The Big Easy

This past weekend found me in lovely New Orleans for my friend's daughter's wedding. Apparently I got out of Northern Virginia just in time to avoid the nasty wet weather, and fortunately it didn't appear to follow me as the weather in New Orleans was about as close to spring perfection as it could get; clear, sunny skies and highs in the 70s. I booked a room in the Melrose Mansion, an 1850s townhouse that had recently been converted into a bed and breakfast right on the edge of the French Quarter; here's a glimpse of my room, which was way too big for just one person (too bad Captain Husband couldn't slip away from his school work for the weekend):

Not shown is the bedroom portion, which also had a fireplace and a huge, iron tester bedstead that was so high off of the ground that my pregnant self had significant difficulties getting in and out of the darn thing--I was this close to asking for a step-stool of some kind.

Friday evening was the rehearsal dinner, and all of the out-of-town guests were invited to attend; the bride and groom are big-time foodies, and their traditional crawfish bake did not disappoint. Ann taught me how to shuck the crawfish, but I abstained from sucking the heads as the locals supposedly do. The wedding was held Saturday evening at the Peristyle in City Park, a gorgeous neoclassical style dancing pavilion built in 1907. The reception that followed was held in a tent across the way that had been decorated to represent the wilds of Louisiana after a rain fall; in short, absolutely breathtaking. I admit that I was remiss in my photography duties, but I have a good excuse: all of the fabulous food at the reception proved to be too rich for the baby's liking, and I wound up being shuttled home at a very unfashionably early hour so that I could spend the rest of the night sick in the comfort of my hotel room. This kid's got no class, I tell ya.

By Sunday afternoon I had recovered enough to attend one last wedding-related event over at the father of the bride's stunning antebellum home on St. Charles Avenue and then it was off to prepare for the very early flight the next morning back to dreary, overcast Virginia, where all sorts of chores and errands awaited me, like getting gifts for Julianne's baby shower this weekend and picking up a new vacuum cleaner after I had killed the old one with an ill-advised cleaning whirlwind that involved vacuuming all three flights of stairs in the house. I know this is going to sound super lame, but my new vacuum cleaner ROCKS. This is what my life has come to now; getting way too excited over household cleaning products.