The Picket Fence, the Ketchup Fights, the Tickling, and the Giggling!

October 12th - 14th, 2012

Once we returned from our trip, we basically relaxed with peanut and Fred/schrodinger. We went shopping and got some things for the house like curtains and ate amazing homemade chili. We also, though, had our annual Fall Day. To be honest, my favorite thing each year has to be Fall Day. The most wonderful holiday of the year is Fall Day! The reason? Because you can't really plan for Fall Day, it just happens. Most holidays are hectic... you have to meet everyone, driver everywhere no matter what the weather, and do festivities no matter how you feel. But with Fall Day, it doesn't work like that. Fall Day happens to you. Here is what must happen (and all at the same time) for Fall Day to occur:

1. Perfect fall weather
2. Cold enough for tomato soup
3. Arsenic and Old Lace must be accessible to watch
4. The candy pumpkins have to be out
5. Real pumpkins are also ready to be bought

Well, when we got back from our trip, it all fell into place. Not only were all 5 things checked off, but we had a whole day to do any and every fall thing you could imagine . Needless to say, we had fun! Jason spent the entire day stewing tomatoes for Jason's famous homemade tomato soup. I made grilled cheese. Yes, it was the best dinner ever!

We also went searching for pumpkins! We found two huge and wonderful pumpkins, along with two little ones! After having pumpkins, we were able to decorate our house for Fall/Halloween. This was the first year we've ever owned our own home! Our very own home to decorate! Here is what happened:

 Two amazing pumpkins and, of course, Mums and a cinnamon broom... just like from our wedding!

 Also, we added pumpkins inside!

 Got amazing Halloween lanterns for outside!

 Added cobwebs and spiders :^)

 Even our cats got into it!

 Our neighbor's dog was outside... Fred wasn't too happy (neither were we though. Cute dog, but never watched or on a leash)

 Jason's amazingness on display :^)

 No words are needed for how awesome he is :^)

Us, in our first home, after two years of marriage, on Fall Day! :^)

After we decorated and did all these fun things, we were able to sit down to an amazing dinner by candlelight together. We then put in Arsenic and Old Lace, as we always do, and cuddled up on the floor with our cats for the movie.

 Those cookies on the pumpkin plate were the amazing chocolate peanut butter oat cookies! We used to eat these all the time when I was little... so good! Also, Jason's famous tomato soup and my grilled cheese!

I liked how the fan kept the candles flickering during Arsenic and Old Lace... just made it better!

Our cats! Missed them so much.

Lastly, a picture of our house at night with all the decorations:

Our creepy, wonderful home!

After the weekend we went back to real life. However, I do have to say this:

Jason, there is no one else on earth I could imagine being better to come home to you than you. Whether we're on vacation, stressed out from work, enjoying Fall Day, pissed off at Sallie Mae for taking all our money, or just taking our evening stroll in Ashley Park together . . . I will always be thankful I married you. I have never met a man more loving or fun. It means the world to me that I can come home from a stressful day at work and know you'll be there. You're always there to laugh with, stand beside, and listen to me. You truly are the dearest person to me, and I can't thank you enough for how much you've impacted my life. Who else would be there to have a water balloon fight with in the middle of the week... and who else but you would try to outsmart me before the fight even began. Only you could make my day better by screaming randomly. All our sock fights, vacations, constructive arguments, exhilarating adventures, bad days, and even the ordinary/boring moments of our lives... I would only want them with you :^) You keep me on my toes, always! Love, I will always be here for you and I will always love you. You truly help me to be a better person, and I can never thank you enough for picking me. I don't believe in soul mates, but I know I couldn't want anyone else. For Always, love.

Two years and the rest of our lives to go :^)

Goodbye Beignets

October 11, 2012
Day 6

Jason and I slept in, like always when on vacation... it's glorious!! We decided early on in our trip that we would end the adventure with amazing food. Therefore, we returned once more to Cafe Du Monde for lunch. Before arriving to the cafe, we needed more cash. We popped into a store on the way and used their ATM. Then, Beignet time:

 I couldn't decide which picture captured the amazingness of Cafe Du Monde the most... so I picked both. Jason and I ordered beignets, so the waitress just put it all on one plate. I could eat these every day for the rest of my life, if they wouldn't cause me to return to sumo DaNae. That the possible heart attack that would inevitably follow. I have to show you a couple of other pictures to fully grasp how charming this cafe is:

 This was our waitress from the first time we came. She was, obviously, taking a break :^)

 I think these uniforms are amazing. I love the hats and the little black bow ties!

The waitress cleaning up a table next to us.

Side note: Before leaving for New Orleans, I discovered my parents had been before. Both of them told us they sat at Cafe Du Monde and ordered Beignets and coffee, too. Apparently, my mom sat down with the beignets as my dad left to get their coffee. When my Dad was on his way back, he spotted my mother about to take a bite into the beignet. Well, as my mom raised the beignet to take a bite, she ended up laughing, causing a cloud of powdered sugar to explode all around her. One minute my dad could see her, and the next she had disappeared into a puff of sugar. This very same thing happened at the table in this picture. There was a man holding a beignet as he began to laugh. Next thing we know, powder sugar began to fill the air. It always reminds me of a much more wonderful pigpen from Charlie Brown. I would much rather the cloud be something sweet from Cafe Du Monde, though.

After eating lunch, we decided we couldn't leave Louisiana without doing a Geocache. We looked up one near that pizza place we originally wanted to eat at. However, once we got there we realized there were too many muggles around. We stood there for a second, trying to figure out if it was even possible to find the micro cache. Eventually we looked weird standing in alley, and was asked by a guy if we had a lighter. We didn't and he seemed taken aback that we wouldn't have a lighter. After that we decided to leave and find another one. We ended up doing a virtual cache. It was like a treasure hunt. Those are my favorites, ones like a hidden treasure. While dating, Jason and I did one in Grant Park that needed clues to find it. It was my favorite date with him. This was very similar. The cache required that we go to a statue, specifically one of Joan of Arc. We had to find out 3 of like 5 things: what she was holding in her right hand, how many signs there were, and when the statue was built. Here are pictures:

After finishing the geocache, we walked back to Jackson Square and stopped in a store to the right. We found my brother's gift here (not telling what it is, in case he sees this). Let's just say. It's amazing! After buying Jamie's gift, we walked to Rev Zombie to get Jason something. On the way there we stopped to get another root beer from the same cafe we found the gelato. So good! We then got Jason a voodoo doll and a house blessing statue, which we have named Pong. Here are pictures of what we got while there:

 This is Pong, our house blessing statue. :^)

 This is our spirit orb and the picture next to it says what it is for.
 This is another Spirit orb and, again, the picture next to it is what it's for and what you do with it:

Our last spirit orb and the note explaining it:

This is Jason's voodoo doll for Protection.

And, here my mask from New Orleans. Here's a close up and far away one... well, farther than I could get it. It's better if you can see all the feathers :^)

Other than the gifts we got everyone, which I will not show pictures of, these are all the things we brought back with us. After buying Jason's last item, we went back to the hotel and decided to hit the road early. We were supposed to stay there overnight and leave in the morning, but we figured we'd rather go back early and have another day at home to relax more. We missed our cats and it was getting far too hot. It was cool the whole time we were in New Orleans except for today. So, we got our bags and went to check out. We thought we'd have to pay for our last night since we were leaving so early, but they went ahead and gave us our money and didn't charge us! So awesome! After checking out we had to figure out how to get our car back from valet parking. We went to the little booth in the garage, paid, and waited for the car. The man drove us, helped us with our bags, and was nice enough to give us directions out. Once in the car, we headed home! We, of course, listened to the 90s music all the way back, along with Beirut. It never feels more like home than when listening to Beirut. After driving for a while, Jason told me the murder rate in New Orleans... glad I found out after we left. Holy cow! As we were driving we realized the valet parking people turned our CDs off and were listening to the radio. We didn't realize it until we turned it on and heard a man with a deep voice sing, "Turn out the light, light a candle. Tonight I'm in a romantic mood..." haha! Too funny! The look on Jason's face was priceless! We listened to the entire song, because it was waaay too funny and then promptly returned it to Outkast and Matchbox 20. On the way home we stopped at Cracker Barrel. It was delicious! Then, we drove home. The vacation wasn't over though... it was only Thursday night and we had the rest of the weekend to relax! It was lovely!

A Drunkard's Ghost

October 10, 2012 -Day 5 of our trip.

Today Jason and I slept in for a long time. It was lovely! I love not having to wake up to an alarm clock! We decided to rest and even watched some tv. We both love home improvement shows and, since we don't have cable at home, we watched them in New Orleans. After a while we got hungry and decided to find something for lunch. We kept trying to eat at this pizza place, so today was the day we were going to do it. It took a while to find this pizza restaurant. After a lot of searching, we arrived at the restaurant only to discover we couldn't eat there. It opened at the weirdest times! So, we knew there was another pizza place way past coops and decided to head that way. Finally we found it, too. It reminded me a lot of Oz Pizza, where I used to work. It had a long bar and weird, wacky paintings everywhere. Jason and I ordered some humus and pita chips. We got normal humus but also red pepper/tomato humus... amazing! Whoever made that was brilliant! We then also ate the most amazing pizza ever... beats Oz's and Everybody's pizza! So good! The paintings on the way were pretty neat to look at. Most of them were images of melting hearts. One of the paintings said "from the McCune foundation." How crazy is that! Weird to see my maiden name in a pizza place... McCune isn't exactly a normal last name. I was pretty excited because my dad used to live in Louisiana. I thought this might be a trace of my ancestors... come to find out it wasn't, though. No pictures sadly... we were too hungry to take any pictures.

After stuffing ourselves, we tried to walk around the square but decided we should go back to the hotel to digest food. We watched some more tv and relaxed a little longer. After resting we decided to walk to the Rev Zombie Voodoo Shop to get Jason a souvenir and to look into the ghost tour. On our way there, we stopped at a tourist station and asked about the ghost tours. She gave us a discount on the Rev Zombie one and told us to meet them there at 6. We went straight over to the shop and looked around a bit. Jason couldn't find anything he really wanted, although we had fun looking at all the weird statues. The ghost tour people were there, though. We walked over the your stereotypical ghost tour guide... wearing all black, round sunglasses, and dark hair. He paid him the rest and handed him the discount paper the other lady gave us. He gave us stickers and little fans for the tour. Told us to meet across the street when it starts. There was already a pretty big line, so we joined in. As we were standing there a woman in a wedding dress strutted forward and, without asking if we could move for her, walked right over to where we were standing and started posing for pictures. Jason and I, along with many others, moved out of her way as though she had been kind enough to ask. The photographers took a few pictures and then left without a word. It was the weirdest place to take a picture and it was very odd. Oh well, good for her I guess. Once she left, all of us in dark clothes resumed our spots and waited for the ghost tour.

A lady in all black was our tour guide:

This lady was apparently from New York, but moved to New Orleans a while back and has been there for 23 years. She was extremely weird and hated everyone equally. She made jokes about men, women, different religions, and drunk people. Fun stuff. She basically started the tour by giving us a history lesson of New Orleans, which was really interesting! I didn't know they had so many different laws regarding slaves. They treated slaves a lot better than the rest of the U.S. . . . still horribly, but not nearly as bad as others. She then took us around different spots in the French Quarter and told us why certain places were haunted. The first one was this random building that I can't really recall. The story was basically how this guy was married and had a mistress. The mistress wanted to be his only love or whatever, so she wouldn't leave him alone about marrying her. Finally he got tired and told her he'd marry her the day she stood on the roof naked until dawn. That's exactly what she did. She was on the roof naked all night in the cold and rain. He then died on top of the roof, too somehow. I think he tripped, hurt himself, got drunk, and then fell off the roof. Apparently the girl is the one that "truly" haunts the place. If you ever want to see a naked lady... you can just go to that building on a cold night. Or just walk over to Bourbon Street... my bet is you'd have better look on Bourbon Street.

After that story, we walked over to the Andre Jackson Hotel where there was a fire. Apparently a bunch of parents died but their children somehow lived in the fire. That left a ton of  orphans. Then there was another fire and the kids died, or they starved or something. Apparently, children haunt the place looking for parents... I see no orbs.

After the hotel we stopped at that old bar I mentioned in a previous post. We were all able to stop, rest, and grab a drink if we wanted. Jason got a hurricane . . . a real one! It was so much better than the other one we had!! A ton of people got them when we stopped. One lady we got to know, probably in her mid fourties, looked over at Jason and said "have you gotten to the 151 yet?" She was referring to the rum.... he said he didn't think so. She said, "Phew! You'll know when you do!" Not long after I look over and Jason said "Phew! There it is!" Haha. Here's the picture of the pirate bar:

Her version of the story goes like this: basically there was a man who was a privateer, not an actual pirate, who owned the place. Well, apparently there was a guy who stole some necklace... we'll call him Bob. Now Bob was trying to sell it in the bar. Well, Bob isn't so bright. Turns out the guy he tried to sell it to (we'll call him George) was the man who actually owned the necklace in the first place... rather, his wife did. So, George gets really angry and, since he has no self control, he stabs the man in the gut. Bob's a weakling and dies. He apparently died right in front of the men's restrooms. Because of this, the bar is now haunted. People say their beer glasses move or are emptied when they aren't looking. Others say they see a man hunched over in front of the restrooms, holding onto his gut. But the moment they take a second glance at the man (Bob), he's gone. This is our tour guides theory. My theory: 1) Drink people should sober up so they can see straight. 2) Drunk people should sober up so they don't get sick on their way to the bathroom. 3) sometimes you enjoy drinking so much, you just forgot you drank the rest of your glass. 4) Drunk people get scared easily. 

After the bar, we headed over to the Lalaurie mansion. One girl in all black and dark make up was waaaay too excited about this house. She apparently likes horrible things. Once we got there she told us that Nicolas Cage owns the house and discovered it was haunted. He got a bad feeling about the house and then started wondering why it was so cheap. Someone told him it was because of the house's history. He asked what they meant and they told to just go take the tour. So he apparently did. Once he took this same tour (supposedly), he refused to stay at the house and would not allow any member of his family to stay there either. His friends could, though. Note: do not befriend Nicolas Cage. The tour guide said he no longer owns the house, but the internet says he does... not sure who to believe. She said there was a rumor Johnny Depp bought it, but I see no Depps. Anyway... I do not wish to go into the details of why the house is haunted. I don't believe things are haunted, but I do believe that was one horrible, horrible story and it has a grotesque history. If you want to know the horrible details, look it up on the internet. I felt physically ill when she was describing what happened in the house, and do not wish to type it all out. Have fun searching. I warned you. 

Oh, here is a picture or two of the house:

Again, I see no orbs. Jason wanted me to note this, too.... the lady said 90% of the people on  her tour have had confirmed supernatural encounters on film. Guess I'm one of those lame people that ghosts don't want to interact with... fine by me!

After leaving this house we went to another Hotel that supposedly haunted. Apparently the hotel used to be where doctors would operate on people. Some people say they wake up with a man over them, pointing at a limb, and hear them say "That's going to have to be cut off." They find blood on the sheets and smell smoke . . . the usual. People run screaming from the hotel. As she's telling us this story two guys who are actually staying at the hotel hang around to hear the story... I'd want to know too if I were staying there, I guess. She would say a phrase like, "People who stay here..." and one of the guys would look at us and wave. He seemed proud he had the guts to sleep where ghosts were. Good for him... that'll prove he's awesome! Once the story ended, he and his buddy got in a cab and left the building... guess he's not a real courageous guy after all. 

The end of the tour. It was actually a lot of fun! Still no orbs though.

After the tour we went back to Cafe Maspero for french onion soup and a club sandwich. We were seated right by one of the huge windows and were able to enjoy the breeze from the river. As we're sitting there we start hearing a man scream. Not scary like in a ghost tour, though. He was actually screaming, "Hey man... let me get that hot sauce!!" He was apparently yelling at people in the cafe to hand over their hot sauce. He eventually wandered down the street yelling about how he didn't get any hot sauce. Here's a picture or two of us at the cafe:

 I love the painting in the background! It's like their looking right at him!

 The hot sauce guy was right in that window behind me!

 This is my favorite picture we took! This one and the next one. If I ever were to be a painter, I would paint this bar, the girl in the red dress as a waitress, carrying a tray of four large beers. So pretty! This truly is the most handsome bar I've ever seen!

After the amazing food, we went back to the hotel and slept. Side note: while sleeping, Jason grabbed my hand and held it during the night. It's reasons like this I love him. The end.

A Shoe Shiners Plot

October 9, 2012, day 4 of our trip.

Two years ago on this date I walked through a pecan grove, stood beside the most handsome man I've ever known, and told him I would stay with him no matter what. This vow included Zombie attacks, by the way :^) Well, two years later and I've never been more happier with Jason. Luckily there have been zero zombie attacks, too. That's always a plus. Well, two years ago from the day we were married, we began the morning walking through Jackson Square and visiting cute, little shops. We set out to buy gifts for the amazing people who stood beside us on our wedding day. I am so thankful for our families. I was lucky enough to grow up with the most amazing parents and siblings anyone could ask for. Then I met Jason and his family. I am so lucky that Jason's family is just as amazing and unbelievably wonderful! They have been kind enough to let me be apart of their family, and I couldn't be more grateful! We really are lucky :^) I would post pictures of what we got all of you, but then I might spoil the gifts. Sadly, we'll have to wait until we see you all :^)

Well,  after walking around and shopping for a while we decided to go back to the hotel to check on the water situation. As I mentioned from my last post, they called a boil water advisory. Therefore, we have been unable to even shower yet. I know, gross. We hated it! The only comforting thought was that everyone in the city was in the same boat. So we all stunk together, I guess. Gross people unite! When we got back to the hotel, we noticed they still had signs up about the water and there were no more changes. We were able to get extra bottles of water, though. We made due somehow. After cooling off a bit, we decided to head to lunch. We walked around trying to find a place to eat and ended up here:

This is the French Market Cafe. This is the band that was playing there. They weren't my favorite, but they were pretty good. Only awkward part is when the singer said he was going to take a moment to walk around the room and basically ask for tips.... Some of us don't carry cash that often.... awkward! Oh well. We did enjoy the food though! Jason got a turkey po boy and I got the chicken one. It came with chips also. All in all, a pretty good lunch. As we were eating, we noticed pigeons all over the cafe, scuttling along the floor hoping to get scraps of food. Gotta love pigeons! What was the most amazing thing about this place was that they had drinkable water!! The lady said "I'll put your order in and get you some water." Jason and I both looked at each other, and had one of those conversations you  have between someone without actually talking... "Crap, they don't know about the water!" Luckily the lady must have known our hesitation with the water because she said, "Don't worry, the water's safe to drink." Phew! Fun times in Nawlins! Haha

After eating we decided to go to the hotel. We felt so dirty at this point, we really didn't think it was good to walk around too much and just make it worse. We ended up going to the hotel and took a nap, hoping when we woke up the water would be on. Sadly, when we woke up the water was not on. We decided to make the most out of the day and not let the water situation ruin a perfectly good day. We started looking up stuff to do. We discovered the horse and carriage rides we kept seeing at Jackson Square were cheaper than we thought. Apparently it is $75 for a tour, but if you go with a group of people (even people you don't know) it's only $15! Jason and I decided to walk down to the square and take a ride :^) Here is our buggy and the man who did the tour:

The guy was born in New Orleans and he said his father was a history professor. He told us about the square, some of the "haunted buildings," how New Orleans was named, and whatnot. He showed us a school that was made by nuns that was kind of neat. He said they hosted fights in the building. I thought that was kind of weird... nuns hosting fights. He also stopped at a bar and let us buy drinks if we wanted. We didn't, but we did stop for cash. The bar we stopped at was Jean La Fittes Blacksmith Shop. Apparently this is the oldest bar in the U.S. It's kind of tricky though. It's not technically the oldest, but it's been open longer than any other. They say that because it didn't close during prohibition. Gutsy! The guy said the man who owned it was a pirate. The bar was apparently just a front to make or sell weapons. Later on the trip we found out there's a different story about the bar, though. I'll explain later. For now, that's what we knew. As the tour went on we learned that Nicolas Cage bought a huge house here. I'd show you a picture, but I'll have to wait until later on. Later in our trip, we heard a different version of who owns the house now, too. I'll get to that later. Anyways... After the tour we said goodbye to the guide and decided to go to the edge of Mississippi River. In the picture above you can see steps, if you go up the steps you're at the river. Our tour guide said "to our left is where we keep the Mississippi River... usually." Oh man! Here's a picture of us on a bench by the River, please excuse the messiness (again, no shower):

We didn't stay long because we noticed this was a slightly sketchy area... We kept seeing this one guy, who was talking to himself for some time, walk back and forth on the sidewalk in front of us. We decided we better leave. On our way back to the hotel, Jason got stopped by a shoe shiner. This happened at least 20 times on our trip! Each one of the shoe shiner people said the same thing, too! "Hey man, those are some nice shoes. I be I can guess where you got them!" Jason's smart and always just responds, "I'm good, thanks though." When we were sitting on the bench by the river we heard a shoe shiner say that same phrase to another man walking by. He was smart, too. He responded "Yeah, I've heard that one!" Jason and I had never heard that phrase before this trip. Jason says he thinks they will offer you a free shoe shine if they get the place right. I think that's a bad game cause someone could always lie and you'd lose a shoe shine. Jason says he thinks they would just say, "You got it at a store!" Smart. Oh well, we finally got back to the hotel and found a lovely surprise! Remember the fruit water we saw when we first checked into the hotel? Well, they took it away when the water went bad. However, it was back!! The notices were taken down, too! I would say we ran back up to the room, but it's hard to run on an elevator. Let's just say we excitedly went upstairs to our room, hoping to see a notice under our door. We got back but didn't see a notice. I called the front desk and she said the water was safe! Immediately we took a shower!! Never been so thankful for running, clean water! All I could think of is how spoiled we are... so many people have to go months or years without water like this! I couldn't do it. Well, once we finished showering a notice slid under our door saying the water was clean :^) Yay!

After showering, it was dinner time! We found a cute little cafe named Cafe Maspero! Here's a picture of us there:

 Jason got corned beef! So good! I wrote notes to remember what we did each day, where we went, and what we ate. In my notes for today I wrote (by hand) "Soup, Daiquiri  and corned beef beef sandwich." I had a few drinks... will explain later.

 My amazing french onion soup!! Best ever!! Add the strawberry daiquiri I had and it was even more amazing!

  This is just a picture of one side of the cafe! It was all brick, with giant windows every two to three feet that reached all the way to the floor. There was the most amazing breeze from the river that would sweep into the shop while you eat, too. To the right was the most handsome bar I had ever seen! Dark, cherry wood and large mirrors. I have a picture I'll show you later. We ate there again because it was so good! After dinner Jason wanted to buy Hurricanes. This is apparently the drink New Orleans is known for. We stopped at this little bar on the way back to the hotel and bought one for each of us. They put it in a souvenir glass for us. The lady at the counter also told us she was going to give us a free shot of something. We got some peppermint blue shot called "jet blue." We clinked the tubes of blue liquid together to toast our anniversary and drank up. Not bad. Here's a picture:

Because I don't drink ever really, the daiquiri I had, plus the shot, plus half this hurricane, and the champagne we always have to celebrate our anniversary with was enough for me. Luckily I stayed hydrated and managed just fine, though! Jason found me amusing after just the daiquiri. Haha. 

After getting the hurricanes, we forgot to stop by for some chocolate covered strawberries. Oh well, we had a lovely time and laughed the whole night! Jason found it very amusing when I accidentally called the Hurricanes "Hurlincans." I remember thinking that would be a good name for a dog. We then started saying "Hurlincans!!" to the tune of the Ricola cough drop commercials. Jason and I made sure not to have too much alcohol though and were able to enjoy a nice evening together. The cafe, the champagne, holding hands as we walked through the city... a truly wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary :^) End of notes for Day 4.

In the Desert You Can't Remember Your Name

October 8, 2012

After sleeping in quite a bit and eating breakfast, we got ready to begin day 3 of our trip. We started the day at Cafe Du Monde. Everyone who has been to New Orleans recommended we eat at this cafe. As we walked up we noticed an unbelievable line. Jason and I were both hungry at this point because it required a fairly long walk for us to reach it. We decided if the line was this long, it must be worth it. As we waited in line we listened to the jazz band play. Here is a picture of the band and the cafe:

The man in blue had a raspy Lois Armstrong kind of voice and was just wonderful! He was singing "I feel good, I knew that I would now, I feel nice and like sugar spice!" Although there was a long line, it gave us more time to listen to the music. The line actually moved pretty quickly and we soon ended up near a charmingly dressed waitress, showing us to a dirty table. The place was so packed that they had to clean the tables at the same time they seated you. Before leaving for New Orleans many people told us about the cloud of powdered sugar that always hovers at this cafe. I now know what they mean. Powder sugar floated throughout every inch of this cafe. The reason this happens... Beignets:

This is a picture of my hot chocolate and the three beignets covered in powdered sugar. Jason ordered the same thing, just with cafe au lait. Here we are:

After filling up on Beignets, we went to the Cafe Du Monde gift shop. We bought ourselves some coffee we could take home, since Jason loved it so much. Also picked up a voodoo doll that was a magnet for our fridge. We then walked to Jackson Square and listened to more jazz bands behind the square. After walking around Royal street for a while we headed back to the hotel to drop of what we bought. We then walked to Coops. Numerous people say go to Coops when wanting real New Orleans food. Jason's coworker lived there and said it's the place to eat. It took quite a while to reach it, but we decided we'd eat there for dinner later. Since we still had time before dinner, we stopped in a witch shop, and then headed to Rev Zombies voodoo shop. That was probably my favorite store. Since we had walked so far we decided to keep going until we reached Cemetery number 1 in New Orleans. We took pictures and then picked up shells left over from Katrina. The water is so far away from the cemetery, but the sea shells were covering the ground there. Here are some pictures from the cemetery:

 Fun story: this is the second time someone asked if they could take our picture for us! There was a couple there who asked if we could take their picture. We did and then they asked if we wanted one also. We, of course, said sure. This is that picture.

 Another couple saw us looking at this grave... it had XXX written all over it. We thought it may have been related Marie Laveau, but we heard a tour guide say no one knows where she's buried. Anyway... a couple say us and asked us if we wanted our picture taken. We, again, said sure! That makes three times someone asked us if they could take our picture... we didn't even ask! Very kind people here!

Once finishing our walk through the cemetery, we decided to walk back to Rev Zombie's Voodoo Shop to buy spirit orbs. In Salem they were called witch balls. We bought one medium sized one and two small ones to hang in our house. When we checked out, I went to grab the bag but the guy behind the counter pulled it away and then handed it to Jason. He then said "let him hold the ball sack." :^) haha

Once we bought the spirit orbs, we spotted Gelato at a cute little cafe. We stopped in and got pumpkin (Jason's) and Maker's Mark Pecan (mine)! Also we got a root beer. It was abita and it was actual real brewed root beer... sooo good! Once finishing that we walked back to the hotel to drop off our stuff. On the way back to the hotel we saw more street performers:

They were playing the Beatles. We also saw a man dressed all in silver holding a silver trumpet. A woman in front of us went to poke it to see if it was real. The man screamed "it's mine" and scared the lady! We had seen him before so we knew. Really funny:

After dropping off our things at the hotel and relaxing some, we headed off to Coops for some really amazing food. It was really dark in there, so these were the only pictures I managed to get:  

The food was amazing! Fried Cajun chicken with red beans and rice... first time I had ever had rabbit, too. That was fun. We took a picture for Jason's coworker, since he was the main person recommending we eat here. All in all, a very good choice for food! After Coops we walked around the city a little and then headed back to the hotel. When we arrived back at the hotel we had a surprise... There was a water issue. We had a notice that was slipped under our door with a "boil advisory" warning for the water. Apparently there was a power failure, which they were uncertain if it affected the sewage/filtering system. They informed everyone in the French Quarter (among many others) to not drink with, bathe with, brush teeth with, prepare food with, or do anything with the water until it had been boiled. I read the notice more carefully and discovered they were doing this out of "extreme caution," not because they actually saw anything wrong with the water. Still... we did not use the water. The hotel was wonderful about how they handled it. They gave us free bottled water. Jason and I got a ton of bottled water and managed. Wasn't too big a deal until the next day when a shower was needed... oh New Orleans. Still find it ironic that the one place there is always too much water, ends up having no water the week we visited. End of day 3.