Jake Delhomme is still my hero

Trip side note:

Jake Delhomme is and always will be my favorite NFL player. The Ragin' Cajun was a gunslinger for the Panthers for many seasons and took us all the way to the Super Bowl when I was in high school. I know there are some haters out there now because he threw one or two.....or eighteen too many interceptions in his last season with the Panthers, but oh well....

ANYWAY, his alma mater (The Ragin Cajuns of Louisianna-Lafayette University) was on the way to New Orleans, so we stopped by to take a look!

Ragin' Cajuns Field

Ol' Jacob, circa 1997

Dave and Jake, circa 2009

NOLA

Onward to New Orleans! 

Courtney and I were very excited to be headed to Cajun Country for the first time in our lives. We had gotten so many recommendations regarding where to eat that we couldn't wait to sample all the authentic New Orleans cuisine....that we could afford. 

We were also excited because Courtney's good friends, Sam and Whitney, graciously let us stay at their SUPER cool house in the City.

Whit and Sam's House is beautiful and is located in the Garden District, which is a really beautiful part of the city outside of downtown.

From the SamWhit Palace, we headed to the French Quarter, where parking was a nightmare but the shops and sights were cool.

Our first stop in the morning was the CAFE DU MONDE, where we sampled the (relatively not-so-overpriced) little french    doughnuts (beignets) and coffee.....The doughnuts were covered in mounds of powdered sugar, so they were a real diabetic paradise.
(By the by, if you are going to go anywhere in New Orleans to eat, bring CASH MONEY. They will just stare at you if you try a credit/debit card.)

Stopped by Jackson Square (where Samwise popped the question to Whit!) and The St Louis Cathedral
(I also got a few pictures of all the people sleeping on benches throughout the park. Remember naptime in kindergarten? That's what it was like!)

"What actually is VOODOO?"
Everything in New Orleans is VooDoo.

Having no open container laws makes alcoholic beverages-to-go a must have at any time of the day!
(We didn't get one that morning though, sorry to everyone who recommended it.)

Much love to the Rouxs of Charlotte (and Virginia)!

Antique Shops
We found a great set of dining room chairs for our new apartment....only problem is they were $6500. JUST outside our price range......

Hotel Monteleone/ Carousel Lounge
This was actually an incredibly pretty hotel on the inside, but the notable thing from the tourist manual was the "revolving bar"--it's a bar that spins around. Pretty cool.

Poboys at Jimmy's--which was a place recommended to us by the owner of  Harry's Antiques (with the chairs.)  We were told to go to Acme Oyster House by all the tourist sites, but Harry said this place was better and cheaper. We went to Acme first and then settled on Jimmy's. Great poboys!

Bought some sweet new shades at the French Market for five big ones.

We ate out at Crescent City Brew House for dinner, which was very good....plus we had a coupon. Ballers!

Bourbon street at dusk......

Bourbon Street (and Court's head) at night! WOW!!!!!
It is brighter outside at night on Bourbon St than it is during the day on Bourbon St.

The Hand Grenades were tempting, but Whitney told us that they will make your face go numb, so............

Pat O'Brien's by day

Pat O'Brien's PIANO BAR by night! Woohoo!
I requested one of my favorite songs ("Philosophy" by Ben Folds) and threw in a dollar.......but see the thing I didn't know about piano bars is that you really should only request stupid songs like....anything by Journey...because that's all drunk people want to sing. My bad.

All in all, we had a great time in New Orleans. It's a really gorgeous city with some amazing architecture and culture....and history...and poboys....and Saints fans (worst part). We did a pretty good job of seeing all the "must sees" but would love to go back and spend even more time there!

On the way out the next day, we stopped by Ignatius for some rockin' Alligator Sausage Poboys! This place came highly recommended by Whit and Sam, so we were glad we got to try it out. VERY TASTY EATS!

"This is the last picture you are allowed to take of me eating something. Now let me  pick it up and smile."

Lake LBJ

From Carlsbad, we headed east towards Austin, TX. We couldn't have been more fortunate because we were able to stay with our family friends, The Carters, on Lake LBJ outside the city. Mr. Carter made sure that we took full advantage of "Lake Time" by riding the jet skis, wake boarding and hanging out on the sand bar--basically doing anything that we wanted to do. It was AWESOME and very relaxing.

Hello, Texas

Court was pumped about how many deer were constantly in the Carters front yard

Since we got in late in the day on our first day, Mr. Carter took us out for a scenic "sunset cruise" on the ski boat to show us the lake, which is beautiful...

Diggin' the sunset cruise

Lake LBJ

The next day we went out all day on the lake. We made friends with a family, The Summers, who were staying in the house next door. They were tons of fun and let us jump off their really tall dock all day.

Kickin it with the Summers Boys

Me

Jacko

Riley

Dub--The MacDaddy of the backflip

The Lake House

View from the front porch

We had a really, really wonderful time down in Texas. Thanks so much to the Carters! 

Onward to NOLA!

Junior Rangers do Carlsbad Caverns

As we descended into the seventh circle of He......I mean as we traveled south through New Mexico, we stopped for the day to visit Carlsbad Caverns. The Caverns were VERY cool! Not only were they spectacularly enormous and beautiful, they were also literally cool--they stay at 56 degrees year round. This was a nice break from the always-above-one-hundred temperatures outside the caves.

It was so bright...........

The Hyundai in the desert

The view from the Carlsbad Visitors center....Do you see anything but black pavement and desert?

Just junior rangering in a cave

Preparing to enter the cave

The effects of heat stroke

Listening to the $5 audio tour. We learned more about bat poop than you'd ever want to know!

Cool cave features

Glad we aren't claustrophobes

Drugs and Problem solving

The cave is HUGE.....but you can't really tell.

After leaving the Caverns, we headed back to the Motel 6 and discovered that, just across the parking lot was the most fun metropolitan area in the whole state of new Mexico--Pat's Fun City, population 4. It really was awesome, though! We got to ride go-karts (I won) and play in the batting cages. Plus, since it was a billion degrees outside, we had the whole place to ourselves--just us and Pat.

Stoked!

You could catch some sweet air coming off the ramp on turn two!

Excited to hit the slow ball

Crowding the plate

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, HOMER!

After all that we spent a good deal of time at the Motel 6 pool. It was pretty awesome. 

Next stop: Lake Lyndon Baines Johnson, outside of Austin, TX.