Our Minnesota Move: NOLA bound!!

Every Spring, our family gets together to celebrate another year of Charlene kicking ass against her Multiple Sclerosis. Since 2008 we have participated in a 5k walk. This year we changed things up a bit......Charlene and I went to New Orleans instead!! :)

Charlene and I were born in New Orleans so it felt like going home again. This was kind of a last-minute trip and I was so excited to go!!

Before I moved to Minnesota, Bea and I would spend one weekend per year at a scrapbooking retreat. Since then, we have tried to Skype every Sunday but life gets so busy. I was so ready to spend that quality one-on-one time with her again......and get caught up on some scrapbooking!

My flight from Minneapolis to New Orleans was pretty smooth. It was wonderful leaving the freezing cold weather and heading to more spring-like temps. In Minnesota, you put your warm weather clothes away during Winter to make room for parkas, snow shoes, etc. It was nice to break out the capris a little earlier than usual. :)

Starting our descent over Lake Pontchartrain..........almost there!!

Charlene's flight was delayed so I sat in the airport and read for about an hour. Finally.......I see this pretty face headed my way!!

It cracked me up that she wore a shirt loaded with metal to the airport. She said the gate attendant in Dallas got a little frisky when patting her down. :)

We took a cab from the airport to our hotel. My husband scored us a room at the Astor Crowne Plaza on the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets. Right in the middle of the action!! We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and walked around the corner to Bourbon Street. (Yep, Bourbon Street is right around the corner!!)

Who knew Bourbon Street would be so packed on a Wednesday night?? There were so many beads left over from Mardi Gras. I haven't been back to NOLA since our family reunion in 1996. Let me tell you......this place has not changed one bit!

Right after I took the photo below, a guy came out of a strip club on the left and started yelling "it's tittie time". Charlene died laughing......we were definitely in New Orleans! Not long later, another gentleman - different strip club - told her to give him five minutes in his club and she wouldn't need her cane anymore. :)

So there are two kinds of people in New Orleans: tourists and locals. Even though this was our home town, I still carried a camera everywhere I went. Who cares about looking cool??? This was a trip of a lifetime for us!!

Since we were ~~locals~~ tourists, we had to stop by the souvenir shops.

By 9pm, we were STARVING! Neither one of us thought to make reservations so we hit the first restaurant we found on Bourbon Street. It turned out to be Dickie Brennan's Redfish Grill. The Brennan's are restaurant royalty in New Orleans. The food did not disappoint. We ordered a feast of oysters on the half shell, shrimp and blue crab......oh, and martinis. Lots of martinis!

After dinner, my party-animal twin wanted dessert. Not just any dessert, mind you. BEIGNETS!! She didn't have to beg.......I was three steps ahead of her! :) So there we were......at 10pm on a Wednesday.......eating our favorite dessert ever. I'm kinda tearing up as I type this because I WANT BEIGNETS!!!

I started laughing - and trying not to choke on powdered sugar - and told Charlene that if our sweet mother wasn't already with Jesus, she would die knowing we were in NOLA alone. (Keep in mind.....we are 46 year-old-bad-asses!!!) We decided to take a pedi-cab back to the hotel so we sat across the street from Jackson Square - below - waiting for our ride. Out of the blue, Charlene looks at me with HUGE eyes and starts screaming "Get up! Get up! GET UP!!" I jumped up and looked in her direction. Headed my way on the concrete wall was the biggest rat I've ever seen! Welcome to New Orleans!! Hahaha......Charlene said this was Mom's way of thumping us on the head!