New Orleans... and the MS150

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well the decade is over, and I think we can all agree that we are ready for 2010. Though personally I can't complain much. This decade I got my kitty, Malachi, finished college with my Masters Degree, bought a house, bought a new car, got a kick ass job, found a wonderful boyfriend, gained an extended family, lost said extended family (not a bad thing), and got to travel.. a lot!

So, in order to start this new decade off right, we had to do something super fun. So Jeremy and I decided on new years eve that we would go to New Orleans for the weekend :) We went on Expedia, got a hotel, and took off at 6am new years day for a 5.5 hr car ride to Bourbon Street. Our trip was awesome! We stayed for 2 nights and saw a ton of live music each day and into the night. We saw a lot of Jazz including the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. We also saw a band called Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers. You should definitely check out their CD 'Up in Flames' on iTunes. In addition to the guitar, bass and drums, they have an accordion and a washboard. Very unique and very high energy.

While in town we also spent time at Cafe' Du Monde (of course), and walked around the garden district. . We took the St. Charles trolley of death to get down there. Man, those things are old. We also picked up some nice art in Jackson Square. I'm hoping to get it framed sometime soon (maybe even tonight). Also, here's a fact of interest if you are visiting New Orleans... use the free parking at Harrah's casino. So the deal is this, you park your car in the garage and then enter the casino. Ask for a free total rewards card. Go gamble for 30 minutes (we played the penny slots) and then go back to the rewards desk. If you play for 30 minutes they'll validate you're parking for you for 24 hours. We did this and it was a great deal. The second day I even won $1.25 while playing my 30 minutes. Each day you just have to go back, move the car out of the garage and pull it back in with a new ticket to get validated. Super easy and way nicer than paying $30 to park for the night. Thanks to Ami and Randy for telling us about this one.

If you want, check out all the pictures on my flickr page HERE.

Oh and before I forget. Help me raise money for the MS150 this year! I'm already at $950 and I'm trying to get over $1500. You can follow the link HERE to donate to this great cause!