The Big Easy

Someone once asked me about my marriage and how we stay so ‘in love’. She said, “In all your pictures you look so happy and so in love.” I jokingly replied, “Well, I don't post the bad ones!”

 

John and I take our relationship very seriously. We have been together 20 years (married 13). We know what pisses each other off and try our hardest not to do those things. We also know each other’s love language. We can pinpoint most of our arguments, hurt feelings, and general negativity to when one of us has an empty tank. You see, when my love language tank (quality time) is empty, I get irrational, distant, and passive aggressive. I know this. John knows this, so we both work hard to keep my tank full and the same for him and his love language.

 

One thing we do to keep our marriage as a high priority is take a yearly trip just the two of us. For our 10th anniversary we went to Cancun. We have been looking for a way to go back there ever since. In the mean time, we have been taking ‘long weekends’. For my birthday this year we went to New Orleans.

 

We walked around the first night. I stepped my feet on Bourbon, just to say I did. I just couldn't look at a puddle of water and not think it was pee. We ate at Broussard's and found a cute little bar for after. 

We stayed at The Saint. John stayed here on a guys’ weekend and liked it. When we tried to make our hotel reservations, it was literally the ONLY place that had a room. I checked and checked for events going on that weekend and came up blank. We found out when we got there, that a national realtors conference that weekend PLUS a LSU and Saints game. Football….the one thing I didn’t check. We still had our room, so we considered ourselves lucky. I chatted with one guy who was just in town for the game who was paying almost twice what we did for a room.

   

The Saint is like nowhere I have ever stayed. The foyers has big long white pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling and very very large and ornate lighting. The elevator has a “Play Naughty” rug and old black and white movies playing on a TV that hangs on the wall. The hallways are all blue-lit. The room was just fabulous. Padded headboards, beautiful carpet, navy ceilings, white furniture and screenprinted shades in the bathroom. It really was unique.

 

The hotel has a bar called The Burgandy Bar (the hotel is on Canal and Burgundy). Everything is red. Small bar, big chandelier and even bigger price tags on their drinks. Outside the bar in the lobby is a pool table and this chair. I loved this chair. One slightly tipsy evening, I ran up to another couple sitting in it and begged to take their picture. They said okay and just smiled. I laughed and said, “no no, with your phone. I don't want a picture of y'all!” Wow….classy Amanda.

Friday we went to the World War II Museum. Everyone I talked to about NOLA, mentioned this museum. I am not a history buff, but John is, especially WWII. We watched the 4D movie Beyond All Boundaries which was narrated by Tom Hanks. So so so well done. If you happen to go to the museum, include that part in your package! The museum itself was amazing. By far the best museum I have been to. John and I were silent the entire 2 hours we walked through it. There was so much to take in. To be honest, now that I think about it, there wasn't a lot of talking by anyone in the museum. It's one of those places I could walk through again for 2 solid hours and see completely different things. I learned so much history I never knew and gained quite the appreciation for my freedom. 

Friday night we took in a movie. The theatre offered beverages and food brought to your seat. On option was popcorn with truffle oil. Truffle popcorn…I didn’t get any. Really crazy story; we went to buy tickets and they were sold out of the movie we wanted to see and the other ones didn't really fit our schedule. We walked around for a bit talking about what we were going to do. I decided we needed to go back and just see the other one we wanted and work out the rest of the night later. It was vacation after all! When we got back there, there was a couple in front of us and a family of 4 in front of them. The family was returning their tickets because they had two teenagers, but no one under was allowed in the theatre because they serve alcohol. The family just happened to be returning 4 VIP tickets to the show we were originally tried to see. The couple in front of us got the first two, and we got the second. I (of course) started talking to the couple in front of us because we were now the proud owners of 4 VIP seats. The theatre seats 24 people. Each chair is a recliner. Full fledged recliner! The couple beside us laughed when we said we were on vacation and at the movies. I told them, the only way I get to see a movie at home was if it was at noon and animated. 

Saturday we walked the city with no plans. It was fabulous. I did yoga in a park. We found a place where you could watch glass being blown and go back into their workshop. We found lot of shops and did too much shopping, but like the movies, not something we get to do together at home.

Saturday night we ate at Luke. There was no way we could pass up a John Besh restaurant with the same name as our youngest! It was delicious! We enjoyed the best bowl of gumbo (I was on a search) and a fine fine dinner. We went to another bar, Swizzle Stick, after that where they served all their drinks off a large block of ice that was in the middle of the bar.

But the BEST meal we had was breakfast at The Ruby Slipper. WOW. I have decided why breakfast was both of our favorites. We’ll splurge on a nice meal at home. John takes me out about once a month and we eat well. We NEVER splurge on breakfast. So to eat such big amazing meals at the start of our day was a real treat. Ruby Slipper – keep it on your list! 

But the best part of anytime away together is how we reconnect. It’s so nice not to worry about who pushed who, or if the lunches are packed, or the laundry sitting in the dryer. It’s just about us. Thank you John for keeping US a priority.