New Orleans

Last week Brandon had a professional conference in New Orleans. Since our good friends were also going, Ruby and I couldn't resist the opportunity to tag along.


Attacking Daddy after a long day at the conference

It was our first time in the Big Easy and we had a great time eating and walking around. Everyone warned me that N.O. would be dirty and dangerous, but I found it to be pretty clean for a big city (and surprisingly deserted).


Random candid picture...this is what happens when Brandon gets to hold the camera

I'm sure part of my opinion was based on the fact that we stayed in the business district and didn't live it up on Bourbon Street, but from what I've heard and seen I think the city must have changed a lot after Hurricane Katrina.


The Cathederal

The architecture in the French Quarter was amazing! Being a California girl, all I could think about was how spot on New Orleans Square is at Disneyland (dorky, I know!).


Riding the street car

Anyway, we rode the street car to Jackson Square, walked around, checked out the beautiful stained glass at the Cathedral, and ate Beignets at the world-famous Cafe DuMonde.


Ruby loved playing with the powdered sugar

If you get a chance to go be sure to bring cash. Our waitress reminded of this when we tried to pay for our french doughnuts with a credit card--"Sorry man, cash only" (imagine a 90 lb Asian girl saying this...maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny to us).


Tasty and messy

While we were there my friend Lesley and I took our kids on outings (between nap times).


Lesley's little man loved this "music truck" so much that we visited it twice while we were at the Riverwalk.

We shopped around the Riverwalk, played at the aquarium, and splashed in the pool.


Look how sweet Little Man Jospeh looked in his stroller at the aquarium

It was so great to have a friend to pal around with while Brandon was at the conference or out with customers.


Ruby and her friends chillin' out at the pool.

It was especially nice having adjoining rooms.


Close encounter at the aquarium

Because of that we each got to spend a few hours on the town with our spouses with out the kiddos.

On our last afternoon there Brandon and I took some time out for the WWII D-Day museum (which was very moving). If you plan a trip to N.O. you HAVE to spend a few hours at the WWII museum! Luckily, Ruby slept the majority of the time we were there, so we got to really soak it up.

The main focus of our trip was food, though. Every morning we had an amazing breakfast buffet at the hotel (over the course of the 3 days we ate there I'm pretty sure I tried everything but oatmeal).


Ruby's favorite dinner choices: shredded napkin, paper table cloth, and rubber ducky

We also ate fried shrimp and calamari at a local joint (Masperos), dinned on sushi, fresh crab salad, po'boys, tuna steak, and charbroiled oysters (so amazing that we ate them twice). And the every night was an opportunity for a new dessert!

The only drawback was that we didn't get any sleep. Ruby really needs her own space to be able to sleep well.


Poor baby in her orphan crib

If she can see us when she's tossing and turning chances are that she'll stare us down and cry until we let her sleep in between us (which wouldn't be so bad if she didn't want to crawl all over us at 5 in the morning).

It was a fun little adventure, but I have to admit that it's good to be home again.

One last thing...



with all this traveling I haven't had time to write an offical 8 month update on Ruby. This will have to do: the girl is crawling machiene. She also started pulling up on everything and everyone in sight about 3 days ago. It won't be long before she's truly into everything!