Return to NOLA

Almost exactly one week ago, Chris and I got back from our very quick trip to New Orleans (otherwise known as NOLA)! We left early Friday morning and returned Sunday evening; it was a total of about 19-20 hours altogether. Needless to say, we were quite exhausted! The reason for the weekend get-away you ask? A friend of Chris' from seminary was getting married and he was a groomsman. Congratulations Ashlee and Aaron! They had a lovely wedding with a fun and very upbeat reception, we just wish we hadn't been so exhausted!

It was French Quarter Fest in New Orleans that weekend with live jazz in the evenings and a lot of art vendors, etc in Jackson Square during the day. Apparently though, we were a week early for the show Nicholas Cage supposedly put on the following weekend, this weekend. Perhaps if he was there when we were, we could have warned him about his bad choices. It was so great to be back in that city! I spent almost 3 months in 2007 in New Orleans as a Project Leader with Adventures in Missions. Together with my team, we led youth groups from around the country in helping to rebuild the city after Katrina. The hotel Chris and I stayed in was nearly in the French Quarter and not far from the house I lived in, in 2007! Unfortunately, we did not have time to swing by it and visit that cozy little place on Polymnia. Hopefully we can go back and visit some other, less busy, time and spend a little more time walking around than we were able to on that weekend. Here are some pictures of our weekend! We weren't able to have many of just the two of us, I wasn't that trusting to ask strangers to do it for us. Maybe next time.

Venturing out Saturday morning before wedding commitments. Beautiful weather!

This picture and the four below are all in Jackson Square in the French Quarter. There
were a lot of artists with their work set out, fortune tellers, performers, etc.

Looks like a normal little motorized vehicle maybe?

Think again! It was a transformer! This 14 year old kid was taking donations for this very impressive act! It's hard to see in this picture, but he was wearing the top of the car on his back, and then folded to the ground with the four wheels he had on his hands/arms and his feet. Pretty cool!

A silver painted man! He did robotic moves to techno music. It was pretty funny!

Ashlee and Aaron's reception at a Jazz hall. These girls were Ashlee's friend and are standing around the cake. They did a "Cake Pull" which I guess is a tradition of sorts but each girl held onto a string outside of the cake and pulled, revealing a little trinket on the other end. I think it was a game but couldn't get a good view.

They hired a jazz band that paraded around the room, led by the bride and groom toting bedazzled black and white umbrellas! Very unique, very cultural!

We had fun celebrating with them while remembering our own wedding that was almost one year ago! It's so hard to believe we've almost been married a year! But, that'll be a post for later...