The Big Easy

This post is a little late.  After completing P90X (Robbie completed, I got to day 75), we deserved a celebratory trip.  "Where to?"  New Orleans!  It's nice to live within driving distance to big cities...just don't make me live in them.  Robbie took the liberty of choosing the hotel, Hotel Monteleone, which he kept a secret from me.  As we were driving into the French Quarter, we turned on Royal St which is one block over from Bourbon St.  As you know, everyone walks down the middle of these streets all day, so pretty much every road we tried to turn on was blocked.  We haven't been to N.O. enough to know all the back roads, so we circled this hotel a few times before we figured out how to get to the Valet. 



 We checked in to our beautiful, small quaint Victorian room on the ninth floor.  This room became home to us for two days, and we stayed in it more than we would have liked as we were both sick with the stomach virus all weekend.

We both felt well enough on Saturday morning/afternoon to tour the city.  We walked to Jackson Square and hopped on a horse carriage to take a tour of the French Quarter.

At the end of the French Quarter, we toured St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 - the oldest cemetery in New Orleans.  And boy was it old.  Supposedly a famous voodoo priestess is buried there - Marie Laveau.  People come to her grave and draw three X's on it in hopes that she will grant them their wish.  Another famous plot is owned by Nicholas Cage.  He built a pyramid tomb for which one day he will reside.  It's very modern looking and doesn't really fit the feel of the ancient tombs next to it.  I didn't get any pictures of this as my camera battery was dead, but here is a picture of Marie Laveau's mausoleum I took from here.

We didn't get to partake in any of the delicious food since we were both pretty sick to our stomach.  On the bright side, I think I lost six pounds that weekend! 

The Harris's Antique Store