Welcome to New Orleans

What a great weekend.

Early, early Friday morning Becca and I set out on another anniversary adventure. This time last year we were hitting the streets of New York, but this time we headed south to New Orleans. Katie's wedding was Saturday, and my birthday was Sunday; in other words, we knew it would be a great time.

We must have been traveling at light speed or something, because we arrived in New Orleans before lunchtime. We had the whole afternoon to browse around the French Quarter and see what we could see. We enjoyed a delicious po-boy/muffaletta lunch, and did some serious shopping.

Friday night we hit Bourbon Street for my first ever night out in New Orleans (seriously, the last time I was there I was in the third grade or something). We went to Pat O's and enjoyed a hurricane (or maybe two), but things didn't get too crazy because Katie's wedding was at 11 Saturday morning.

Becca started off Saturday morning worrying me to death about whether we were leaving early enough for the wedding, whether we knew where we were going, if we were going to get there in time, etc, etc, etc. (The worrying continued throughout the course of the day relating to just about anything and everything.) We did actually almost miss the wedding because our directions were not exactly right; special thanks to the man and his son who paused their untangling of Christmas tree lights in their front yard to give us the much-needed directions. Also, once we finally arrived at the church, we had a bit of a parking debacle, but it all ended up perfectly. We got to the wedding with about 6.5 minutes to spare, and Becca practically sprinted into the church.

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous, and unbelievably meaningful. The church and reception location themselves were gorgeous; Katie's dress was the most uniquely beautiful thing I've ever seen; every little detail was special and unique; the homily was one of the greatest tributes to a couple I could ever imagine; Katie and Luke's adoration for each other oozed out of their every smile and touch. Also, above all of that, I got to spend some time with friends I've had practically as long as I can remember, and I had such a great time laughing and catching up with all of them.

Saturday night Becca, Patsy, and I had a phenomenal dinner at Court of Two Sisters then headed back to Bourbon Street, where we met Suzy, Tyler, and Casey. We danced the night away at Razoo, and I rang in my 24th (how did that happen??) birthday with a brief appearance on stage. The night ended with the Becca's wallet being "stolen," and we huddled together on the side of Bourbon to make calls to the credit card company, etc. Poor Becca was an emotional rollercoaster and called just about every member of her family at about 2:30AM; thank goodness we managed to convince her that a call to her mom wasn't necessary...

Before getting on the road Sunday, I experienced another New Orleans "must" for the first time: beignets at Cafe Du Monde. They were as to-die-for as everyone says, and I came away covered in a fine film of powdered sugar.

If it took us light speed to get there, it took us just the opposite to get home. Becca and I both felt like it was years before we saw the lights of Columbus, but we laughed all the way back.

Where will we be this time next year?? We're saying Chicago...