The Big Easy!

The other day we were traveling from Tampa Florida to Hildalgo Texas, total distance was 1,359 miles. So we broke it up and had a care free, nothing to do day in NEW ORLEANS:)

The first half of the day we did a lot of exploring... we should have done a walking tour or something but they were $20 and we were being really cheep for some reason. The above pics are just stuff that I thought looked cool. My over all impression of the city is, sinful. There was a little of everything! A lot of sex shops, voodoo shops, witch craft stores and then of course you have you're gift shops, art gallery's, Jazz clubs and what is New Orleans without it's food!!! It would be so easy to leave N.O. weighing 50 lb's heavier then when you arrived!

For Breakfast we went to Cafe Du Monde.

The Cafe was established in 1862. All they serve are little danishes with some glorified powdered sugar, black coffee, coffee with hot milk in it, OJ (witch was added to the huge menu in the 70's) and Water. I don't see what all the fuss is about... we left with powdered sugar all over our pants.
We ate lunch @ Cafe Pontelba. The restaurant is in the oldest apartment building in America. It was build in the like 1802 or something crazy like that! The food was ok... We got this cajun shrimp dish with cesar salads, when we left I was still hungry!

Enough food talk! I'm gonna tell you a little secret... N.O. is SO HOT!!!! we were dying!

This lady was handing out free fans advertising her ghost tour, (Thank the Lord!!!) we would have melted away without them! Oh P.S. I got a new pair of Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses! That's them in the pic above. I got them on @ a huge blow out sail;) ... they were $5! Haha

One thing that I absolutly loved was on every corner was a different street performer or palm reader / fortune teller...

The girls thought that it would be really funny to play a little joke on me... We were all walking down the street. I stopped to take a picture of something. When they start obnoxiously calling me over to them. They said they wanted me to take a pic of them with this statue. So I walk over, mind you I have my camera in one hand and the fan in the other, all sudden the statue throws a ball at me! Scared me half to death! Of coarse I screamed like a little girl, but Mom, Dad you would have been so proud - I actually caught the ball! Can you believe it:)

In our wandering we did see some pretty funny stuff:)We saw these little ornaments in this gift shop that made us laugh so hard! I got to magnets that are similar to this one for the fridge at home:)

Christie thought that she needed to stick out, the ghost fan just wasn't cutting it for her so she got her own:) Of coarse it maches her outfit perfectly... that's why we're such good friends:)

Now I'm probably ganna go to to hell for this ... but this girl was the fattest most unhappy girl I have ever seen in my life. She wanted to be anywhere but were she was going!

Before we got ready for the nights festivities, Christie and I did a little shopping:) My big scream of deal was a Fuji Camera. Somehow I got him sell it to me $150 less than what he wanted... I don't know how it happened I couldn't recreate it if I tried! I get it from my mom ... thanks? I guess:) We also did really well at French Connection. They were having a sail; 40% off the already marked down sail price. I paid $20 for this shirt.

Isn't her dress cute. I picked it out. She's really easy to shop for, everything looks good on her, little bitch;) After dinner we went to:

An Absinthe Bar. They recently legalized Absinthe in the states, don't wory there's no hallucinogens, however the alcohol content is thru the roof. I had one... it didn't really effect me the way I had hoped, I was totally sober! Mostly cause they were expensive! These pics turned out kind of funny though. I was still learning how to work my camera:

This is what your vision would be like if you had too many of glasses:) Our next top was karaoke place called Cat's something. It was really fun! The host was great! Everyone sang except for me... they didn't have any songs that I new so I played Photographer/ videographer Here's Laura:)

Christie was so excited to sing this song... until she realized that she really only new the first verse... Hahaha

This was our host for the night. She was pretty funny.

If you look behind her, you'll notice two piano's - they're full of props. If someone wasn't doing so well she would drape something funny on them. And you know no karaoke night is complete without drunken strait men!

After the host found out we were all on tour, she kept announcing to the entire bar that we were with the "Backergains" apparently she misunderstood us:) We had a really good time though. After the embarassing enouncement people kept coming over to talk to us. We got all these invites to diffrent bars and a house party... but at this time it was 1:30 and our bus left at 2 so we had to leave. Shawn took the honers in giving us the perfect exit performance.

New Orleans is definatly a place that I want to come back to and explore a little more.

Love you all. Talk to you later.

The Sunshine State:)

Yep, Yep the tour is still in Florida:)

Let's dive in. We had 3 days of sunshine, humidity and constant sweating! We had a day off the first day we were there. I did some D.C. work starting to prepare for Meagan, Laura's replacement's arrival. I met her today actually, she's lovely:)

Feeling a little overwhelmed I went for a run. You'll be impressed by this: I went running on the longest Sidewalk in the world.

It's 4.5 miles of continuous, scenic sidewalk along Hillsborough Bay:) Here's some pics:

Isn't it pretty:) As I was running there were fishes that were jumping up out of water saying "You can do it! Keep going, you're almost there!" In a fishy kind of voice. Ok so they didn't tlak to me but they really were jumping out of the water! It was entertaining, I told myself I was running that it was a pieces thing... hahaha anyways, there were houses lining the other side of the street. They are huge and beautiful!

This is the beginning of Bayshore, on the Tampa side.

So along with the jumping fish, there was also a lot of honking that was going on! The last time I went running the same thing happend and I starting to think it's not a coinsidance. Maybe my running atire might have something to do with it but I don't think so! What do you think?

I like to think of running as a more aerobic way to tan... I mean why not multitask:) But I don't understand why people feel the need to honk? Any incites?

That night we went out for Christies Birthday... I picked out her outfit and she picked out mine... hahahaha are you ready? I'm going to be asking you for a lot of comitment, I mean this is full out no marking!

I decided to wait... you'll see the full picture later.

We went to this very sheik Tapas restaurant. Everything was ridiculously good! There was live music:

We had 2 pictures of Sangria, Deviled eggs and humas for apatisers, and the most amazing entres you could imagin:)

(oh - here's a little more of the "full out no marking outfit") After dinner the sangria took over and there might have been some dancing:)

Here's the full outfit for you... doesn't Christie look great! It's ok you don't have to say anything about my outfit:) Once we were over the dance floor. Shawn and I decided to let the music take us to places that we've never gone before, while staying in our seats:

Just to let you know what's going on in these pictures is greatness... hahaha in the 2nd one I was singing along, well trying to, with the band. And I would like to draw attention to the lady in the 3rd pic that is fully judging us... Hahaha

All in all is was a great night! Because we had a 3 shows the next day we went home at a very sensible hour and watched like 8 episodes of Greys Anatamy:) AKA we were in heaven!

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Kandace is a naitive of Tampa Florida and her family, gracously, thru us an amazing party! She had over 100 friends and fam come to the 5pm show on Saturday. Since we had 3 shows we despretly needed a shower... So needles to say we were fasionably late. We walked in to everyone waiting our arival. The tables were set up wedding style:) The Cast in the front:

The crew was at an arms length to our left:

And the most important table of all was too our right:

I felt like we were royalty, we were even greeted with a riveting performance from the Oak Angels:) Enjoy:)

Kandace used to choreograph for them when she was home. Aren't they great? We loved it:)

After introductions and a very short prayer:) We dove in and it was perfect! After food was cake:

And after cake was dancing! Oh we did a lot of it:)

Of course when you have kids you know there's going to be some amazing Kodak moments:)

Laura was even giving Flighty Fairy lessens:)

I have no clue how this happened but, for some reason I'm not surprised:

Hahaha... It was so refreshing to be around family! Even thou it wasn't my own, they made everyone feel at home. Thank you so much for such a great night:)

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The theater that we were performing at was also the home to a Camp Broadway type thing. There were 200 high school/collage age kids attending. Apparently the Backyardigans' audience reaches out to more than just 3-7 year olds. These kids were hilarious! They're was always a group of them crowded at the end of the hall just hanging out waiting to see if they could get a glimps of us. I wanted to be like "kids, calm down, this is what you have to look forward too" hahaha:)

The last day that we were there, However, the roles were reverced! Idina Menzel was performing her live tour right after we were done loading out, but unfortunatly we couldn't go the concert, we were leaving at 8pm and that's when the concert started:(

We couldn't even get a picture with her. Michelle, our company manager, did everything she could! Idina was sleeping... really... it's not like she was about wail for 90 mins, like she's been doing one nighters for the past week and a half, like she's headlining her own concert tour and needs to be healthy for her people! I mean come on Idina:) I know all that because we talked to her stage manager for while before we left. It's ok maybe our paths will cross again.

I got to go to the bus now... we have a 10 hour drive:( and it's 1 in the morning:(

Love you all, talk to you later:)