a weekend down by the gulf.

last thursday h and i decided to pack the car and drive down to mobile for the weekend. we stayed with becca and kayla over the weekend. becca is h's best friend from high school. we saw her in july when we were in mobile for the state teachers conference and ate great chinese. anyway, it was time for a visit.


friday morning we left the girls' apartment at 8:30am and drove out to new orleans for the day. it was just under 2 hours west on i-10 and wasn't a bad drive. we parked on dauphin st. by a park in the french quarter so we could walk the area.


our first stop was cafe du monde for brunch.


mmmm. beignets and creole coffee. the beignets are like little doughboys from the fair with powdered sugar all over them. and the coffee was cafe au lait (half coffee half milk). it was full of sugar and more than wonderful. we also saw mike o'malley. anyone know who i'm talking about? look him up. we were 2 or 3 tables away from him. he was there with a couple of people and the entire time we were there only 2 people walked up to him to say 'hey'. that's kind of nice to see. people leaving him alone. we did not see brad and angelina.

after eating we walked the area looking at buildings and taking pictures.


these signs were on walls around the french quarter.




i'd like an apartment like this.






maine was in new orleans! it was dumaine st. i think. i had to take a picture.


we walked over to the french market back by the water and walked through looking at the goods. we actually went through there twice looking for a ring for h. we didn't find one she wanted.




we also got on a streetcar and rode it to one end and then everyone got off. the guy took pity on us or something and let us get back on without paying to watch him bring it to the end of the track and then change ends of the car he was driving from. look them up. it's kind of cool. we then took the streetcar back to the other end of the track where we got on.


this is the saint louis cathedral. huge. it was established in 1720. i think it was on one side of jackson square.




the pedestrian walkway where there was a guy painted all silver at the entrance. there was also one painted gold in a different area. the umbrellas are a little line of tarot card and palm readers. interesting. we didn't stop to be read.


check out the balcony.


we walked the riverfront area toward the city area. this is the back of the jax brewery. look at the streetcar!


we spent a lot of time on this bridge... it was really long. h got nervous but i reason that it was all right because we were so close to the water. either the water was high or the bridge was low. it's one of the bridges that lead into and out of new orleans. we were gone for almost 12 hours. we ended up driving back, picking up food for all of us at the grocer's and went back to the apartment to shower and make dinner. which, by the way, was delicious.

friday night we had thunderstorms that were kind of scary. lots of bad weather in the state. we were talking about haunted places in new orleans and ghost hunters. in the middle of talking about the movie 'hide and seek' the lights went out. kayla had just said 'charlieeeeee....' liked the little girl and we screamed and after realizing covering my eyes was not going to save me i jumped on heather over on the couch. ha. the lights came back on after maybe 30 seconds and we were fine for the rest of the night. no scary dreams (other than being prego) during the night.

saturday we hung out with the girls at the apartment for the morning. relaxing was wonderful. we also went to lunch at a mexican resturant (yum!) and wandered the fresh market. i really like fresh market. it's a little grocer's of really good for you food. i actually went yesterday to get sushi for dinner/today's lunch while i was in montgomery. but saturday while h took a nap kayla and becca gave me movie idea and we talked music. two things we all know i love.


saturday night h and i went downtown to the garage to see jess and the guys. jessica's husband david sings in a band called delilah why. they played auburn the night before they came down to mobile. i look photoshopped into the picture.


i stole jessica's camera and took a picture. she was dancing or getting a drink.


dave is in front. danny on the left. cullen on the right. and pete on the drums. check out their myspace page. delilah why. southern rock. they're good.

after a couple hours of music we went back to the apartment and watched the rest of the movie the girls were watching before everyone went to bed. we ended up driving back the following morning and our weekend came to an end. the girls were fun. loved it!

until the next adventure...
*jp