New Orleans!

My surprise birthday trip this year was to New Orleans! As usual, Stuart did an impressive job of keeping it a secret. He thinks that I knew because I gave him 3 guesses, one of which happened to be New Orleans, but I swear that was just that- a lucky guess.

Anyway, we stayed at the Westin New Orleans, with absolutely incredible views of the French Quarter as well as the Mississippi River.

And it happened to be strategically located next to the Harrah's New Orleans. But I am sure that Stuart had no idea of that fact when he booked the place.

The second day we were there, Friday, we took at drive to Mississippi to add another state to our list. One the way, we stopped to check out Port Ponchartrain Lighthouse.

We also had our first look at the unbelievable destruction from Hurricane Katrina. We drove through an area near the banks of Lake Ponchartrain that appeared to be a total loss. There were a few houses that were rebuilt, but the vast majority of the properties were boarded up and abandoned. We also drove through another area where there were just carcasses of stores- we recognized WalMart and ToysRUs.

As we drove further, we hit Biloxi, MS. The Biloxi Lighthouse was literally in the middle of the road.

Unfortunately, most of that portion of the Mississippi coast seems to have been wiped out by Katrina. There were very few homes and businesses where one would expect to see hotels and condos all over the place. Sad.

The following morning, we took a tour of the city's above ground cemeteries. We never did get a straight answer as to exactly why the graves were above ground. Our tour guide began the tour by telling us about the history of cemeteries and how many of the dead were found floating by in floods. But he later told us that that notion was a myth and the above ground burial was actually a Spanish tradition. So who knows. But it was pretty fascinating anyway. They were very eerie looking and I would not want to be stuck there at night. Plus there were some graves of voodoo priestesses, which upped the creepiness factor. And let me tell you, it was HOT. I thought my shoes were going to melt to the ground. I cannot even imagine being there in August.

Later in the day, we hit a great Imax movie "Hurricane on the Bayou", and then checked out the aquarium. I made friends.

The next day, we went on a plantation tour, which may have been one of my favorite parts of the trip.

We first visited Laura, which was a Creole sugar plantation. It was a beautifully restored home with tons of interesting history. If you'd like to read about it, look here.

We then went a few miles to Oak Alley plantation, the home of a very wealthy French family. We got to enjoy some mint juleps to give us a bit of a southern experience. This home is one of the more well-known plantations and has been the setting of a number of movies. You can read more about it here.

I hope Stuart doesn't mind, because I know he hates pictures of him. But I really liked this shot.

The final day, we had planned to visit the Garden District. Unfortunately, there were all of these crazy thunderstorm and tornado warnings, so we ended up hanging out at the hotel until we had to leave. It turned out that we only ended up getting a few drops of rain where we were. And it started to clear up.

As anyone who has ever been to New Orleans can attest, the food there is AMAZING!! I cannot even describe how well we ate all weekend. If anyone is planning a trip there, talk to me and I will be happy to give some recommendations.

And if you want to see the rest of the pictures, you can find them here.

Once again, Stuart plans a perfect birthday weekend. Isn't he the best??

Up next, we are off to Jamaica to kick off the summer.