The Big Easy

We recently returned from a trip to New Orleans.  We had gone for our first visit to The Big Easy, 10 years ago, for my Mom's 65th birthday.  We all had a ball.  For Christmas, my Mom took us all again.  This time to celebrate her 75th birthday.  Again, we had a great time!!!  We tried to visit new places this time.  As well as a few of our old favorites from the trip before.  My photos were a real disappointment.   My friend Teresa was also going to be in New Orleans the same time we were, so we were hoping to get to meet up.  But I'm afraid the timing didn't work for us.  If you want to see some really wonderful photos of New Orleans, go visit her blog, where the link is included above in her name.  She truly captured the beauty of this wonderful historic city, so rich in colorful culture!  We left home at 4:00 AM and arrived in The Crescent City about 4:00.  With our big group, it was more cost effective to take a limo from the airpost to the hotel.  Woo-Hoo....Laissez les bon temps rouler!!  LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!!!

We stayed at The Embassy Suites Hotel, just a short walk from the French Quarter.  By the time we got settled into our rooms, we were all pretty weary, so we walked across the street to Mother's.  It was lightly raining, but it wasn't too bad.  We had visited Mother's on our last trip, and loved it.

Every place we went to eat, we had them sing Happy Birthday to our Mom!
After a good sleep, we started the next day with our cook to order breakfast in the atrium of our hotel.

 Can you see how gray my hair is?  I am doing it.  Going all gray!  Much to my family's dismay.

We decided to walk to the trolly and take it to the French Quarter and just walk around and see the sights.

There were 15 of us in our group, so we nearly filled the entire trolly ourselves.  Lovely shot of me, just about to plant my ample behind into a seat!
We all kind of took off in different directions, walking around, listening the music on every street corner.

Jackson Square is good place to people watch.

After walking around the city for awhile, we wound up at Central Grocery  for one of their famous Muffuletta sandwiches.  We had gone there last time on the advice of my good friend who lives in Baton Rouge.  She was right, it was the best sandwich in the world.

Tujague's Bar was kind of the central meeting place for a cool beverage, and rest.  My little brother handed me a shot of Fireball.  I think all of my brothers were a bit surprised when I downed it in one gulp.  I am not a drinker.  So seeing their sister down a shot of fireball was picture worthy!  You can see another brother, Dave, behind me, taking a picture with is phone, and his wife Glenda, taking a photo with her phone.

Walking around one night, we came across this chalk painted sign out in front of a bar.  It cracked me up!

We were looking at all of the artwork in the streets, and found a painting that we thought would make a nice gift for Mom.

The artist who painted it said his name was Artis Lewis!  He began to paint at age 7, and Artis is his given name.  He was destined to become an "ARTIST" I think.  We asked him if he could paint over the subway sign on the side of the Trolly and write a personalized message in the space for our Mom.  We had him put the date of her birthday in one corner, and New Orleans in another.  Then in the white space on the side of the Trolly, he wrote Happy Birthday Mom.  We gave it to her on Tuesday, for her birthday.  She loved it!
Here is how I wrapped it.  I just wrapped the cardboard that Artis shipped it to us in, with brown Kraft paper, and then using colored pencils, I wrote all of the things we did, places we ate, and printed a couple of subway art pictures I took to add to it.  I tied the mardi gras beads to the package that someone gave my Mom an I one night on Bourbon street.  I also enclosed the above photo of the artist who painted it.

I think she really liked it.

My computer is really making posting difficult!!!!  So, I will have to finish this post later.  Or I will be throwing it on floor in frustration.  This is most probably the biggest reason that I have not been blogging regularly!!!  It is just getting so hard to do, and I know it will take forever, and be frustrating, so I don't do it.
Anyway.....I will be back soon with more of our trip to New Orleans.  Also, I have several other fun things to  post about.
See you soon.
XO  Kris