Tuesday, September 4, 2012

oh my nola...

August 24-26 I had the enormous joy of going to one of my favorite places in the world: New Orleans!  It was a quick trip; I got in on Friday night around 11and left Sunday evening at 8:30.  The nice thing is, I'm heading back in October for one of my best friends' (Kim!) weddings, so I didn't feel a huge amount of pressure to do everything and see everyone.  

I met up with Kim, Laura, and Katie at the airport.  Kim and Laura were my roommates in the Willow House, and Katie is a dear friend from growing up who has since moved to New Orleans.  She actually took my place in the Willow House when I got married... because as sad as I was to leave my roommies, most people recommend you live with your husband- even if he doesn't have cute shoes in your size and sassy accessories. ;)  I spent the first half of the weekend just soaking up the Willow House girls... laughing, chatting, walking around Uptown, doing a few wedding errands with Kim... and of course, getting  chicken schwarmas from Babylon!

SO much happiness right here!  I miss this sandwich so much!


Then, we headed out for our main event of the evening: a girls' night out in honor of Kim, who's wedding is less than 2 months away!  After a year of living with a boy, I forgot how much fun it is to get ready with other girls... we seriously spent 2 hours getting ready.  SO much fun!  Then we enjoyed a yummy dinner at Domenico's and headed to the Goldmine to dance it up.  We topped the evening off by spending the night at a swanky hotel in the French Quarter.  Wonderful!

Katie, Corey, Kim, Laura, me, and Maria

Sunday morning, Kim and I walked around the Quarter, looking at some of the fun shops and checking out the revamped French Market.  My super healthy breakfast that morning?  Diet coke, a praline, and 3 beignets.  Was it delicious?  You bet!  Did I experience a sugar crash later in the afternoon!  Absolutely! ;)

I enjoyed a late lunch with Katie and our friend Arthur at Parkway Bakery and Tavern, which has some of the best po'boys in the city.  LOVE their shrimp po-boy!  Afterwards, we had a mini-relief team reunion and I got to see Danielle and her hubby Andrew, Mel and Ken, and these two cuties....

Avery, you are ADORABLE!

Meeting sweet Miss Eliza Page was a definite highlight of the trip!
Soon afterwards, it was time to head back to Tampa.  Thankfully, there were no problems with my flight; I had initially been worried about Hurricane Isaac keeping me from getting back to Cori, but all was well.  Of course, Isaac caused many to evacuate NOLA, which was crazy.  My friends were fine, but had to deal with power being out for a while.

My weekend in NOLA was wonderful- so lovely to have some quality girl time with my friends there.  I will say, it was weird at times to be somewhere that used to be so my home- but it wasn't anymore.  Anyone else experience that after moving away?  I'm sure I felt that way after first leaving Virginia, but it's been so long.

It's hard to believe that it was just a week and a half ago that I was in New Orleans for the weekend!  Things have been busy, busy around here!  Seriously, I got back into to Tampa around 11 pm on a Sunday night and we've hardly stopped since then.  Cori did some public health surveillance for the Republican National Convention that was in town, so last week he worked from 3pm to 11pm, which meant that we were basically ships passing in the night.  And then last Friday, the moment I got off of work we headed out for a Labor Day weekend road trip- which I'll have to detail more in another post!  We're thankful for a chill week and weekend ahead.

I'll end with some lyrics from Harry Connick Jr's song, 'Oh my NOLA...'


Oh my Nola
Old and true and strong
Just like a tall magnolia tree
Sit me in the shade
And I'm right where I belong
Oh my New Orleans
Wait for me

2 comments:

  1. Can't wait for your next Virginia trip and you meet my baby!!!!!! :)

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  2. that just made my day! i'm so blessed that you love our girls the way you do. and do you remember when we saw harry at jazz fest and we we're swooning?? love it, and i loved seeing you!

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