Date Night

It was fun last night to get out of the house for and evening out on the town with Ray. After we rushed home from work, let the dogs out, made a quick clothes change, we met our friends Angela and Steve for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. The food was nothing to comment about, but we always have a great time when the four of us hang out.

We made a quick pit-stop for candy at Bass Pro Shop (they had quite the selection, who knew?!?!?), then headed to the CenturtyTel Center for the Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, and Brad Paisley concert. These are country musicians for those of you not in the know. We were running a bit late so missed Darius Rucker perform, but we mainly went to see Dierks Bentley...and he did not disappoint. If you ever get the chance to see him, GO! He is so much fun live and can't wait to see him again next time he comes through town.


I told Ray before the show that we could leave whenever he was ready (we both had long weeks and neither of us are huge Brad Paisley fans). Well, Paisley hadn't made it through his first song before Ray asked if I was ready to bounce! I'm surprised to say that I was enjoying myself and wanted to stay a bit longer. Although his lyrics are EXTREMELY corny, and feel his music is totally studio produced country, Brad Paisley was quite the entertainer! He is amazing on the guitar and his band was fantastic. At one point during the song, "Waiting on a Woman" Ray turned to me and said, "This is a great song to hang myself to." I knew at that point it was time to head home...too funny!

Highlights from Trip

Herding Cats

Today got off to a late start which gave me a bit of time to hit the much needed hotel gym. A walk through the French Quarter and Jackson Square brought the tour to brunch at Muriel’s to experience a feast for the senses. These meals have truly been spectacular and I would recommend each place I’ve eaten up to this point.

We then toured the Louisiana State Museum’s Presbytere where we learned more about Mardi Gras and Zulu (the originally all black Krewe). This year marks the 100th Anniversary of this krewe and the Presbytere was was putting the finishing touches on this new exhibit. Also at the museum was two woman who make Mardi Gras masks and presented us each with one! There were absolutely gorgeous and can’t wait to hang mine in my office.

We returned to the hotel to pick out costumes and change. I have to admit that mine was more revealing than I would have preferred, but it fit me perfect. It was a blast getting dressed up in costume and mask; it made me feel like a kid again at Halloween. We were all dressed in costumes and joined up with the Phunny Phorty Pehellow – they have a Twelfth Night (tonight, aka the epiphany) streetcar ride that heralds the arrival of the Carnival season. Our tour had the great fortune of joining this group on their streetcar! It was such and amazing experience and one that I will treasure for many years to come.

Then we were off to dinner, YES, all dressed in costume to GW Fins (pretty upscale joint, but nobody batted an eye when we walked in…only in New Orleans…or Vegas I guess). Executive Chef Tenny Flynn came out and chatted with our table several times and even gave a demonstration on how to make Banana’s Foster…No, I will not be attempting this dessert at home; I would probably set the place on fire.

We had plans to go to a couple parties, but majority ruled to take a quick drive to see the lower 9^th ward where the majority of the hurricane devastation took place; that was a sight to see. You know, New Orleans is nothing like I thought it would be…I love it here and think it is a spectacular city. I can’t wait to make my way back here to see more if its sights.

Oh and Yes, I am having the time of my life on this trip. What I haven’t described are some of my not so glamorous job responsibilities. My counterpart, Jennifer, and I are in charge of getting all 9 other tour participants to each destination on time so we can fit in everything . You know how people are; they all want to be on their own agenda…so getting all 11 of us in two cars and to the next destination on time has been described as herding cats; which really is the perfect analogy.

You Are My Sunshine

Well today has been packed full of more great food, education and making new friends. The day started out foggy and damp in Baton Rouge where we took a very quick trip to the new State Capital Building (we saw where the Louisiana House of Representatives and Senate meet) and then to the Louisiana State Museum for a great exhibit on Mardi Gras.

Lunch was hosted at the White Oak Plantation where world renowned Chef John Folse spoke on Louisiana and gave a cooking demonstration on King Cake (pictured to the right is the Pastry Chef, not John Folse and I must add that the cake tasted much different from the kind we had yesterday…much better in my opinion) and Queen’s Soup. The main course was a delicious crab cake. From there we went to tour Laura Plantation, which was a Creole sugar cane plantation, something I knew nothing about before today.

We arrived in New Orleans around 5pm for a quick break and then on to dinner at Palace Café (owned by the Brennan’s), yet another tremendous meal....I'm telling you, if I ate like this everyday I'd be 500 lbs by the end of 2009! Well my main entrée was Shrimp Tchefuncte – Creole seasoned Gulf shrimp sautéed with mushrooms and scallions, with a Creole meuniére sauce, served with Louisiana popcorn rice...mmmmmmmmmmm.

Once dinner ended, everyone was interested in taking a quick trip down Bourbon Street. The best way that I could describe the scene is a dirty version of downtown Vegas without the casinos. Not a place I would want to be walking around by myself at night, that’s for sure! But everyone enjoyed taking in the sights.

I have to mention that I am really enjoying getting to know each of the travel journalists. They have all traveled the world; they’re all so interesting and have so much to talk about.

Oh, and one of the many things I have learned today is that the song, “You Are My Sunshine” is the state song on Louisiana…how fun is that?!?!

Hungry???? Not Me!

Yes, I have been eating my way across South Louisiana! Before this trip I clearly remember turning to Ray and saying, "I think I'll actually loose weight while I'm on this trip, I don't think I really even like Cajun food." Well I'm "eating" those words now. All the food I've eaten has been AAAAAAMAZING! I figure that I might as well enjoy it all while I'm here. I enjoyed my first piece of King Cake this morning, quite tasty. Francesca, I also had my first taste of bread pudding this afternoon...not bad, not bad at all. For dinner I had a very rich creole shrimp and crawfish pasta. I hope I'll be able to button my pants on Thursday when I return home.

I wanted to share some of the highlights from today. They include:

• Breakfast at T-Coon's in Lafayette
  
• Jean Lafitte Center where we watched a video on the history of the Acadians/Cajuns and one on a group of people that used to live in the swamp lands
• Vermilionville - a replica village that is located on the banks of the Bayou Vermilion. It recreates the life of the Acadiana area between 1765 and 1890. There was a wonderful food demonstration on how to make King Cake and the history behind them. We enjoyed lunch at their restaurant and stayed for a bit of Zydeco music and dancing!
• Headed to Baton Rouge where we checked into the hotel and got about an hour and a half of much needed rest time
• A cocktail reception was held in the hotel lounge followed by dinner at The Chimes Restaurant. An executive coach drove us tonight to dinner and it was one of the nicest I've been in - complete with leather seating, plasma screen televisions and a bar...talk about riding in style!

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings...I don't think I need to worry about going hungry...

Mardi Gras Tour of South Louisiana

It is amazing how much you can do and learn in 24 hours! I love that I am learning so much about Louisiana; the history, its people, food, music, scenery, mardi gras...I'm just taking it all in. Saying that yesterday was wonderful would be an understatement and I don't think that this short post will do it justice...but I'll try but giving a time-line of events.

8am – Breakfast at Southern Spice…didn’t eat anything out of the ordinary

9am – Driving tour of the Charpentier Historic District in Lake Charles, LA

11am – Drove to Eunice, LA

Noon – Lunch at the Krazy Cajun where I enjoyed my first ever bowl of gumbo!!! AND I LOVED IT!!!!

1pm – Stopped by the Eunice Depot Museum where we learned all about the town's Mardi Gras traditions. It sounds like so much fun and not at all the traditional form of the celebration that I envision in my head. Their Mardi Gras day is spent in the countryside, many on horseback, in home-made costumes and screen masks. I would love to celebrate with them and think I need to start a petition for the state to declare Mardi Gras an official state holiday so that I can go join in on the fun & festivities.

2:30pm – A quick stop at the Cajun Music Hall of Fame and Museum

3pm – Went to the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center for a Cajun jam session with a band and a cooking demonstration. I tried boudin for the first time even (I’d never even heard of it before) – it was alright, but I’m not going to be craving that anytime soon.

4:30pm – Tour of KBON 101.FM music station

5:15pm – Coffee break at Café Mosaic

6pm – Attended Lovesick Blues: An Evening with Hank Williams Sr. at the Liberty Theater. It was all about Hank Williams life with impersonator Hugh Harris singing 26 of his hits…very enjoyable…see below for a quick clip of the show. Oh, and our seats were in the front row!

8:30pm – Hit the road for Lafayette

9:15pm – Checked into the hotel

9:30 – Dinner at the Hilton

I got to my room around 10:45 and was excited to update my blog…unfortunately I wasn’t able to connect to the internet and gave up after 20 minutes.

Today has been just as full and fun in Lafayette…I’ll be posting about today after I get back to my room this evening. We’re already in Baton Rouge and aren't wasting any time.

Lake Charles, LA

As promised, I would blog while on my trip...however I didn't anticipate that my day would be so full...I'm just now got to my room at 11pm. Things got off to a bit of a rocky start - Enterprise Rental Car took much longer than planned and then the stop for lunch was a disaster. Who knew that a lunch at the Cracker Barrel would take nearly an hour and a half...for eggs & bacon no less! A couple of the writers had some delays (and lost luggage, for a few hours at least), but it has been smooth sailing now that everyone has arrived.

We kicked things off with a tour of the Lake Charles Mardi Gras Museum. This museum boasts to have the largest Mardi Gras costume display in the world, and I must admit that it was quite spectacular. Check me out wearing one of the queen head-pieces. Anne, the woman hosting the museum tour, insisted that everyone put it on!!! Maybe someone should be checking my head for lice…ewwww.

It was time for dinner which leads us to the Snake River Grill at the L’Auberge du Lac Resort/Casino. Talk about an amazing dining experience! They truly gave us the royal treatment with each course. This was complete with bacon wrapped dates, crepe duck rolls, lamb-popsicles, onion rings, filet mignon, roasted garlic, lobster mashed potatoes and yes, crème brule for dessert. We were all so full and sleepy that no one was interested in staying at the casino for some gaming…probably for the best.

Below you can check out the video of Gumbeaux Gator, the official ambassador of the SWLA Convention & Visitor's Bureau.

Bring It On 2009

I don't know about you, but I absolutely love New Years. It's such a great time to reflect back on what the year has brought and an even better time to look into the future and set some goals for the year to come. I also think about all that I have learned and how I have grown in the past 12 months. 2008 really was great to me and I am so excited to see what 2009 brings, always an adventure.

I can't help but think about where I was and what I was doing the year before at the same time. If you asked me January 1, 2008 where I'd be today, there is no way that I would tell you I'd be loving living in Louisiana getting ready to go on a 7 day, 6 night tour of South Louisiana for work! That's right, I'm headed down south tomorrow morning and will be traveling throughout the state with 8 writers to learn all about Mardi Gras and how different parts of Louisiana celebrate. I'll be blogging from the road...so stay tuned!

Happy New Year!!!