My Chicago Bridal Shower
Shaw’s Crab House
Lauren’s Wedding Weekend in Upstate New York
Julian, California
Officiating My Brother’s Seattle Wedding
Autumn in the Catskills
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Christmas at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom
Christmas at Disney World’s Hollywood Studios
Christmas at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom
Christmas at Disney World’s Epcot
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Christmas in Florida
Lauren’s New Orleans Bachelorette Party
My friend Lauren is also getting married this year, so it’s been a lot of fun sharing my pre-wedding milestones with such a close friend. And, more importantly, I’ve had a blast sharing in her milestones as well!
Along with her other bridesmaids, I recently traveled down to New Orleans for Lauren’s bachelorette party. The only other time I’ve been to NOLA was for Mardi Gras, so I was excited to have a chance to explore the city without all of the craziness that the world’s largest free party brings!
We arrived on Friday and immediately hit the town… and by town, I mean Bourbon Street.
The next day we decided to explore New Orleans a little bit more… this time in the daylight.
And then we headed out of town for a swamp tour! It was so much fun that I dedicated a post just to that! You can find it here.
After the tour, we went home, showered the sunscreen and sweat off, and then got ready for Lauren’s big night.
Complete with champagne on our rooftop!
We dined at Restaurant R’evolution, a fabulous New Orleans’ restaurant.
And then we headed back to Bourbon Street in style. But not quite this style:
The night culminated at a Drag Show at Bourbon Pub Parade.
Here they are, the performers:
Just kidding! That’s Lauren, and the other special bachelorettes and birthday girls who were selected to dance onstage during the show.
The next day, Lauren put on her “I said yes” shirt and we donned our “We said NOLA” shirts, and we spent a relaxing day taking in all that New Orleans has to offer.
I will say this for New Orleans: There are plenty of bachelorette and bachelor parties in the city every weekend, so you’d think the residents would be so over it. But instead, I lost track of how many people slowed down their cars so they could yell, “CONGRATULATIONS,” towards Lauren, or how many stopped on the street to give her their best wishes. They really made Lauren feel special, and it was so nice to see.
We ended up at brunch at SoBou.
Where we were entertained by a live band.
And a live burlesque dancer, Bella Blue!
Then there was more exploring.
Until we came across a very familiar landmark, the St. Louis Cathedral.
And because it was right there, we stopped into Cafe Du Monde for a beignet snack.
Then it was back to Bourbon Street where I was able to cross an item off of my bucket list: riding a mechanical bull!
I thought for sure I’d be awesome at it.
Instead, I was terrible!
The girls said it was because I was wearing pants, which were more slippery than shorts with bare legs, but I think they were just being polite!
Here it is, my pathetic bull riding attempt:
Then for dinner we headed to the New Orleans Oyster Festival, which I LOVED!
This free festival is right off the French Quarter, so it’s easy to walk to. Ordinarily I hate food festivals because they’re too crowded and the lines are too long. But by Sunday afternoon, while there were a good amount of people in attendance, we didn’t need to wait more than 30 seconds at each food stand.
Although, the food would have been worth any amount of wait. We dined on delicious and unique seafood dishes, like this Shrimp and Alligator Sausage Cheesecake.
And Crispy Oyster Bordelaise and Fries.
It was a wonderful weekend celebrating the bride to be!
And now I can’t wait for the wedding, Lauren!
~A
For all of my New Orleans travel posts, click here.
New Orleans Swamp Tour
While in New Orleans for Lauren’s Bachelorette Party, we decided to escape the city for a little bit of nature.
And by nature… I mean alligators!
We were doing a swamp tour with Cajun Encounters!
We headed down to the dock for the adventure.
And boarded one of Cajun Encounters’ boats. I was so relieved to see that they were covered, since I had been nervous about sitting in the hot sun for two hours!
Then we were off!
I’d done a Cajun Encounters’ swamp tour my first time in New Orleans, but it was in February and it was nowhere near as good. The trees had no leaves and looked dead and, because apparently they have better things to do in the winter, we didn’t see a single alligator.
So in my opinion it’s not even worth doing a swamp tour in the winter.
In the summer, however, the swamp tour is amazing!
And we saw so many alligators! I lost track of how many we saw at around 17!
It’s amazing how close they get to the boats. It may have something to do with the captains’ willingness to feed them their favorite food, hotdogs!
Who knew I had something in common with alligators?!
As we cruised along, we saw a little slice of Louisiana.
Like houses built on stilts.
And Jenny!
We also got to see some marshes too.
Wondering what the difference is between the two? Marshes are fields covered with water, and swamps are forests covered with water.
More alligators!
Then we headed into the heart of the swamp to try to track down another fun animal.
Nope, not that animal!
But this one!
Can you see it?
How about now?
Yep, there are wild boars in the swamp too!
Fun fact: Adult boars eat baby alligators. Adult alligators eat baby boars. So it pays to be an adult in the swamp!
Much too soon we had to head back.
Where we docked and were able to proudly claim that we survived the swamp tour!
To find out more information on Cajun Encounters’ swamp tours, click here.
See ya later, alligator!
~A
For all of my New Orleans travel posts, click here.
Chicago’s Lakefront Trail
A couple of weeks ago I had a little adventure.
The adventure began after work on Thursday, with an Uber to LaGuardia. I had a flight booked to Chicago, a great book, and a window seat towards the front of the plane. I was all set, and eager to fly home for my Bridal Shower that Saturday.
I arrived at LGA on what turned out to be the biggest travel day in the airport’s history. Storms had cancelled most flights the day before, and the airport was packed with people waiting on standby, hoping to get onto flights like mine. But I wasn’t worried at this stage, since I had a window seat (and the previously-mentioned book). I sat down at my gate, opened my book, and heard an alert on my phone. There was more weather rolling in, and my flight to Chicago, along with many other flights that evening, was canceled.
I called Delta, assuming they’d put me on another flight the next morning. And they would have, if not for the fact that the widespread flight cancellations meant that every Friday flight, on any airline, from any NYC airport to any Chicago airport, was fully booked. They could however get me on a Saturday flight, which would have arrived an hour before my Bridal Shower was set to begin.
If it had been someone else’s Bridal Shower, maybe I would have risked it. But it was mine! And with the way things were going with the airlines, and the fact that I would miss my Bridal Shower if there was any sort of flight delay on Saturday, or any traffic leaving the airport, or anything at all that didn’t go smoothly, I didn’t want to take any chances.
So I called Greg from the airport and asked if he wanted to go on a road trip. Knowing how important my Bridal Shower was to me, Greg cancelled his weekend plans and immediately packed a bag so I didn’t have to drive by myself. I was initially going to rent a car from the airport and pick him up on my way out west, but, predictably, all of the car rental agencies at LGA were fully booked. Instead, Greg and I both took Ubers to the one rental agency in NYC that was still open, got in a car, and drove into the night.
We spent the night somewhere in Pennsylvania, woke up early the next day, and again hit the road. And my hero fiancé drove the entire way so that I could get work done, balancing my laptop, cell phone, and his wifi hotspot on my lap.
We passed some interesting sights (the birthplace of Thomas Edison) and some not-so-interesting sights (all of Ohio).
And then, after 13 hours of driving, we finally made it to Chicago. My parents greeted us in style, with dozens of roses, macarons, and my favorite sparkling wine: Cooper’s Hawk Almond.
They served some excellent food while we were there, including my favorite Chicago Deep Dish Pizza (and I’ve done extensive studies)!
As well as fresh corn, straight from the local farm stand. If you’ve never had corn in the Midwest in August, you’ve never had corn!
And because corn is a vegetable, but pizza surely isn’t, we made sure to get in some physical activity too to offset all that we were eating.
On our last day in town, Greg, my parents, and I rented three bikes total, and went for a ride along Chicago’s Lakefront Trail. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a trail that stretches 18 miles along the shore of Lake Michigan.
And it has the prettiest views. On one side you can see boats floating in the harbor as the waves (yes, Lake Michigan is big enough to have waves!) lap against the trail. On the other side the Chicago skyline towers above you, and you’ll pass familiar landmarks like Navy Pier and Lincoln Park Zoo.
And it’s fun!
It’s a great way to see Chicago while being active and enjoying yourself in the process.
Remember how I said we rented three bikes total? That’s because my parents were on a tandem bike! It was totally my dad’s idea, as I’m sure you can imagine!
Eventually we had to turn back around, the approaching Chicago skyline reminding me of just how pretty this city is… in the summer!
To find out more information on Chicago’s Lakefront Trail, click here. And if you need a bike, you can rent one (tandem or otherwise) here.
Worth the road trip, don’t you think, Greg?
~A
For all of my Chicago travel posts, click here.