Wordy Wednesday - New Orleans Style

Happy Wednesday Everykitty! First, we have an update on Daddy's sister. She is still in the hospital as she is experiencing some complications. It's nothing too big, they expect to release her Thursday, but the recovery will take longer than first anticipated. If you guys could send her purrs to get better quickly, we would appreciate it!

Today, we are going to show you what our beans were doing while they left us last weekend. They took a weekend trip to New Orleans with Aunt Susan and Uncle Dave. Uncle Dave is a native New Orleanian (Aunt Susan lived in LA too - her V-E-T degree is from LSU) so they were able to stay with Aunt Dave's sister Susie in Slidell, a suburb of the city. On Saturday, they were invited to attend a huge party at Susie's house. Here's a picture they took when they first arrived.

The food they ate was wonderful and we are very jealous of what they were served- three kinds of gumbo, shrimp and grits, grilled oysters, sausages, Cochon de Lait (Mommy refused to eat this as it's suckling pig), rack of lamb (Mommy also refused to eat), chicken and vegetable kabobs and Corn Maque Choux. Susie has this party every year and its always catered by Jack, the owner of Jacques-Imo's Cafe in New Orleans. This year, two of the gumbos (a traditional chicken and sausage gumbo and a seafood gumbo) were made by John Besh - runner up on the show The Next Iron Chef. John was supposed to be there, and Daddy was really looking forward to meeting him, but he could not make it at the last minute. He sent the gumbo though and Mommy says it was delish! Here are some pics of the food that Daddy took.

The next day was absolutely gorgeous in Louisiana. Daddy woke up early and took some pictures of the bayou that is behind Susie's house. He had hoped to see the foxes and bobcats (big wild kitties) and alligators (Daisy - they are great big lizards!) that live on the property but didn't see any. Here's Mommy's favorite of the bayou pictures that he took.

After everyone woke up, they all went into New Orleans and headed for the French Quarter. They went to some place called Pat O'Brien's and had those hurricanes we heard about. Guess what! They are not scary storms but drinks - really nummy adult rum drinks according to Mommy!

They spent the day in the French Quarter and watched the sun set on the Mississippi River. Here are some pictures Mommy took.

Look what else they got while they were in the French Quarter: gourmet kitty and doggie treats!

After leaving the French Quarter, they drove through the residential sections of the city. Though Uncle Dave and Aunt Susan had been back numerous times after Hurricane Katrina, this was our beans first time back. Even after over two years, Mommy was shocked at how bad certain areas of the city looked like - like a war zone. There is also a smell of mold and decay in certain areas of the city that was not there before. Many people are still living in FEMA trailers in the front yards and entire apartment complexes are boarded up and buildings are falling down. Mommy said seeing it all made her heart hurt and seeing the water lines still on some buildings and rescuers markings of "rescued cat" or "1 dead" followed by dates was just awful. The city is coming back, but its going to take a long time to erase the damage the storm left behind.

They left the city that night and spent one more night at Dave's sister's house before driving home the next day. They arrived home Monday night and we were really happy to see them! We don't think we will let them leave again!!