Christmas bells were not the only bells ringing the week before the 25th. My cousin, Victoria, the only girl in our cousin pool, promised Conner she would marry him. Where is Morgan City, Louisiana? Good question that I had to google myself. It’s about halfway between New Orleans and Lafayette. Which means—it is in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by swamps. This is where the groom was born and raised so it makes sense as a destination for the wedding.
The nearest large airport was New Orleans so that is where Grant and I flew into from Los Angeles. I think I was able to get both tickets from LAX for the same price as one out of San Diego. Now writing this after having completed this trip—I should have shelled out the extra money instead of dealing with the headache that is LAX right before Christmas! HAHA!
Upon landing in “Nawwwlins” we were shuttled over to the rental car. Costco Travel for rental cars is the way to go. Free reservations, no pre-payment, cancel anytime, and are often cheaper than the other websites. Our reservation was for Budget, but they had the longest line. We made our way over to the website—saw that Alamo had no line and a car for $10 more and booked it. Upon leaving they gave us a white Buick Encore, which is an identical car to our friend Lara. Grant was very excited to photograph in front of this car.
I goofed with the time change and our reservations were for a time we were still on the plane. Instead we wandered around the French Quarter and settled on a bar/bistro called Curio. We seem to luck out each time we are here as we got to eat on the outside patio and people watch, while we ate. The food was okay, but Grant loved the Hurricane drinks…and after two he questioned why Louisiana had problems with hurricanes because he thought they were great. We left, checked into our hotel, and crashed.
The next morning, we got up and realized that our hotel room was basically on the street. When we opened the blinds, we had to close them quickly as people were at eye level able to look directly at us. We got up and dressed and headed to Copper Wine for morning brunch. The morning rush had not hit, but did as soon as we were seated. We ordered the classics of gumbo, beignets, etc. and did not really let anything go to waste. Even after the powder sugar explosion I still had a sweet tooth. We drove over to Whole Foods and picked up some cookies. There was this really weird street that still had photo enforced cameras and I swear—“I think [Grant] got a ticket” for speeding, but only time will tell on this one. I want to be wrong.
Next stop was Morgan City. When you leave New Orleans there really isn’t anything besides swamps, swamps, and a few more swamps. My parents and grandparents had driven to Morgan City from Lafayette, and we met up with them. We conversed in the lobby for a bit and then we wandered around the city. We did find their “beach” area and wandered around snapping a few photos. Not finding much, we returned back to the hotel to get ready.
The wedding was at a church called Sacred Heart Catholic Church. This wedding was wayyyyy more formal than the weddings that I am used to. Probably should have worn the tie. But, the focus was on Victoria and she was a beautiful bride. Following the ceremony, we left to go to the Morgan City Petroleum Club where we ate, laughed, and danced the night away. Of note, my grandma might be small in size, but lady can still dance the night away even for a 75+ year old. Us youngsters were struggling to keep up with her energy!
The next morning, I was woken up by Grant saying that on his way to the bathroom he checked his phone, and everyone was up and downstairs. Some of the family was up until 4:00am and come 8:00am they were downstairs ready to start the day. We all congregated in the lobby and talked for a bit catching up. We hadn’t all been together in so long that it was nice to see everyone all in one spot. Eventually, my grandparents who had a long journey in front of them were ready to go so we all slowly dispersed.
After saying our goodbyes and checking out we drove to Baton Rouge instead of New Orleans. It reminded us of Austin a bit and we ate at Mansurs on the Boulevard. The food was good and Grant actually ate some grits without complaining. Following that we drove around the city and bit and ended up at LSU. After snapping a few photos and checking out the campus we took off for New Orleans. Unfortunately, as we were leaving a rock hit and cracked the windshield. We did call our credit card company and have coverage, but when we returned the car they didn’t say anything so maybe we won’t have to deal with it.
Once back in New Orleans, we walked around the French Quarter again. Both Grant and I love just walking around and taking in the setting. We ended up at the far end of Decantur past Café Du Monde (Jackson Square one) and ended up picking up a muffulettas at Alberto Cheese and Wine Bistro. Pretty good. Central Grocery, which is where the muffulettas began was still closed since last year due to damage.
Grant coordinated a meet up with my cousins Ben, Nick, and Victoria at LaFitte’s Blacksmith Shop and Bar. The oldest bar structure dating back to the 1700s do have some mean cherry bombs. Maraschino cherries mixed with Everclear sure do pack a punch. Thank you, Ben, for getting those for everyone! Ironically, as we were at the bar we even got to see a wedding procession taking place. A fun way to see things go full circle. It was nice hanging out with the family after an extended break, but our time together was short due to having to get back to the airport.
We left, returned the car, crammed into our middle seats, watched as a drunk man was kicked off the plane due to being intoxicated, and then landed in LAX. At 10pm on a Sunday we wouldn’t believe how packed the place was; people everywhere both inside and out. Maybe it was from pure exhaustion, but Grant found it hilarious when the person sitting next to us on the plane saw the swarms of people of LAX and turned to his friend to say, “I hate this f*****g city.” He couldn’t stop laughing about it and thought it would be a good idea to tell me about it on the shuttle bus full of locals. It’s ok, this was not the most embarrassing thing he did to me this weekend. Fast forward to being dropped off at our parking lot. Of course, our parking QR code didn’t work on the way out so I blared on the horn to get someone’s attention. Grant still laughing while I was getting a bit frustrated. Luckily my obnoxious behavior worked and we hit the 4-0-5. …..to the 5 to the 8-0-5 to the 8 (if you’ve seen the Californians skit on SNL we liked to mimic it for our routes). As we drove from LA, through Orange County, to San Diego—it was clear that we were no longer in Morgan City! HAHA!
