Michael and I recently took a 3 day trip to New Orleans, LA. (Michael had a conference for work.) We put Karis to bed Thursday evening at his parents house. Of course, I shed more than I few tears, and I rubbed her tummy much longer than usual. I knew Karis was in very good hands, but I was going to miss my little buddy.
Friday morning, we woke up before the sun, treated ourselves to some coffee, picked up our friends Lee and Kelli, and began the long drive. The road trip actually went by very quickly. Michael and Lee sat up front talking business, while Kelli and I sat in back chatting about parenting, Pinterest, and everything in between.
The first thing we did upon our arrival: EAT! New Orleans is all about food, and we brought our appetites. La Bayou Restaurant is located on Bourbon Street, near our hotel. I had a delicious catfish po' boy.
After lunch, the business people (Michael, Lee, and Kelli) had a meeting. Here's where I get my venting out of the way. While they were in their meeting, I went to milking prison. Since I was spending the weekend away from my little princess, I had to continue to express milk in order to prevent my supply from drying up. Every six hours, I sat in my hotel bed pumping. I think I pumped over 60 ounces while we were gone. Two of the pumping sessions were done in the car. (The guys said they didn't even notice. Ooh, I'm good!) Storing the milk was a little bit of a pain too, but it was too heartbreaking to dump it all. We were assigned a room with a broken mini bar; that was replaced quickly. The rooms did not have microwaves. A hotel worker told me I couldn't microwave steam my bottles due to liablity. After some begging and explaining, he took my equipment to housekeeping and microwaved it for me. Hang in there, I'm almost done complaining. At one point, I was on the verge of tears, "This isn't fair! We're in New Orleans, and I'm locked in this hotel room, a slave to my pump." Michael's response: "Would you rather be sitting in a meeting listening to people talk about coils and condensers?" Good point! "No thank you. I'll continue pumping and reading my book."
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| Pat O's Piano Lounge |
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| Boat, Charlie, Michael |
Saturday morning, breakfast was provided at 7:45. Somehow, we threw ourselves together for that. Luckily, I got to go back to the room for a nap. For lunch, a college friend living in the area took us out for a local favorite, outside of the French Quarter. Satsuma Cafe was kind of a hipster joint with interesting sandwich combinations. My mozzarella, basil, and tomato on ciabatta was scrumptious, and Michael's roasted pear and brie melt literally made my mouth water. Not only was the food great, so was the conversation. We really enjoyed catching up with a friend that we hadn't seen in a year. After lunch, we had to stop by the world famous Cafe Du Monde for some scrumptious beignets covered in a mountain of powdered sugar.
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| Pretty sure beignets will be served in Heaven |
Saturday's dinner was provided by the hotel. It was delicious, but I'll spare you the details. Sunday morning I was ready to roll! I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:30 am. I wanted to cram in as much fun as possible before leaving town. We had omelets at Cafe Beignet. Yum! Then we walked straight on over to the aquarium. I was super giddy to see the aquatic life.
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| Waiting in line at Cafe Beignet |
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| Aquarium |
