NOLA with the greatest friends!

I recently took the most amazing trip down to New Orleans with 2 of my best girlfriends!  Jamie, Meg and I decided to book a fun trip together (we missed our Tara who could not make it!) and we are so blessed to have such kind, generous and capable husbands who held down our respective forts back home and became stay-at-home Dads for a few days.  I had never been to New Orleans so I was very excited to not only spend a few days catching up with my great friends but to also experience a new city.

We went from Wednesday to Sunday, so we had a number of days to explore (i.e. eat/drink/shop!).  We stayed at the quaint Bourbon Orleans Hotel that sits right in the heart of the French Quarter (might as well get the full experience, we figured!).  We ate the most delicious meals at various restaurants in the area, just taking recommendations from locals and stopping in to grab a table.  We of course spent our first morning at Cafe Du Monde, ordering beignets and coffee amidst a sea of other tourists.  Those beignets were tasty though, I must say!  One afternoon, we headed to the Garden District and had lunch at the historic Commander's Palace Restaurant.  The food was amazing and we spent some time walking through the neighborhood afterwards, which was really fun.  It's a pretty, quiet area and offered such a drastic change of scene from the French Quarter where we spent the bulk of our time.  We also spent an evening living it up along Bourbon Street, taking in the scene and ordering a round of hurricanes!  It was an experience - we shared a lot of laughs as we walked through the streets.  People-watching at it's finest!

After 2 great days in New Orleans, we headed about 2 hours east towards Bay St. Louis, MS, where Meg's family has a vacation home.  We knew we'd need some R&R after a few days in New Orleans, and this adorable, tiny beach town was just perfect.  The pace is slower, the people are friendlier, and the beachfront views are so pretty!  We (once again!) ate some really delicious meals and enjoyed our days just popping into shops and chatting.  One afternoon, Meg's parents treated us to a day of bike rides along the shore!  They are friendly with the owners of the beachfront bike rental store and had it all set up for us.  We felt like kids as we rented our bikes and rode down the beach's bike path for hours one afternoon.  It was fantastic!

When Sunday arrived, it was really hard to part ways with these girls, but also great to know we'd be greeted back home with lots of hugs from the kids and exhausted husbands.  Ha ha.  And - now that Meg's headed to Luxembourg for her husband's job transfer, we're dreaming up our next girls' trip - perhaps Paris!  Ha - we'll see!