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!