I had the pleasure of attending my dear friend, Sarah's wedding while in Virginia last week. The Attimo Winery in Christiansburg served as the backdrop to Sarah & Tony's beautiful day. It was so nice to get to catch up with friends from college!
The wedding party in the vineyard.
My date, Cori and me :)
Wedding Cake, Grooms Cake (Angry Birds themed) and the Roanoke College ladies with the bride
One of the main reasons for my recent trip home was to help with and attend my cousin Lesley's bridal shower. The church hosted a lovely brunch shower for Andrew and Lesley. Their wedding is at the beginning of June.
Lesley & Andrew opening gifts & playing a "How Well Do You Know Each Other" game in front of the ladies.
The cute couple socializing with guests. Lesley brought framed mini-biographies of each of her bridesmaids.
I enjoyed spending time with the bride and groom to be as well as visiting with church friends and family. Can't wait to celebrate their big day!
The weather has been inching towards awesome ever since daylight savings started last week. Perfectly sunny days in the 60s-70s with little humidity (hallelujah!!): this is the time of year I love New Orleans. While there have been threats of snow in VA and further north, I have been keeping the door to the outside in my room open to let fresh air and sunlight in and I must say, it has been glorious!
The only drawback to this beautiful change in temperatures is that the nastiest, creepiest creature to exist chooses this time of year to descend upon our house (not just our house, but really every enclosed place in the city). Cockroaches, aka devil bugs, give me the heebie jeebies like none-other! A few weeks back I experienced the most horrific thing to happen to me hands down since living here. I stepped on one of those filthy critters with my barefoot in my bathroom. The squeal that came from me surely could have woke the dead... (I live across the street from a cemetery, so I'm glad my high pitched outburst did not in fact cause any corpses to rise up). I swear my fear of las cucarachas is surpassing my extreme fear of all things arachnid. Now that is a serious statement. Well, now that I have completely grossed myself out I am going to try to go to sleep and not suffer from nightmares of creepy crawlies!!
My Saturday was spent planted on the couch. Since the weather was nice out I opened the corner doors to let fresh air in, but I sat on my butt 90% of the day. I watched Tower Heist, Killer Joe, and all 10 episodes of the first season of Girls. In between this eclectic spread of visual entertainment I did talk to both of my parents on the phone and made a run to the grocery store.
My thoughts:
Tower Heist was whatever. I was plunking around on my computer the majority of the time that it was on. Though I was very alert when watching Matthew Broderick swing from a car dozens of stories up in the air. I think I have developed a slight fear of heights upon aging. No need to see this movie again but it was free on demand.
Not free, but $5.99 was Killer Joe. The last 15 minutes solidified the NC-17 rating it was given no doubt. This is NOT Matthew McConaughey as the charming, handsome, rom-com guy. No indeed. Not for the faint of heart, but if you're wanting to see a dark film that will leave you feeling grateful for the life you have then by all means check this out. Plus it was filmed locally and its always fun to spot places you recognize!
HBO's Girls. I'm hooked. The only reason I haven't started season 2 tonight is because it is literally 3:00am as I type this and I would surely fall asleep before making it through each episode. There is always tomorrow... Basically I see these girls and their struggle with life as a twenty-something-year-old and I can relate. Sex & the City for a younger group of girls in 2012/2013?
Wednesday was a lovely day to be out and about around town. We brunched at the Ruby Slipper before going on a cemetery tour of St. Louis #1. While waiting for the tour to begin we indulged in a Hurricane from Pat O'Brien's. Nothing like sitting at a bar on a Wednesday at 12:30 in the afternoon with your parents discussing taxes over a mixed drink!
Our tour guide was quite energetic and very knowledgeable of the history of the city of New Orleans, the cemetery, and the culture of the area. He filled us in on a bunch of fun facts that you won't find in your typical history book. After learning all about how the city below sea level tends to their deceased we drove over to the outskirts of the French Quarter to tour the Old U.S. Mint. I have been to many festivals outside the building but never inside. For folks who are interested in coins and history, this is the place to be. Upstairs in the same building they have an exhibit on Preservation Hall and Jazz Music that was cool to walk through.
Once we had seen all there was to be seen at the Mint we stopped by ol' Sucre to show mom and dad my new office set up. They got to sample a few treats and meet a bunch of people. Dinner was at High Hat on Freret followed by more ice cream...yum! Our night was spent in their hotel room watching re-runs and then the season 3 premiere of Duck Dynasty!! Hey! That made us happy, happy, happy Jack! Then, after three tanks of gas, countless seafood-filled meals, half-a-dozen different tours, and hundreds of pictures later the parent visit of 2013 ended Thursday morning bright and early with a flight out of Louis Armstrong International Airport. Back to work for me. Back to the cold for them.
On the road again! This time we headed north across Lake Ponchartrain via the Causeway bridge...a 23 mile long straight trip across open choppy lake water! The weather was much nicer compared to the previous days. After crossing to the Northshore we continued north into Mississippi before cutting west and heading to Centreville to visit the Camp Van Dorn World War II Museum.You may remember that I visited this museum last May with my aunt and uncle. It was good for mom and dad to see the place too and update some records on my Granddaddy there.
I drove a different route back south so that we would go through Baton Rouge. Our road trip snack was an...umm...interesting bag of Chicken & Waffles potato chips. Weird! It tasted like someone poured syrup in a bag of plan chips. I won't be trying those again! After passing through the Louisiana state capital we stopped at Cabelas to check out all the animals. We spent a while reading all of the placards and taking it all in. Once back in the Big Easy we ate dinner at the Acme Oyster House in the French Quarter on a recommendation from a Lexington fella that told mom we should go there. It was rather tasty indeed. Dessert was enjoyed uptown at Creole Creamery.
Day #3 was another one full of rain and another one spent on the road. This time we went further west to Avery Island, LA to the Tabasco factory.
All of the Tabasco in the world comes from this one factory that sits on an island made up of a huge salt mine. They grow acres and acres of their peppers on the island then send the seeds to farms in Central and South America to use to grow the amount needed for production. The bottles they were filling the day we visited were heading off to Germany. The hot sauce is sold is more than 100 different countries and the label is printed in over a dozen languages.
We spent a fair amount of time in their store trying different varieties of the pepper sauce and as I suspected, I am still not a fan of spicy food! We all tried the jalapeno ice cream though and enjoyed it! I think the dairy helps cut the heat. I was not nearly as thrilled with the chocolate pieces containing the fiery sauce...it was torture...I love chocolate but hate spicy so it made me very sad to eat! Overall I really enjoyed the tour and store.
Unfortunately the weather wasn't spectacular the weekend of mom and dad's visit. Rainy and overcast ruled the forecast but we made the best of it. Sunday's brunch was courtesy of Slim Goodies, a diner on Magazine Street. There we made the plan to drive to Oak Alley Plantation. I have never gone on a plantation tour before and the beauty of the house led me to choose this one for us to go see.
Despite the less-than-sunny weather, it was a nice drive out to Vacherie, LA. There was plenty of swampiness to look at along the roads. The 28 live oaks lining the walkway to the main house are massive and gorgeous. Blows the mind a little to think that they've been there for over 300 years and to imagine all that has happened around them in that time. After taking the official tour we went for the full southern effect and had a Mint Julep. It was not half bad but sickeningly sweet!
After making our way back to the greater New Orleans area we dined in Elmwood then went to see Identity Thief to escape from the torrential rains that began that evening.
This time last week Mom & Dad were in town visiting me. It has been almost two years since they both came to hang out, so I was able to come up with some new things for us to occupy our time. Friday night I picked them up from the Amtrak station...that was an adventure in itself trying to get there. Siri had me driving all over the place but I finally made it to them. That night they stayed at my place then Saturday morning we got to it.
After sleeping in we finally got moving and went to Dat Dog for lunch. Nothing like a good alligator sausage to kick off your weekend! Our first destination was Mardi Gras World. Mom and I have been there before but I thought Dad would really enjoy it too. They got into the spirit by trying on costumes like the ones that the float riders wear. Then we toured the area where the artists work their magic creating all the pieces on the floats. Dad poked around checking out the frames and hitches underneath. It was cool to see everything up close, not moving, and in the daylight! A little different than watching the parades rolling.
After spending time witnessing "where Mardi Gras is made" we ventured to the French Quarter to visit the Voodoo Museum. I had never been there before so it was a first experience for all of us. There were lots of things to read about the famous Voodoo Queen: Marie Laveau as well as other key figures in the African-based belief. Throughout the museum people have left offerings of money, make-up, coins, trinkets, cigarettes, etc.
Once we had seen all there was to see at the Voodoo Museum we wandered around the Quarter some. To get the full tourist effect we walked down Bourbon Street for a bit. Along our stroll we came across a wedding second line making its way down Royal as well as a cool band. Note the fella singing in the video below is simultaneously playing the guitar, drum (his purple suitcase) and tambourine (with his foot)!
