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!