New Orleans Wedding

Wow.  What a fun weekend!  We went to NOLA (my first visit) for JJ's cousin's wedding over St. Patrick's Day weekend.  It just happens to be one of the busiest weekends in NOLA (I guess it makes sense that any major holiday associated with drinking would be big there...).

I had no idea what to expect from this city...all I knew about was Bourbon Street.  My mind was blown by how amazing it is!  I loved the history of the French Quarter, the architecture of the Garden District, the uniqueness of the old above ground cemeteries...the FOOD!  I would go back in a heartbeat.

One of my favorite experiences was dinner at Felix's Oyster Bar. We had dinner standing at the bar where they were shucking the oysters right in front of you and you just ate until you were full then they counted the shells at the end! So fun and so yummy.  We also had to sample their house specialty chargrilled oysters (amAHzing), oysters rockafeller, and fried oysters...do you see a theme?  But that is half the fun of traveling to a new city...experiencing the food they are known for!

We also ate at Mother's Restaurant and enjoyed a true Southern breakfast, Cafe DuMonde (the original French market coffee stand) for beignets, and Cafe Beignet (yes I had to sample multiple beignets).  On the afternoon of St. Patrick's Day we headed over to the Garden District and had some fairly authentic Irish food at Parasol's Block Party before the parade started.

The wedding itself was a totally unique experience!  The bride and groom just moved to New Orleans this past year but really wanted to embrace all of the wedding traditions of the city.  So fun!!  The coolest part was the "second line" which is basically a parade from the ceremony to the reception site that took us all through the streets of the French Quarter (including Bourbon Street).  Just keep in mind, it was about 8:00pm on St. Patrick's Day on the streets of New Orleans.  There were people lined up on the streets taking pictures and videos of us parading by, some even joined in for a few blocks!  We had a police escort and 5 piece marching band so we were totally legit and attracted quite a bit of attention.  Pretty. Darn. Cool.

Can't wait to go back again soon...quite possibly when we play (beat) the Saints this fall...

View of the French Quarter

Napoleon House Restaurant

St. Louis Cathedral 

St. Patrick's Day celebrations

At the wedding

Family picture

Panthers Fan Cruise

After 2+ years of begging/pleading/bribing/schmoozing we were invited to go on the Panthers Fan Cruise at the beginning of March! Apparently long snappers are not high on the list of requested guest appearances...boo. But, whatever, we got to go! Did I mention it was all paid for by AAA of the Carolinas? Oh yea...free vacation.  For those of you who know, I like to travel and I like saving money.  And when you can combine the two?!?! Mind glowingly fun. If its free...its for me (us).

We were on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, the biggest cruise ship in the world we are told.  It was huuuuge. Loved it. The port cities were pretty average in my humble (and apparently snobbish) opinion, the main focus is the ship.  It makes sense, it was unreal.  We went to the private Royal Caribbean port of Labadee, Haiti, Jamaica and Cozumel.  Cozumel was my favorite, we snorkeled and then took a cab to the other side of the island for lunch at Coconuts. The food and the views were so worth the trip.  In Haiti we did a yoga class on the beach and then spent so time in the water.  Jamaica we stayed near the port shopping center and kept it pretty low key.  We went to Jamaica for our honeymoon and did most of the touristy things then, and we are going back in July for a wedding so we weren't too stressed about exploring.

There were 4 other current players and one former player who was the emcee.  It was fun to get to know everyone because I hadn't really met any of them before!  The fans were GREAT, only a handful of awkwardness in the whole group ;).  We really had a good time chatting with everyone and getting to hear their reactions to things and the questions they had.  The whole point of the cruise is to give the fans an up close and personal experience with the players and I think they got just that.

Here are a few fun pictures from the trip!!

Our ship towering over the competition

Labadee, Haiti

On the boat...Haiti in the background

Jamaica...after we drank the coconut water, he split it in half so we could eat the flesh...YUM

Chalk Talk Night with the fans...get all your pressing special teams questions answered!!

View from lunch at Coconuts in Cozumel

Happy cruisers (check out that beard!!)

 Hopefully they liked us and might even invite us back next year!

Orlando

At the end of February we traveled from Phoenix to Orlando for our annual Pro Athlete Outreach conference and just like in years past, it was wonderful!  It is so great to be able to reconnect with friends from around the league, and for the friends who are no longer in Carolina it is often our only chance to see them.  We were at the same hotel as last year so we were familiar with the area and hotel.

In addition to all of the great speakers and worship music (Dr. Tony Evans, Miles McPherson, Louie Giglio, and Aaron Lindsey) we got a fun little bonus in the form of our 18 month old godson and his parents!  The resort we were at (The Omni at Championsgate) had tons of open grassy areas, a 9 hole hole par-3 course, lazy river, kiddie pool, water slide etc.  So we got to watch the little guy go crazy with all the activities.  Living up north, he hadn't had much of a chance to be outside all winter so it was awesome for him to get out an run around.  I think his favorite was the lazy river, it was adorable to watch!

It was a pretty quick trip, just in and out for the conference but we did fit in a quick morning at Magic Kingdom, JJ and Mason got to play golf at Bay Hill, and one of the most unique experiences of my life...VIP treatment at a concert!

Our best friends are good friends with several of the guys from Needtobreathe and they just happened to be playing at House of Blues in Orlando while we were there. Life is all about who you know, right?! Needtobreathe is an amazing Christian folksy/rock group from South Carolina (so we love them even more).  They opened for T. Swift on her tour last year and now they are doing their own tour for they 4th album The Reckoning.)  So anyway, because of our friends (we are just moochers), we got the royal treatment at the concert and got to sit in an opera box on the right side directly above the stage.  It was such an awesome perspective because you could see what the band sees when they look out at the crowd...and the crowd was definitely in to it!  Not only did we get amazing seats, we got to go back stage after the show and party like rockstars...well, it was pretty tame so it was more like partying WITH a rockstar ;).  The guys were great we had so much fun getting to know them and because they live in Charleston, SC there is a good chance we will see them again this summer!

Ironically they played a show in Charlotte 4 days after, and they graciously set us up with amazing tickets.  We couldn't see them again after the show because we had to hurry home and finishing pack for the cruise, but the concert was amazing and it felt like a totally different show because this time we were out in the crowd.

So much fun in Sonoma!

JJ and I just got back from an incredible trip to wine country! We had beautiful weather and such fun experiences all over the valley. Instead of a detailed itinerary, I will just give the highlights of the trip:

Hotel: We stayed at the MacArthur Place Inn and really enjoyed ourselves, especially because of the free upgrade to the Spa Suite complete with an outdoor tub and shower (this was our room)! We used the fireplace every night and loved the gardens all throughout the property. It was within walking distance of all the restaurants and wineries surrounding the downtown square.

Wineries: Of course this was the focus of the trip. We went to Napa two years ago and knew we would have to come back and see all the Sonoma wineries. I read a bunch of reviews before we went and had a pretty good idea of where we might want to go, but in all honesty, some of our favorites were places that were recommended to us along the way.

Kunde...We liked it so much we joined the wine club! The estate is beautiful and they offer a mountain top tasting where you are driven up into the mountains overlooking their property (and the entire valley). We had great weather and could see for miles. This is also the winery used in the movie "Bottle Shock" that our good friends had made us watch before our trip. Good movie and beautiful scenery.

Mountain Top Tasting

View from the top

Cuvaison...The tasting room in Carneros is my favorite (we went to the one in Calistoga two years ago). Incredible views and the S Block Chardonnay is the best I have ever tasted. I had to stock up while we were there!

Gorgeous day, gorgeous patio for tasting

Chimney Rock...This winery is actually in Napa (we drove over for an afternoon) and came very highly recommended by several different wineries and they did not disappoint! Their cabs were AMAZING and the manager was kind enough to give us a private tour of the facilities. Very cool.

Jacuzzi Family...Great Italian wines, free tasting, and a really fun atmosphere! It was fun to try wines we had never heard of and they also had olive oil tastings in the same building courtesy of The Olive Press.

Other wineries we enjoyed...Cline, Viansa, St. Francis, Silver Oak, Reynolds Family, Acacia, Gundlach Bundschu, Kenwood, and Valley of the Moon.

Restaurants: Our favorites included the Fremont Diner in Carneros (seemingly in the middle of nowhere, great upscale diner food with a twist...should be on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives someday!), Dl Dorado Kitchen (a farm to table theme), Hopmonk (brewery and pub food), Sunflower Caffe (gourmet soups, salads, and sandwiches) and Estate (fabulous farm to table Italian food in a gorgeous Victorian estate).

Other: On a particularly beautiful morning we hiked the Overlook Trail and enjoyed beautiful views of the valley and downtown Sonoma. We were able to walk to the trailhead from our hotel and enjoyed all 6.5 miles!

View from Overlook Trail

We also rented bikes from our hotel on our last day and enjoyed a scenic 10 mile ride. Wish we would have done this sooner in the week so we could have gone multiple times. The Sonoma Bike Path was a great place to start and the we continued on and biked to Bartholomew Park and winery (where they have additional walking paths) and Buena Vista Winery. We didn't do tastings at either, but they were gorgeous and worth the trip to enjoy the views.

We ended the week with a fun drive through Sausalito while killing time waiting for our delayed flight, but got to experience great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and downtown SF!

Overlooking the Bay