The Greatest Vacation of 2012 (Part 1) - New Orleans

I've been procrastinating blogging about this... mostly because I hate waiting for pictures to upload on my blog and there are a lot of pictures to upload with this post. That being said, I hope you enjoy the photo smorgasbord that was our back to back trips to Louisiana and Florida last September.

When Ben & I married, we had a goal to visit each others missions before we had kids. About a month after the honeymoon we took an trip to Belize (although I was called to the El Salvador West mission I spent only 3 months there- I was in Belize the remaining 14 months of my mission) and it was amazing. I loved introducing him to the people, showing him the places I served, and also visiting the islands I couldn't visit as a missionary. It was a fantastic experience.

On Caye Caulker, a gorgeous island off the coast of Belize

Ben served in the Louisiana Baton Rouge mission (Spanish speaking). We kept meaning to get down there but with school, work, living in DC, a miscarriage, a second pregnancy, then having our sweet Nayeli, we never could squeeze it in. Finally when Nayeli turned 3 months I knew it was a now or never sort of thing and so I began looking at ticket prices.

Meanwhile another trip was calling my name. My sister Emily lives in Naples, Florida and kept telling me we should come visit. Before I knew it, I'd booked six flights. Two that would take us to New Orleans for a week, two to Ft. Lauderdale, and two to bring us home to Utah after a four day stay in Florida.

NEW ORLEANS and BATON ROUGE

 Flight #1 or 2. To save space, we had her sit on the tray table. 

It was the perfect solution to our space dilemma.

 Daddy and baby

We ended up staying in the home of the former Bishop of the New Orleans Spanish ward- Bishop Garcia. It was the perfect place to stay and we couldn't have had a better hotel.

 Our first night we went to dinner with the Vasquez family. They were great.

 Loved spending time with them.

 A beautiful home in the French Quarter

 The best place in the French Quarter to eat beignets aka french doughnuts aka glorified scones

 See my post about citizen photographers here. I asked a man near us to take a picture of us 

and our breakfast and this is what we got. Really? We're eating world-famous New Orleans

 beignets in the French Quarter and you take a picture of just us?

 So the woman with him decided to try. Good thing she got our sleeping baby in the shot too. Besides the fact that she looks like she's dead under a shroud, I guess it could have been a worse photo.

 

So I took matters into my own hands. Not an amazing shot, but at least you can see the beignets. 

Oh and fresh squeezed orange juice. Yum.

 Jackson's Square in the French Quarter

Ben as a missionary in the same spot a few years earlier

Fun New Orleans houses

One day Ben went to film with another YouTuber for work so I had time to entertain myself. I drove an hour or so to New Iberia, LA to see a sugar plantation called the Shadows on the Teche. It was cool, but not anything I would go out of my way to see again. Especially with a six-month-old screaming in the backseat with no way to console her. Needless to say, it ended up being a really long drive.

 Partial, lame shot of the house

 Amazing tree moss

 32" roast beef Po-boys baby! And yes, that is a piece of delicious Po-boy on my face.

And on Nayeli's face. We really really enjoyed them (I ate my whole 16").

Speaking of food, Louisiana has a lot to offer besides the 32" Po-boys. While there, I got to taste Voodoo Barbeque (on St. Charles Street- of Monopoly fame), Popeye's, Raising Cane's, and Sister Garcia made us some delicious Gumbo for Sunday dinner.

 

 With Amanda, one of Ben's favorite members.

Laura and Nayeli. She made us delicious pupusas.

 All of us together

 Ermalinda. Such a wonderful woman. They found her knocking doors, 

and she was baptized a year later.

Brother Laborde in Baton Rouge. He was the ward mission leader and made us spaghetti.

 

 

The Baton Rouge temple

 We didn't get to do a session because we had Nayeli, but it was fun to see it.

 Adreana and family. She is Garifuna, like the people in Ben's documentary.

 We went on a walk on a boardwalk in the bayou. It was so pretty and we even saw a baby alligator!

 The bayou.

  One of my favorite pictures ever.

 The Vasquez family. They looooooved Nayeli.

 A New Orleans above ground cemetary. And yes, I'm only wearing one earring in this picture. 

I lost the other one somewhere in the French Quarter. Tear... 

All the graves are above ground because the water table is so high.

 The fleur de lis can be found everywhere and on everything

 Jose & Saida, as well as Luis Chicas. Luis is from the same city in El Salvador that I lived in. 

We ate pupusas with them too (a typical dish from El Salvador).

 The last night there we ate at the Bustillo's home. He is the bishop of the ward now. 

They made us a delicious food from Honduras called baleadas.

It was such a great time to get to see the places Ben served as well as meet the people that were so dear to him. New Orleans is an interesting city- it is clear that certain areas have not, or will never recover from Hurricane Katrina. However, for the most part the city has begun to rise again and I saw a class and charm there that I'd never seen before. The Big Easy was a treat and I'm so glad I got to see it.