We Lost, But Memories Were Made

Walter asked me a couple months ago what I wanted for Christmas.  I told him a vacation.  I love to be on the go and I love seeing new places.  When I said a vacation, I was thinking with the kids, and I knew I wouldn't get it.  After all it's hunting season and going out of town is not on Walter's favorite things to do list! 

 

When he came home one day and said Merry early Christmas, we are going to New Orleans to the Sugar Bowl to watch Alabama play, I was shocked!  A vacation?  With no kids?  No way!  We haven't been out of town without kids since I was 11 weeks pregnant with the twins... so about 3 years ago.  We took that trip because we figured it wouldn't happen for a while once we had 3 kids!  Neither one of us have ever been to New Orleans so I was pumped.  Thankfully, my Mom stayed each night here with the kids and my Dad, Dale, Erica, and Paige helped with them during the day. 

We packed all we could into our trip.  We left January 1st at 6:45 in the morning.  We made it to Slidell before stopping to eat lunch at a place called Nola's.  I had my first shrimp po boy and it was yummy!  Walter had his first seafood "fix" too.  We left there and went straight to downtown NO.  We we first pulled up to Canal St we heard a boom.  We both thought we were encountering a shooting!  Haha!  Instead it was some mean teenagers throwing fireworks near a homeless person sitting on a bench in the middle of the day.  Sad.  We finally found parking and met up with Walter's parents to ride a Riverboat Cruise that took us to the War of 1812 Battlefield.  It was a nice ride along the river.  When we got back it was turning dark.  We wanted to experience Bourbon St, so we headed that way.  Wow!  How sad it is to see women posing in doorways wearing barely anything trying to lure you in.  Not much there for us now that we are old, so we headed on out. 
Thursday was game day and we decided to stay out of NO until that night.  We took it easy and stayed in the Slidell area visiting a little county store called Bayou Country, had some beignets for the first time, ate some authentic seafood, and then went on a swamp tour.  We saw turtles, a juvenile bald eagle, other birds, raccoons, a cottonmouth, and a water snake on our tour.  The houseboats people live on were interesting to say the least.  By the time we made it back to the hotel to get ready for the game it was COLD!  With a little, okay a lot, of maneuvering we found our parking deck and went in the Superdome!  Huge place!  I loved the pregame show, fireworks, the game was exciting even if we didn't pull off a W, and the halftime show was good too.  We could see the field good even though we were high up.  Definitely the best Alabama game I've ever been to.  After we lost, I wanted to stay to see if they dropped confetti.  Walter thought I was crazy but he waited anyway.  The field was rushed and no confetti, so we thought.  We did get to see a crazy OU fan run in circles on the field with security chasing him and then dragging him off the field.  That was exciting. 
This morning we woke up, Walter turned it on ESPN, and guess what I spotted?  Confetti!  What in the world!  Major disappointment that we missed it!  They need to pull the cord faster next time!
We got to sleep past 6:30 both mornings, enjoy peace and quiet, eat alone, have uninterrupted conversations and are now refreshed!