grateful for louisiana

As promised, here is a post with pictures of my trip to Louisiana for Thanksgiving. Before going straight to Monroe this time around we decided to go early and take a trip down to Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  A big part of the reason we went early was to attend the LSU v. Ole-Miss football game which was amazing and we had great seats thanks to Harold's best friend's family.  And since we were already down south we decided to hitch a ride with Harold's friend down to Nola and he was gracious enough to also let us sleep on his couch.  New Orleans is great and most of my pics come from our time there.  We spent a lot of time walking around the French Quarter (great vintage and boutique shopping - minus bourbon street) and took a trolley train through uptown and saw some of the most amazing houses. Oh and did I mention it was like 80 degree weather?  After that we headed up to Monroe (North Louisiana) where Harold's from and had a great time with family, friends, bayou bowl, late night movies, horse rides, ping-pong and basketball tourneys, good food, car racing (wink wink), shopping and a bunch of other fun things..

Now I'll let these phone-captured pictures do the talking:

At LSU game - GEAUX TIGERS!
p.s. I need to buy new glasses- these are much too big for my face.

Best pals- Kent and Harold.  Thanks Kent and family for great seats!!!!

Mike the Tiger.  Yes, that is a REAL, LIVE TIGER in that cage- it is LSU's mascot.  For years I have been lobbying for BYU to get a real life cougar and now I see it can be done.  Although I doubt PETA is very happy with them.  But who cares, this is so cool!  I kinda wish I went there so I could visit Mike the Tiger in his $6 million habitat everyday.

After the game we went to a popular bar and played some shuffleboard.  Kent was a rockstar at it but I held my own for a  beginner.

Nothing quite like New Orleans- this is the Saints party bus that drives around on game days blasting music and carrying partying, drunk people.  

This little treat in my hand is called a Beignet, aka a french donut.  Can you say scrumptious?  It's like a soft little pillow of sweetness covered in powder sugar.  what more could a girl with a sweet tooth want? 

We walked into a mask shop which are very popular here- especially during mardi gras.  They were actually quite stunning and if I had a better camera you could see the colors and detail.  Too bad I don't get invited to too many masquerades.. 

This is where authentic jazz happens.  It was sort of a darker room so can't really tell but we listened to some good jazz by these guys and it was fantastic.  

I didnt take this picture (just found it online) but this is a glimpse of what the houses in uptown New Orleans looked like. Absolutely beautiful and amazing architecture. 

Now back in Monroe riding horses.  That's little Cutler (Harolds nephew) riding with me 

Like I said in previous post if you want to see more pictures of us in Monroe, head over to Mary Martha's blog because she took some great ones.

I had quite a great Thanksgiving and am thankful for all those that made it so great! (Especially the Abell's and Clawson's! What a trip!)