Big Easy love

This past September, I was asked to participate in an expo for my company during a conference going on in New Orleans. Twist my arm, why don't ya? It ran Thursday-Saturday until around noon, so Mike flew out that Friday and we made a weekend trip out of it. It was my first real time visiting (I was there when I was 7 with my parents, to visit a family friend. That doesn't count. What the heck is there to do in New Orleans when you're 7??). Sadly, I was most excited about the food. I know, I know. There's so much more to do in NOLA than eat, but I happen to be a huge fan of Cajun food and have been known to shamelessly scarf down several plate-fulls of crawfish on my own at past crawfish boils we've attended.

We were blessed with great weather and even though we only had a few short days, still managed to cram a lot in. My dad went to Tulane so I wanted to visit the campus since I hadn't seen it since I was there last (and didn't really remember it). Of course, we had to spend some time in the French Quarter as well. I loved all the old buildings with the wrought-iron balconies. For my dad's birthday, I took some of my favorite pics and gave him a collage frame with black and whites. I added a few of those below.

And of course, I got my crawfish.

Aren't they just so pretty?? Yum!

St. Louis Cathedral - one of my ancestors, Jose Manuel Gayoso, is buried here. He was the Spanish governor of Louisiana from 1789-1799.

This house is next door to Tulane's campus. Supposedly, people live there but this place looks like is hasn't been occupied in 50 years. The backyard looks like a graveyard for religious statues and clearly it's in need of some MAJOR yard work. Go on - tell me this place isn't haunted. I dare you. I'm still trying to figure out what the figure in the window in the middle is...

The front of the house. Is anyone else creeped out by this??