by the Pat O'Brien's fiery fountain! After that, we headed over the the House of Blues for dinner. Bill and I had been here before - the food is awesome and the place has a pretty cool atmosphere. YUM.

After dinner, we walked Bourbon Street... and ended up... ...at The Cat's Meow, singing KARAOKE. I've always secretly wanted to sing "Love Shack" karaoke style... and, yes, that is me.

Crystal sang the guy part, I sang the girl part and Abby and Deanna were our back-up dancers. Eat your heart out, B-52's!!!

And, in true "gangsta" fashion - Alexis and I are modeling our House of Blues hats. Mommies... acting like kids!The next morning, we all headed straight for the Cafe' du Monde, near Jackson Square. It is open 24 hours and serves only French Market coffee and French beignets. Yummy!!! It's a popular place, we had to stare people down to get a table!
Joy, me and Deanna, enjoying our beignets!
The mule-drawn carriages were so charming. Jackson Square is full of street artists, musicians and entertainers. Feels quite similar to Europe in a lot of ways!
We walked to our brunch at Brennan's. This is the restaurant where the French Aristocrats used to dine in style... it was a 2.5 hour dining experience! (and pricey... how much was your champagne, girls?!?!)
The creation of their world famous Banana's Foster dessert!
This Joan of Arc statue is in front of the French Market.
We thought about riding the trolley around, but a few of us had done that on previous trips... and we wouldn't have time to (gasp!) SHOP if we'd ridden it. So, we opted to drive through the Garden District on our way out, to see some of the mansions. Imagine having to CLEAN this place! They were beautiful...
I brought back a few souvenirs for the kids: Blues Brothers sunglasses for Ivan and Grant.
And a House of Blues T-shirt for Mary. I think she likes it!
Great trip, ladies!!! Where to next?!