Babymoon

Kyle & I decided to take advantage of a little thing we've heard called a 'babymoon'.  Basically it is just an excuse for parents-to-be to take one last vacation before the baby arrives and things are changed forever....gulp.  Which I might add that I just noticed our countdown says is in a mere 98 days.  Fourteen weeks seems so much longer than 98 days...Anyway.  We decided to go to New Orleans for a long weekend and celebrate the upcoming birth of our little guy and the ending of a two person family era.  

 I had been to New Orleans before, but Kyle had never been and I was excited for the chance to take him.   We set out early Thursday morning and arrived in New Orleans a short 8.5 hour drive later.  The Sale family loves a good roadtrip so we actually enjoyed the drive.  We stayed in the guest house of a woman that we found through a property search website and the place worked out great! It was about a block off the French Quarter in an area of town called Faubourg Marigny. 

House in the French Quarter

Our main goal of the weekend was to experience the New Orleans food and basically just explore the city for a few days.  Of course, we accomplished both! On Thursday night we walked around the Quarter and then enjoyed some delicious grilled oysters and hush puppies for dinner.  Divine.  I don't even really like oysters, but anything cooked in that much butter has to be from God, so I went with it. 

Friday we booked a tour (in an air-conditioned bus) and got the full view of New Orleans.  We explored some of the famous cemetaries and even got to see some of the damage from Katrina.  Our tour guide was very knowledgable and it was nice to ride around in the cool car for a few hours. My pregnant feet were very thankful! It was hot and humid all weekend, but surprisingly not as terrible as I had imagined.  Friday we managed to consume beignets, a giant muffaletta, jambalya, gumbo and crawfish etoufee.  It was glorious. 

Here are a few random New Orleans pics:

Saturday was our last day so we decided to explore the Garden District and see some of the beautiful houses there.  We also walked around Audobon Park and enjoyed the live oaks with spanish moss everywhere. 

Spanish moss on a live oak

The only picture I got with me & baby!

The childhood home of Eli & Peyton Manning

One exciting thing about New Orleans (at least for the non-pregnant members of the Sale family) is that you can drink alcohol while walking down the street.  And a can of beer is cheaper than a soda, $0.75 to be exact.  Needless to say, my husband was pretty excited to carry his can of beer in a brown paper bag down the street.  "Class, class, class"...name that movie!

Luckily for Kyle our camera does not have a time stamp, but I can tell you that it was barely noon.  And that this wasn't the only time this happened, just the only time I took a picture of it.  If you think I should be embarassed, think again- I am so proud. He's such a well-rounded guy.  He reads the weekly 'Economist' and drinks beer from a paper bag- what more could a girl dream of.  Hopefully these are things we'll pass along to our little boy. 

We had an excellend dinner recommendation for Saturday night and ate some famous 'Barbequed Shrimp'.  I had never even heard of these and don't even really like shrimp, but again the butter sold me.  Barbequed shrimp is basically these huge shrimp served in a bowl in a sauce that is essentially 90% butter with a little bit of pepper and worchestershire sauce thrown on for good measure.  It was absolutely delicious. They even make you wear a bib! The waiter was sure that the baby would be kicking me later, but like a true Sale our little guy can handle his butter! He wasn't bothered in the least. 

All in all it was a great weekend!

-Stacie