Nice to Know you New Orleans

We started the week off with a twist! When we received word on Justin's new assignment we found out that we would be leaving a week earlier than expected. So this was our last week in New Orleans.

On Monday, Abby, another IM's wife, and I decided that we would head to the French Market for one of the city''s free tours. After stopping in four different spots that we thought were the beginning of the tour, we finally made our way to the actual gathering place. The website said that there could only be 16 people in the tour group. Even after making it there early, there was a massive group of people. The tour guide was very nice and let us all stay, but we couldn't hear what she was saying. So, Abby and I headed off for our own tour. We made it up as we went along and walked around. She showed me some places she knew, I showed her some I knew.

I began taking an online certification class for event planning and design. I could not be more excited. I have been interested in event planning for sometime and I have some future aspirations of opening up a venue one day. So, we figured what better time than now for me to begin learning all I can about it.

Later in the week, Justin and I went to the annual Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in the city square. It was so much fun. We listened to all the Christmas carols being sung, and watched as the lit the tree.

On Friday morning I dropped Justin off at work and then drove to Grand Bay to go visit my Mawmaw and Pawpaw for 2 hours. It was such a short trip, but due to the fact we were leaving New Orleans early, we were going to miss getting to see them at Thanksgiving. The weather was amazing so we spent our time swinging on the back porch. Then before I knew it, it was time for me to head back and pick up Justin.

Justin was able to get special permission to drive and have Saturday off so we could stop by Houston to see our family and pick up my car. It was a very short trip, but we were able to have an early Thanksgiving with our families before heading back out of the road to our next destination.

It sure was nice to know New Orleans.

New Orleans Adventures

We are truly loving our location here in New Orleans. We are within walking distance to all the fun activities. We went to the Pelicans vs. The Dallas Mavericks game on Tuesday. Believe it or not, the Pelicans put a smack down on the Mavs. We were thankful that we had bought Pelican shirts and were cheering for the home team. Plus, these New Orleanais are pretty serious about their sports and I would probably be a little fearful to root against their players.

It is hard to tell, but that is a picture of Drew Brees and
 his family in their private suite.

Justin's work has been rather eventful this week. There have been multiple situations to be dealt with, and he is handling them like a champ. Since I have no work to do, Justin came home one night with a surprise for me. I have always talked about what I want our future home to look like. (We are planning on building.) I have hand drawn on paper what I want the floor plan to look like. Justin brought home the HGTV Home Design computer software. I am able to virtual build and design our home that I have hand drawn. It is so exciting. I have been playing with it all week!

This week the weather has been amazing. It did not rain, and the temperature was just slightly cool. Friday, we enjoyed the weather on our walk to The Theatres. It is like Star Cinema Grille, but it is on the second floor of a super fancy mall, here in the downtown area. We saw the movie Burnt, which was excellent. Afterwards, we took a stroll down to my favorite place to have bananas foster, Palace Café. Justin had neither been to Palace Café nor tried bananas foster. He is now a fan of both. I have a feeling we will be taking another trip there before we leave.

Saturday, we took a Ghost and Haunted Mansion tour. The ghost tour was excellent. (I found it on Groupon for 50% off!) Our guide told great stories. He even took a little detour and walked us to Brad Pitt and Angelia's home. He told many stories and related them to the 3rd season of American Horror Stories. He would tell us what parts they got right and what parts they got wrong. Justin and I had never watched the show, but after he told us that it was about New Orleans we were intrigued and thought that we would try it. That idea only lasted about the first 5 minutes of us trying to watch it. GROSS!

It is crazy that it just looks like a normal row house, but they said they paid
 somewhere between $4-$6 million for it.

Sunday, we went to our second Groupon find of the week, St. Joseph Plantation. It was a beautiful plantation that is still running today. The Plantation is still owned and run by family members of the original plantation owners. The woman working the tickets and gift shop is a grandchild to the family, and our tour guide Sylvia, is a great family friend to the owners. She gave wonderfully detailed information. The last family member to live in the house just moved out in 2005. They said that they even had workers who resided in the original slave cabins until 2000. (The cabins had air, electric, plumbing, and sheet rock added, but later were restored back to their original condition after the workers moved out.) They still had many artifacts from the home. They had the original slave quarters, outdoor kitchen, school room, barns and work spaces, and store. They even let us touch the items and take pictures! There is a second home that is on the property known as the Felicity Home. It is part of the plantation and owned by the family as well, but it is currently being used to film a movie. It has already had the films Twelve Years a Slave and The Skeleton Key filmed there.

St. Joseph Plantation Home

 

 

A child' toy fire truck dating pre-Civil War.

 

The items to the left of the wash basin are a curling iron and a crimping iron.

A partial view of the yard from the front porch.

 

Outside the outdoor kitchen.

 

Inside the outdoor kitchen.

 

An original slave cabin from the late 1700's.

We find out our new destination for the month of December tomorrow. We are always dying with anticipation as the days approach to when we find out. Either way, until the end of November, we will be enjoying our New Orleans adventures.

The Belchers are Back Together

We have arrived! Justin and I are finally back in the same city. And by city, I mean right smack dab in the middle of downtown New Orleans. This is our first assignment to be in a real city and we could not be more excited to be here. We both love New Orleans! We are so excited to be in a city that we are pretty familiar with, not to mention only a few hours away from family.

We could not have timed our arrival more perfectly with all this rain even if we would have tried! LOL The first nine days here it has either sprinkled or been a deluge! The rain has not stopped us from enjoying our time. We are loving our hotel. This Residence Inn used to be an apartment complex, so we have more room than usual. We are living a one bedroom apartment, but we have all the added bonuses of being at a Residence Inn.

Saturday, we had all these great plans of things we were going to do in the city, but as you know, The Traveling Belchers have to have at least one crazy thing happen a week. We had planned to go to the French Market and shop around, have dinner at Mother's, see a movie at The Theatres (a movie theater with recliners as your chair), and end the night listening to live bands on Frenchmen Street. Well, little did we know, that was just not in the cards for us that night. The extreme rain kept us from going to the French Market, so we went to plan B and headed straight for dinner at Mother's. We parked in the parking lot next to the restaurant. While I was waiting for Justin to put the parking ticket back in the car, I asked the parking attendant if I could stand in his booth with him so I could stay out of the rain. He allowed me to do so and made small talk about where we were from and where Justin works. We then headed inside to eat. When it came time to pay I realized that I was missing my wallet. (Now of course I happened to be the one responsible for all the cash this particular night.) I remembered leaving it in the hotel room, so we averted a panic attack. But, when we got out to the parking lot to pay our parking fee we had a whole new dilemma. We were parked in a cash only parking lot. Luckily, the parking attendant said he trusted us, (I feel pretty sure it was due to the fact that he knew Justin worked for CFA) and he said we could go back to the hotel to get our money. We made it back to the hotel got our money and headed back with our parking fee and a free chicken sandwich coupon for the awesome parking attendant. Now if you thought me leaving my wallet was the hiccup in our night, you are wrong. We headed out the movie theater. When we get  there the rain had not let up for a second. We drove around and around a parking lot waiting for the people to clear the parking meter over-hang so we could squish in and pay. So we pay our TWENTY DOLLAR parking fee for a two hour time period and sprint inside to buy our movie ticket. We get to the ticket booth and our movie was SOLD OUT! And our parking will run out before the next showing starts. But, wait for it, the movie attendant says, "Here is a ticket to validate you parking for the parking garage." WHAT?! There was a FREE parking garage. We jumped back in the car after our twenty dollar detour and tried to find another theater. Which we did, and missed that showing by about 15 minutes. Needless to say, we headed to Sonic, got Coke Zero and a Sonic Blast, and headed home to watch Gotham on Netflix.

Sunday made up for Saturday. My dad drove into town and the three of us went to the Saints vs. Titan's game. It was an awesome game. It was so close and it even went into overtime. It didn't have the outcome we were all hoping for, but you can't ask for more than a close nail biting game. Dad then took us to Deanie's Seafood for some fried shrimp. It was delicious!

Please ignore the disgusting angle, it's the best I could do without dropping my phone.

Dad even brought a treat for the puppies, sent by Mom of course! Raincoats. Seriously, I am not sure who comes up with all these puppy clothes, but they are so cute! The dogs loved their raincoats and are ready for the rest the of rain coming our way.

These Belchers are glad to be back together. We are looking forward to the rest of our adventures here in NOLA.

The Traveling Separately Belchers

It has been a while since my fingers have traveled across this keyboard. Mostly, because "The Traveling Belchers" have been the separated Belchers. Justin was off for a month of learning at the corporate office, while I was off for a month with my family and friends.

Justin worked with a group of twenty other CFA IMs and Grand Openers. They spent about a month learning marketing strategies, legal information, and training techniques. While at this training, Justin got to enjoy the many perks of having a corporate job. He had unlimited Starbucks anything and free dry cleaning services, as well as a special room rented out for all the IMs and Grand Openers filled with food, games, and TVs for them to use while they weren't in class or studying.

Justin's welcome bag.

 

Here's a sneak peak at the new dipping sauces. Justin said that they are delicious.

 

Justin not only had to work while he was gone, but he also got the chance to meet some interesting people and do some activities had had yet to try. His first week there, he and a group of co-workers tried out a church, little did they know, Dan Cathy also went to that church. On their way out the door they ran into him and introduced themselves. Dan then invited them to lunch with him and his friends. At lunch, Justin was able to meet the transportation director for Marvel.

Justin also went to the city's aquarium, College Football Hall of Fame, Coke Factory, played Top Golf and climbed Stone Mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, I think his favorite activity was going to Talladega. Justin had never been to a race before. Honestly, he wasn't sure if he would even like watching a race, but his friend Grayson invited him to go, so he wanted to try it. He loved it! Grayson was able to get them really good tickets. They were on row fifteen going into the fourth turn. Justin said that they were so close you could feel the tar on your face after the cars would pass them.

I spent my first week away from Justin visiting my mawmaw and pawpaw, Mrs. Patricia, Uncle Danny, and cousins. It was nice to get to see all of them. My mawmaw and I went "to town" as she likes to say. Pawpaw told me stories about his family and all about all the different kinds of birds in the yard. I went to go watch my little cousin Brody play baseball and spent an evening visiting with Mrs. Patricia. At the end of the week, Dad came and picked me up and took me home.

Once we got home, we rushed off the next morning to go to his annual work conference. This year it was held in San Antonio at the J.W. Marriot Hill Country Resort. My Dad has worked for Honeywell for 17 years and every year, I have been allowed to go to the conference with them, but I always had a reason why I couldn't make it. This year I was finally able to attend. I was so glad that I got to go. I got to spend time with my mom and some life long friends Amber and Mrs. Nadine. Us girls, did a little bit of shopping and learning, but a lot of floating the lazy river.

The last two weeks home were a whirlwind. There was a baby shower for my beautiful friend Kate, a wedding shower for Emma, a Rockets game, a Haunted House, a few days of working at the Buckle, some fun outings with Mom, lunch with Irissa, and surprise lunch with my friend Jessica.

 

Though the month apart was hard and way too long. Justin and I got to experience so many things. This is truly an amazing journey that we are on, and we are loving every minute of it!