Greg and Kami: 2011

Greg and I went to New Orleans for Christmas and visited our good friend Steve Schulkens who was our official tour guide and host during our stay.

On the 28th we went to the famous oak Alley Plantation. On the way Steve had to stop to get a drink so Greg and I went exploring. After just a short walk we found ourselves at the bank of the great mississippi river, very close to the big barges they ship things up and down the river with. it was cool! Later we arrived at the plantation. It was one of the most beautiful houses I have ever seen and the oak trees that lined the front walk were seriously incredible. While we were there we saw the 2011 King and Queen of the Mardi Gras durring their photo shoot. They had some of the most beautiful costumes! So cool. Later that night we had steak at the Harbor, and played pool. Then went to see the lights at the city park. There they had covered one of those old oak trees with white LED lights and had more lights coming down from the tree like it was melting. It was by far my favorite!

On the 29th Greg and I walked to the edge of Lake Punchatrain and played catch on the bank! It was about 70 degrees today and Greg was wearing shorts...Beautiful! After that we came home and played cards and ate lunch. Later at night we all went down town to Fulton street where they have fake snow, and then burbon street where there are tons of resurants and bars and live music! We saw some jazz and some karaoke and then Steve treated us to dinner at the Galatrion, a very fancy resturant that requires nice dress and they even have extra suit coats incase you didn't wear one in the night. The Galatrion does not take reservations and it is said that once the president of the united states came to New Orleans to eat there and he had to wait in line for a table just like everyone else!

On the 30th we went to the French Quarter to the French market and then the Hurricane Katrina Museum. The museum was really good and it depected well what happened and had many reccordings of people telling their stories about their experience durring the hurricane and after. So many people lost everything they had! Wow. It the court yard in front of the museum was a street magician doing magic tricks. We stopped to see a few tricks and were totally blown away. He had Greg think of a card, find it in the deck then mix it in the deck and put the deck of cards in the box. Then he guessed the card. it was crazy! then he did the old balls and cups trick except at the end of the trick some how a coconut was on the table! what! The magic show was one of my favorite parts of our outing that day. Later in the evening we went to the Harbor where Greg got his favorite steak and then we played pool (well cut throat because there were 3 people) out of 6 games, I won 3, Steve won 2 and Greg won 1 game. I guess it just wasn't gregs day.

On New Years Eve. we went down town and had Gumbo a famous southern dish, and walked down Burbon Street and enjoyed some live music and karaoke, and did a bit of dancing. It was over 70 Degrees there and such a nice night! Near the stroke of midnight we made our way to the edge of the Mississippi river where we enjoied fireworks on the lake! and to some up the night had desert at the Hard Rock Cafe. About 1:00am we rode the street car back towards Steve's house and he took us to the airport. We rested on the benches untill we could go through security and get on our plane. We were late coming in to Charollette there we were to catch a connecting flight to Syracuse and had to run across the airport hoping to make it on the plane, but after all that we found out our flight to Syracuse had been cancelled because of fog and they planned to fly us to Syracuse the next morning! Greg was not ok with that and after some phone calls they said we could fly out to Philadelphia then Syracuse and be back home around 11:00pm January 1st. .. not the best way to start the new year! Needless to say it made for one of the longest days of our lives... especially after partying all night the night before! Though it wasn't a great ending, It was a wonderful trip!

This is where we went to a catholic mass Sunday morning. It is one of the oldest cathedrals still running in the USA! Isn't it beautiful!

We went on a Hurricane Katrina tour and saw whats left of the 9th ward. See where those steps are, thats where someones house was before the levee broke. Crazy!