Greetings from NOLA!

Greetings from New Orleans!

We got into the Big Easy late Thursday night and Our weekend is packed full of venue tours, tastings and engagement photos. Not only was the new season of Bravo's Top Chef filmed in New Orleans this year, we also got very lucky with timing since Coolinary is taking place. Coolinary is a celebration of dining in America's most delicious city, New Orleans. Coolinary is similar to other restaurant weeks around the US, allowing diners to choose from a 2 or 3 course meal at a discounted price.

I always plan our trips around what we are eating. This is what we have scheduled this trip!
Wedding tasting at Hotel Mazarin
Happy Hour at Luke ($0.50 oysters! Plus I cannot go to NOLA without dining at one of John Besh's restaurants!)
Dinner at Arnauds (Coolinary - $35 a person, 3 courses)
Lunch at Cochon Butcher
Dinner at K-Pauls (Coolinary - $34 a person, 3 courses)
Sunday Brunch TBD

Saturday morning, we will head over to New Orleans City Park for our long run. City Park was just featured as a Rave Run by Runners World. It's a beautiful 1,300 acre park with oak trees and was the site of the 1992 Olympic Track Trials

Photo from runnersworld.com

Late Saturday afternoon, we will head over to Oak Alley Plantation for our engagement photos!! We are both very excited about and I cannot wait to see how they turn out.

Although I am very excited about this trip, we decided to drive up from Tampa. I am not too thrilled over this but it saved us quite a bit of money, nearly $500.  I was very happy to learn that we didnt have to cross the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway, the longest bridge in the world at nearly 24 miles. I HATE BRIDGES. While we were crossing the 7 mile bridge, which I thought the entire time was the 24 mile bridge, I was having a panic attack. This was wonderful news! Oh and we got upgraded at the rental car booth. We went from an economy car to a Volvo C70 hardtop convertible!! Although it took us 9 hours to get here, we were in a very comfortable and stylish ride!