NOLA!

We spent 5 days and 4 nights in New Orleans this year for our vacation! We hadn't taken a vacation since the summer before Sawyer was born (Summer of 2010) so we were really looking forward to it. We threw around a lot of options and decided on not doing the beach this year since I am pregnant. I just didn't think I would enjoy it quite as much. Neither of us had ever been to New Orleans so we decided that's where we would go! We have been saving airline miles/points ever since we got married and we have never used any before so we used those to pay for our flight and our hotel! We were super excited to be able to do this because otherwise we just wouldn't be able to afford a vacation this year since I'm staying at home and paying for graduate school. We picked the nicest hotel in New Orleans (according to reviews and personal opinions) and were also really excited about that because we usually stay in middle of the road hotels or even sometimes motels, blah!! Haha. Anyway, we had a great trip! We're not sure if we'll ever go back to New Orleans because we found that we weren't big fans of the food, or the city itself really, but we had a great time for the 4 nights/5 days that we did spend there! Haha. We always like trying new places together and seeing how others live. 

Day 1

Here we are on our flight to NOLA!

Once we got there we looked around our hotel and then decided to walk around the city. Little did I know Casey had us planned to walk like 6 miles before stopping to eat and I was not a happy camper. My back was hurting and I was hot and hungry! Haha. We stopped to take a picture (and to take a break from all the walking!). 

That's the only picture I got of our first day in New Orleans. Haha.  

 Day 2

We took a city tour in the morning that we both really enjoyed. We had a chance to get out at a park and I loved the trees and the moss that hung on them. I thought it looked so pretty so we stopped to take some pictures. :)

 

 

 

 

 

After the tour we walked around a while and then ate at this place for lunch. This was probably my favorite New Orleans food of the whole trip. They are famous for their roast beef sandwiches! I'll add that their onion rings are pretty awesome as well! :) 

 We totally walked out of our hotel and saw Mark Whalberg! He was shooting a movie and staying in our same hotel! He was nice enough to take a picture with me :) I'm sure this was one of the highlights of our trip to New Orleans. Haha!

More tour pictures…

This is Brad Pitt & Angeina Jolie's NOLA home in the French Quarter… doesn't look too fancy to me, but it is 7,435 square feet! Good grief! 

 

Slabs where homes use to be before Hurricane Katrina washed them away… 

Above ground cemeteries due to being below sea level

 

 

 

Sandra Bullock's home 

John Goodman's home…who knew so many famous people lived in NOLA? 

The house that Benjamin Button was filmed at…looks bigger in the movie. 

Day 3

day 3 was super fun because we went on a swamp tour!  I don't think either of us expected it to be as good as it was!! Here we are on the boat.

First of all, it was really pretty…in a swampy sort of way. :)

 

 

 

 I freaked out when he pulled out the alligator! I didn't see him do it at first and I literally jumped up on our bench and was shaking. I didn't see the band around his mouth at first, haha. I didn't really want to hold him, but Casey seemed so excited about it, and I didn't want to be shown up ;)

 

 

 

 More pictures of the swamp. It started raining and thundering very loud while we were back there and it was really eery. We liked it :)

 

The mossy stuff on the water is crazy…I can't remember what it's called, but it's not actually moss. He made that clear…it's some type of water plant though (obviously).

 

The alligator spotted the weenie/marshmallow combo. haha! I asked the tour guide if they actually like marshmallows and his reply back to me was "have you ever met anyone or anything that didn't like marshmallows?!" Haha. 

This gator's name is "Broke Jaw" for obvious reasons…

He broke his jaw mating… haha.

 

 

 

 

 pretty cool pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later that night we went to see a movie about a little girl in Hurricane Katrina. It was really good (& sad). It's called Beasts of the Southern Wild.

 

Day 4

The next day we went on a Plantation Tour! This was probably my personal favorite thing that we did (Casey's was probably the swamp tour). We got to see 2 very different plantation homes. The first one was called the "Laura Plantation" named after one of the owners, Laura. She had a really interesting story. I suggest a plantation tour to anyone that likes history and big old houses. :)

The Laura Plantation was built in 1805 and still has slave cabins on the grounds (where sugarcane workers actually lived until 1977!) 

  

This was one of the slave houses…it was crazy small and would house more than one family.

The second plantation is called "Oak Alley Plantation" and it's easy to see why!

Oak Alley was built in 1837 and the 28 Oak trees were already there, that's why the original owners chose to build there. The trees are now over 300 years old! They are beautiful!!

Our tour guide was dressed in the era the house was built...

Oak Alley - It was raining lightly and made the pictures extra pretty :)

One of the huge Oak trees!

Then it started pouring and we had to run to a different part and got soaked…it doesn't even look like we are that wet here, but we were!

pretty flowers on the plantation

I was kind of obsessed with the Oak Alley...

the front of the plantation house

belly shot!

That night we went to Harrah's Casino. Neither of us had ever been to a casino before and so we thought it would be fun to try… we planned ahead to only "waste" $40, but ended up only wasting $30 because we were so bad at it. It was obvious we would never win so we called it quits! Haha! Here are some pictures outside of the casino. :)

 

  

My 20 week picture :)

And my last picture of the trip… our hotel sign. I really did love this hotel. :)

We really had a great trip relaxing (we took a long nap everyday which is a luxury when you have a toddler;), watching the Olympics at night in bed (We are big fan of the women's gymnastics, and I loved watching them compete!), and enjoying each other's company. Like I said before, this was our first vacation since before we got pregnant with Sawyer and so it was a much-needed getaway. :)