New Orleans Anniversary Trip

Thursday December 13th.

Unlucky 13?

We almost didn't get out of Houston.

Bernie was on a business trip to Dallas, and couldn't get a flight out due to all the storms that were delaying aircraft across America.
I was at work until 9:30 pm.

The first plan was that he would fly home, get his car at the airport, drive home, re-pack, then drive to school, then we would both leave our cars at the airport, and fly to New Orleans (NO) together.

But...if he couldn't make it...I would fly first and he would fly later and meet me in NO the next day.

(Does this sound like we are having a crazy fling together?)

THEN...he calls and says he has been able to make it home, but our flight to NO has been delayed due to bad weather back east. Our flight has been rescheduled to leave at 2 am.
He says I should drive home and we'll go to the airport after midnight.
I start driving home.

THEN Continental emails him that they have rounded up a new airplane, and it is leaving ON TIME!
In one hour!
I drove the 45 minutes home, B. jumps in the car, we raced 25 minutes to the airport, and get there 20 minutes before the flight, and guess what?
My luggage will not make the flight, but we can at least get on board.
Whew.
We flew first class for all 45 minutes of the flight.
After all the changes in plans, we felt like we had gone through a blender.

You know me...chandeliers fascinate me. These were overhead by the elevators in the Marriott in the French Quarter.
The Marriott Hotel never closed during Katrina, but instead were open to all the employee families.
Marriott gave their employees 6 million to help them get back on their feet, and then also had to completely remodel the hotel lobby.

By the lobby desk. Reminded me of the chandeliers in Italy. Gorgeous glass.

Friday: My luggage finally arrives a little after noon.

Bernie had to work all that morning anyway, so I just lolled around the room in one of his tee shirts.
We had breakfast in the room together, next to the window overlooking all of New Orleans.

Ahhh...so romantic!

Once work wrapped up, we headed out to window shop.
This ceramic reminded me of our Tidbit, the little calico who died a year ago.

This reminded me of a lot of my friends.

We decided to ride the trolley out to see Celebration In The Oaks.
The trolleys in New Orleans have been running on the same track since the late 1800's.

City Park is lit up for the holidays. Not as much as before Katrina, but still nice.
City Park has a wild history: People used to duel there all the time in the early 1800's. Hundreds of people would hang out on weekends to watch sword and pistol duels, some times three, four, five a day.
Great article about it here.

It used to be a HUGE display; you could drive your car throught the oaks for about an hour; the lights and the music were co-ordinated. But...again, Katrina has changed a lot.

At least this year they could have a mini version of their traditional Celebration.

I am so thankful we got to see it before, twice!

After the park, we wandered around the French Quarter, trying to decide where to have dinner.

Another lovely chandelier...in another hotel.

This hotel has the Carousel Bar; a bar that is goes around under a merry-go-round canopy.

Art galleries are everywhere. Love the lady in the hat.

Bernie got ahead of me in the gallery.

We had a rather poorly done dinner in a place that has been a restaurant since 1840ish. We've eaten there before, but this time it was awful.

Oh well.

Sometimes you just have to roll with what you get.

Just like in marriage, right?