We traveled immediately from NYC to New Orleans for a wedding over Memorial weekend. Alex's long time friend, Jason married Jennifer Chappell. They met in New Orleans when they both generously donated their time for hurricane katrina relief efforts in Baton Rouge. They decided to return to Louisiana for that reason, and gave us a reason as well to visit! The parts of the city we saw weren't the ones touched by the hurricane, but had experienced several feet of flooding. All damage has been repaired, so life seemed to be back to the norm for the most part. We stayed at the reception site, Maison DuPuy. Very nice! A lot nicer than NYC:). http://www.maisondupuy.com/
We arrived in the afternoon on the 22nd and immediately crashed in the rooms! Alex, Ryan and Ryder got in a few hours after, so we had some nice down time. Again, Laurel did very well with the travels. Thursday was very chill and we ate at the restaurant at the hotel. Thursday was also very wet, so we didn't walk about. Friday started out with rain but dried up a bit. I wandered the French Quarter area while Alex and the guys took care of getting tuxes. Friday evening was the Rehearsal Dinner with 5 courses! Turtle soup....that was new...tasted like ground beef. The restaurant was wonderful, but was in the midst of Bourbon Street - aka the Red light district! Nothing makes you feel older than pushing a stroller past unsavory areas and frowning while people stumble about drunk.
Saturday was the wedding held at First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans. A very nice older church. Laurel was "flower baby", sitting in a gorgeous old wagon that Jennifer's family has found and repainted. Ryder pulled the wagon down the aisle as a ring bearer and everyone clapped for them as they walked down. It was very sweet...and went so well, much to my relief! Laurel also remained content and quiet during the ceremony...sedated a couple of times with her new favorite sweet potato puffies. We then returned for a quick afternoon reception (the wedding was at noon) back at the Maison. After the reception and naps, we wandered the streets and the promenade "Moon Walk" off of the river. Several of us gathered at The Gumbo Shop for dinner and I had my first Jambalaya. Yum!
We took off for LA late afternoon yesterday, the 25th. Beforehand, we did a little more strolling and went to Cafe du Mond to sample the french donuts which were dumped on by a powdered sugar truck:). Double yum!
The flight back went just fine again. Laurel's bedtime was due about half way through the second flight and Laurel actually fell asleep with her blankie on the floor in front of my feet. We luckily had the bulkhead seats.
We're all recovering today, Memorial Day. Laurel quickly switched to east coast time and then has slowly changed to central. With the little sleep she had in transit yesterday, she slept for a 3 hour nap and a 2 hour afternoon nap today! Should be an easy transition back to west coast time. We're still exhausted, but nothing we can do - we're the parents! Lots to do with Copper Willow still as we assemble wedding books, print some custom orders and package the orders from NYC.
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