New Orleans - part 2

We are home! We got home yesterday afternoon, and it feels pretty good. Traveling yesterday was rough, we walked SO much while in New Orleans. I think we averaged about 8 miles a day or something. Crazy! Needless to say, yesterday my body was like ummm... are you kidding? All the back pain. Also sleepiness.

Anyway, back to good old New Orleans. Still in love.

Tuesday we did, surprise, more exploring! We took a cemetery tour, which was awesome. I am a super nerd, and loved learning about the city, Voodoo, and those cemeteries. I knew basically zilch about New Orleans before coming, so it was all very new and cool!

Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1! You can only get into this cemetery these days with a tour guide, they have a guard at the gate. Epic.

I literally knew nothing about the burial practices in New Orleans, only that they had old cemeteries and I wanted to check them out. Turns out, they're very different from our cemeteries here in Texas. Everyone is in a tomb! It floods so often that burying people underground means floating bodies, so centuries or so ago they decided to start keeping their dead above ground in tombs. It's so hot there, that once you die you're placed in a pine box at the top of the tomb and left for a year and one day where you are basically cremated into dust by the gases your body lets off and the heat of New Orleans. Then your dust is placed in a bag at the bottom of the tomb with all your other relatives! IT IS SO NEAT. And like really green and space efficient. I had no idea, and was completely awed by the genius of the whole thing. The more you know!

There are a ton of these cemeteries around New Orleans, this one is the most famous I guess. It's very old, like folks born in the 1700's are buried here! And it's kind of hodge-podged put together, you could definitely get lost in that little block of tombs.

Nick Cage's tomb that he has already purchased, awaiting his demise. Such a weirdo.

The Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau's tomb! We knocked three times and made a wish of sorts. I'm hoping since we share a name, it will come true.

I originally planned on wearing cuter shoes but after walking a few miles in them, I was like NOPE. Tennis shoes it was, for the rest of the trip. Cute or not. Being multiple bowling balls heavier than normal means my feet (whole skeleton?) can't hang.

Hello, here are extra derpy Hogan faces. We do our best.

New Orleans is seriously, such an amazing place. The food! The coffee! We did not have a single bad meal. And there is GOOD coffee on basically every corner, plus we had a killer espresso bar in the lobby of our hotel. Dangerous. I have no idea how many coffees (and accompanying pastries...) I had.

And I want to talk about how nice everyone was. Everyone we interacted with was so friendly and kind and just generally nice. Sometimes in big cities you encounter the opposite, but this place is so welcoming! And everyone loves pregnant women, oh my gosh. Even homeless dudes on the street offered congratulations. Everyone was asking when I was due, telling me nice things. The lady at the Cafe du Monde store was telling us that her grandson had a baby at the end of January, and he is sweet and his baby is sweet so our kid will be sweet too. And when we set up our cemetery tour the lady assured me that our baby would be born on the 30th, her birthday. With serious certainty! Everyone was just so great. I had a few qualms about New Orleans and visiting while pregnant especially, but gosh, it was wonderful. That being said, we basically explored only during the day. It's a different beast at night. Although even then I never really felt scared. There were sketchy moments, but I felt safe for the most part. And it is a seriously lovely city during the day. Cannot say that enough. I explored on my own and felt not the least bit worried! New Orleans, you surprised the heck out of me. You are such a charmer!

That's all for today, folks. Check out the rest of the trip here!

New Orleans - part 1

Hello hello from New Orleans!! This is the last big trip the Hogans will be making as a family of two, well... two and a half. Because she is definitely here with us, and makes her presence known frequently. We got here Saturday night after hanging out in Dallas for a bit with Kristy and Kennedy. The flight was so easy and SO SHORT. Thank goodness because I'm extra pregnant, ha! I've never been to Louisiana much less New Orleans, and now that I know that it's so easy to get here, I have no idea why we've never done it before! 

Brendon is here for Midyear, a big annual pharmacy conference. Like BIG. Like thousands of pharmacists from all over the country. No joke, our flight was 95% pharmacists. If you're an avid Hogan follower (HA), you might remember this is why we got to go to California (and Disneyland!) last year around this time. The conference rotates locations between cities. Next year is Vegas! Not sure if me and the Seahorse will be attending that one...

Last year was much different than this year, aside from the different locales. Brendon was interviewing for first year residencies (with a cold!) so there was a lot more for him to do. This year he early committed to a second year residency, so it's much less stressful. I guess this is the official big announcement? After wrapping up this first year, Brendon will be staying at the Central Texas VA for another (FINAL) year of residency! He's specializing in psychiatric pharmacy, which is very very cool. So another year in Temple it is for the Hogans! (I am actually 100% okay with this, and very happy for Brendon.) Anyway, that means no stress of being interviewed this year! Well, he's doing the interviewing for future first year residents. And he had to present a poster for his research project for the year Sunday afternoon. But other than that, he's free to play! Which is obviously awesome. I'm just chillin' in the hotel room while he's doing interviews, it's perfect. I had an insane week last week that involved HUNDREDS of miles of driving (which when you're 8 months pregnant, is no fun. The back pain, y'all!), so I'm thrilled to have some down time and nothing I need to do. Plus, apparently New Orleans is amazing. 

The architecture, y'all. Obviously, we are not here to party. Preggo or not, I'm not a big party animal. I'm here for the nerdy stuff. History, sightseeing, food. And gosh, there is so much of all of that everywhere. The buildings... oh man. They are beautiful. We are staying a short walk from the French Quarter, so we've already done so much exploring, thanks to a pharmacist Brendon works with and his wife who are New Orleans pros! Seriously though, the architecture continuously blows me away. It is a beautiful city, and the weather has been PERFECT. It's actually really similar to the weather in California in December. I'm not sure if it's always like this or if we just got lucky, but it's pretty great.

So here's the photo dump. Sorry it's mostly all buildings. They're just so fabulous!

That sun though! We got up early to go explore and hit up Cafe Du Monde before things got crazy. And I'm glad we did because the streets were pretty much empty except for cleaning crews and well, folks sleeping on the streets!

I can't get over St. Louis Cathedral. It is so impressive. And obviously it looks like a castle, so I love that!

Cafe Du Monde! And my first beignets! They did not disappoint. Although my pants were covered in powdered sugar.

We wandered down Bourbon Street for a bit. Just to say we'd been there. It started smelling like puke though, so we didn't last long.

Oh and the Christmas decor? Pretty perfect everywhere. These people know how to drape a garland.

The antique stores! These are real antiques you guys. Not the junky variety, but the real thing. The chandeliers these places have... swoon worthy!

Canal Street! It kind of reminds me of a California/New York hybrid. Old, but not nearly as old as the French Quarter. And palm trees.

So New Orleans, huh? Who knew! ;) It's amazingly fantastic. I am in love. I posted a picture on Facebook that said it was like Disneyland but dirtier. And that is so true. It's magical and beautiful and full of mystery, and just a tad grungy. I love it. Can't wait to keep exploring!