8 lbs of crawfish later

1 car
2 t-shirts
3 orders of beignets
4 friends
5 Bourbon Street Drinks
6 am departure times
7 restuarants
and 8 lbs of crawfish later

At 6am on Friday, May 14th, Lauren & Rian picked us up and we began our journey to NOLA.  I've only been to New Orleans once and that was a very short visit for work (so it doesn't really count). The trip was about 7 hours. It was honestly not that bad getting there (HUGE thank you to Lauren for doing all the driving). We put the guys in the back seat and we had a good time chatting and listening to some old school music. We checked in to the hotel before 2pm and spent our first evening driving around. Lauren went to Tulane so she knew where everything was. Great personal tour guide! The first night we at Jacques-Imo's Cafe. This place is a 'local' restaurant that has become more well-known in recent years. Luckily we got there early and got a table because the food was INCREDIBLE! Best friend green tomatoes I've ever had with jumbo prawns and I had grouper with a seafood cream sauce on top. It was so delish! I swear we ate our way through that city! Friday night we went to Bourbon St and boy was that an experience. I see why people like to have their Bachelor parties there. I can't imagine how crazy Mardi Gras gets!! I personally don't care for all the waitresses dressed in scandalous clothing and flirting with every *single* man that walks through the door but hey, I guess that's part of the experience of Bourbon Street. Saturday we did some shopping, ate some more delicious food and definitely hit-up Cafe du Monde to have beignets and coffee. Yummy!
It pretty much rained the entire weekend but Sunday was the worst. We made a late start Sunday morning because the streets were flooded (Lauren says this is pretty typical and it was amazing how quickly the water went away when they turned on the pumps). The store owners must be used to the poor drainage because when we went out for lunch, they all had their industrial fans blowing their shops out and using squeegees to get the rest of the water out. Sunday night the guys wanted to find an all you can eat seafood place so Lauren found on in Metairie La, about 15 minutes from the Orleans Parish. Brad ate 8lbs of crawfish and Rian ate 7lbs of seafood (3 diff types of crab, shrimp, crawfish, etc). I thought they were going to puke but it was very funny! Brad said he saw crawfish when he closed his eyes that night before he went to sleep. HA!
We headed out at 6am on Monday because Brad had to be back for the first day of his Summer semester. We had such a wonderful time with our good friends and I only wish NOLA was closer because man, I would hop, skip & jump over there for dinner because the food is oh, so good!

Lauren winning money on Wizard of Oz slot machine!! We still don't know how she did it because I did the same thing after she did...and NOTHING! Luckily I know when to stop and only spent $1. ha

Rian losing money on roulette. Luckily Lauren made up for the money he lost. :)

There was a fountain near Riverwalk that was surrounded by tiles with Spanish cities. Brad and I met in Sevilla...hence the hand holding photo next to the Sevilla tile. :)

It was raining cats & dogs on Saturday afternoon so we found a bar and played some pool. It was fun!

Dinner at Delmonico

Handgrendades at Isle of Palms. ...& Lauren drinking her water b/c shes preggo.

ones of my faves. Thanks Lauren. :)

TONS of crawfish and seafood!!

Male vs Female crab.

Concentration.