Camp Pendleton/San Diego/US Marine Corps

Tony is a Marine. We went to go visit where he had boot camp on a separate trip. This is from the museum.
This is an example of their bunk beds and how neat they had to keep everything. No wonder Tony is a neat freak. :)
Semper Fi
Unfortunately, we went for a sad reason. You are always in our prayers Martha and Samantha. RIP Junior.

Colorado

view from our room

Separate road trip to Aspen. I love Colorado. I usually do not like snow and cold weather but in Colorado I forget all about it. Colorado is such a beautiful state. We stayed at a hotel that was right on the mountain, you could put on your skis on and slide out your door onto the mountain. It also had a hot tub and the view at night was nothing short of breathtaking: dark sky, stars and mountains. I chickened out on skiing though. I have to save up for skiing lessons on the bunny hill. :)

New Orleans - The City

French Quarter

Entry into cemetery - they bury their dead ABOVE ground.
The man on the ladder was REAL. He was balancing himself on it and stood still to look like a statue. Just one of the many amazing street performers.
We took the trolley to the Garden district to look at the historic homes.
Inside the trolley.
The French Quarter at night.
Oyster Bar.
New Orleans at night.
A cigar shop.
I have to make it to Mardi Gras. Going on my list!

New Orleans - The Hotel

New Orleans is a very old town. It is filled with spirits. And I encountered one (or more) in our hotel room.

At first, I was really happy with the hotel. We received a very good rate, and the staff were friendly and welcoming. The hotel room was very unique. Had original hardwood floors and brick walls -- you could tell that it was a very historic hotel, and it was within walking distance to Bourbon St.

So, one evening, I was up late watching a movie on the laptop. I was sitting at the desk which you can see on the right side of the photo. Also on the right side of the photo was a tall dresser. As I was sitting at the desk, watching a movie --- out of the corner of my eye, the dresser door sloooowly opened a good 6 - 8 inches and then closed. NO JOKE. I totally freaked out. It was not a wind draft or anything b/c what would SLOWLY open and close a door like that??? I hid under the covers and slept w/ the lights on and I wanted to change hotels but really, you can't run away from the New Orleans spirits. Cindy gave me great advice and told me to think of them as friendly, which helped. But I still slept with all the lights on.

New Orleans - The Food

From Memphis, we headed further south to New Orleans. I have to first start off talking about the food. I LOVE cajun food as well as FRESH seafood. New Orleans has to be the best city so far for food. We had shrimp po' boys, raw oysters, jambalaya, seafood gumbo, ham po'boy and...fried alligator! Tony found this Voodoo beer that was local and he loved. We also fell in love with the hot sauce at Desire's -- had to buy a few bottles to take home with us. We were disappointed that we had missed crawfish season but that just gives us all the more reason to go back! The ham po' boy from Mother's restaurant is truly the best ham I have ever tasted --- I can't even describe it. If you are EVER in N'Oleans, stop by Mothers! Um, yeah, gained about 10 pounds from New Orleans itself but definitely worth every pound. :)

Headed South to Memphis !!

From St. Louis, we went south to Memphis, Tennessee. We spent only half a day there, but we were able to visit the famous Beale St that had many jazz bars including BB King -- the music was blasting and it was very festive, even in the middle of the day.

While in that area, we stopped and had Gus's Famous Fried Chicken that was also feature on Man vs Food. :) Again, the place was packed but we got a table pretty quickly. The chicken was juicy and spicy!

Then we went to see Elvis Presley! Well, Graceland anyway. We didn't do the tour inside the mansion but there is a place that you can park right next to the mansion to see it. There is a brick wall surrounding the property and all the fans write on the wall.