Two Dat

It's hard to believe, but we've actually been in New Orleans for TWO months! Wow how the time flies! It's already halfway through September and will be Christmas before we know it (Wal-Mart already says that it is haha)! In two months, we've made a lot of progress. I would say that we are pretty much settled now. We can get around a lot of the city now WITHOUT the GPS. This may seem like an unimpressive feat, but if you've spent more than 5 minutes driving through this city, you know that getting lost, like eating beignets, is part of the New Orleans experience. We still keep the GPS in the car because there is still a lot to learn about navigating this city.


We've started branching out more and trying a lot of the restaurants every weekend. A lot are special occasion style places and are out of our price range, but we have found several affordable yummy places. One of those places is the Creole Creamery, which is quickly becoming our favorite ice cream parlor. We have always enjoyed our ice cream, so this was a real find. Stephen likes the milkshakes and I like the cookie monster or red velvet ice cream. We have tried several "regular" restaurants, too. Our favorites so far are Churro's (a Cuban restaurant), Deanie's (seafood), and The Louisiana Purchase Kitchen (a cajun buffet, perfect for after church). Hopefully when we come home for Thanksgiving we won't be 300 pounds. Thank goodness for my Ladies Power Hour workout class twice a week!

I've been thinking about the past two months and decided to compile a Top 10 list of the things we've learned so far:
10. The locals here sound like they're from New York. Weird.
9. The locals here drive like cab drivers from New York. Scary. Being an aggressive driver who loves to honk the horn is a must.
8. Canal Blvd. and Canal St. are two VERY different streets. This made getting to church one morning very interesting.
7. It's VERY easy to end up driving on the wrong side of the road. The medians and lanes are not always very clearly marked.
6. Saints fans are very committed fans. They definitely don't like Falcons fans. And they sure do love their black and gold--even on their vehicles.
5. GPS devices do not know how to navigate New Orleans. Is it a bad sign when your GPS voice says, "Good luck. You're on your own"?
4. The waistband of your pants shrink when you live here. It couldn't POSSIBLY be all the yummy food we're eating.
3. There are two seasons here: hot and not so hot. Boy am I going to miss fall! :(
2. There seems to be something is the water. There are families with babies EVERYWHERE! Don't worry, we have a Brita filter! :)
1. In the words of the president of NOBTS, Dr. Kelley, "No one ever moves to New Orleans and says, Wow. This is just like home."

There's just no place like home!