The Big Easy

Steve and I decided to plan a vacation to New Orleans for his spring break since it is only a 7 hour drive and neither of us had ever been. The drive there wasn't too bad until I started noticing that I was getting kind of itchy. By the time we got there my lip was starting to swell, so I figured I would take some Benadryl and go to bed. Well, upon awaking Sunday morning my lip had quadrupled in size and when I looked in the mirror I startled myself before realizing that it was me. Not only was my upper lip so large that it covered up my bottom lip, but my cheeks looked like a hound dog. We decided to pay a visit to the ER and by the time we got there I had broken out in hives from head to foot. Steve wanted to know if I wanted him to take pictures to document it. I said no, so you will be spared the graphic visual aide.

Our favorite part of our trip was a swamp tour. It was quite fun and I had no idea how many pretty flowers grow in a swamp. The guide showed us houses (worth in the MILLIONS) along the banks where alligators will sun themselves. I would not pay that kind of money to have a pet-eater in my backyard. The best part, though, was Steve and I getting to hold/pet a BABY ALLIGATOR!

We also enjoyed a ghost history tour that took us through the Garden District of fancy-pants houses owned by people like Sandra Bullock, John Goodman and one that Nicholas Cage recently sold. We were a little disappointed by the caliber of ghost stories, but I think we may have been expecting something a little more morbid that what we got. I blame Hitchcock and Stephen King for that. They set my expectations way too high.

The cemetery tour we took was quite interesting as we've never seen one full of tombs above ground. We saw a tomb with Degas' family, the Voodoo Queen and Homer Plessy from the famous court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson. Apparently, you are supposed to bring an offering to the Voodoo Queen's tomb if you want your wish to come true, so I guess ours will not be granted because we didn't give her anything.

Our last day had some comical moments that made Steve and I realize that we are not very good people sometimes. We were waiting outside the Acme Oyster House because I wanted to go back for the fried catfish and shrimp, so I figured it would be worth the wait and it was. But mostly because this guy who was kind of a jerk was a few people back and got POOPED on by a bird. Normally I try to hold my laughter in until a more appropriate moment, but this time I couldn't. Awesomeness. After dinner, we walked to the New Orleans Hornets vs. Phoenix Suns game.

We happened to be sitting by a lady and her 4 or 5 year old daughter that CONSTANTLY climbed over us. Needless to say, we were very annoyed and then the universe swooped in with sweet justice.

The mother had left her nachos sitting on the arm of the chair and upon returning she knocked them onto her and sat on them before realizing that her daughter was screaming at her for sitting on the nachos. We started laughing and then I leaned over and said, "I think if Jenn and Aaron were here we would be laughing even harder." Or maybe it's just genetic (even though we know Mom will argue that it's not).