4 states in 12 hours...

Hey everybody! I arrived safely in Florida early, early Sunday morning after a long and horrendous drive that began on Saturday afternoon. After 12 hours of being on the road--the last two of which were extremely stressful with that stupid storm chasing me and all--Aaron's bed felt like a dream. It felt so good to be out of my car!
The last two days in New Orleans were great. Brianna and I explored a bit on Friday. Aside from taking 3 wrong street cars where I became the pillow of a very drunk and very stinky woman, we ventured to the French Market and had a scrumptrulescent dinner at a restaurant called Tommy's. After dinner we met Tony and one of his friend's out at a bar called Lucy's that was a bit off Bourbon Street (thankfully). We chit chatted and had a few Fireflies (this delicious sweet tea flavored vodka drink) before I spotted a hula hoop hanging from a hook high up on the wall. Boy did that open up a can of worms! Who knew I could still hula hoop my neck? It really was hilarious then watching other bar patrons trying to hula hoop :) After that little escapade we slipped out and headed down the street to the RedEye, this crazy, dark club where we danced for a bit before Briana and I once again tried to make our way towards Pat O'Brians--one of the famous bars in New Orleans. On our way there though we learned though that a transformer had blown on Bourbon so we opted not to walk the dark streets to Pat O"s--too dangerous. So we called it a night around 4:30. Where did the night go? Wow.
The next morning we got up early, loaded my car up and headed back down the French Market so I could experience a Beignet at the famed Cafe Du Monde. A Beignet is New Orleans famous version of a doughnut. They are these delicious little triangle-shaped, deepfried puffs that are covered in powdered sugar. Mmmm mmm good. After a couple Beignets and a cafe au lait Briana and I got back in the Coop and headed towards the Lower Ninth Ward to take a tour of the quarters most effected by Hurricane Katrina. Whata a sobering experience. It was unbelievable how much of the quarters were still in ruins. Street after street was filled with dillapidated houses, schools and businesses. It really was tragic to see that after almost 4 years from this storm a lot of the city still hadn't recovered. Many houses still had the quadrants that were tagged on the houses with spray paint during the storm. The quadrant provided necessary information to officials and rescue workers conveying the date the house had been searched, whether it had been cleared and how many bodies were found--the dead count and the alive count. It really put into perspective what these people had to go through. In some places the water line on the buildings reached to almost 20 feet. Although it was hard to see, I am so thankful we got to see that side of the city--a New Orleans that is forever changed. Mardis Gras is no longer the one key phrase that comes to mind when I think of the colorful city, it's Katrina.
Departing from the Ninth Ward we were both a little somber in spirit--I'm glad we saved that until the end. After a bittersweet goodbye to Briana at the airport I headed back towards New Orleans and on out of Louisianna and into Mississippi.



After about an hour of driving I had to pull over and take a nap--I didn;t think there was anyway I was going to make it to Aaron's on my previous nights sleep. But the small nap revived me and I somehow miraculously drove the next 10m hours straight to Tampa. The end of the drive was horrible though, the storm had cought up with me again and at one point there were frogs hopping across the highway that was covered in inches of water! But I made it through...barely. I immediately passed out once I got to Aaron's and slept til about noon the next day. Once up, Aaron and I went down into Tampa and explored Ybor City--so cute! We spent some time at the pool and then went out for a drink later on. We were both pretty wiped though so didn't stay out too late.
After another good night's sleep we packed up on Monday and headed to the beach! When we got there the first thing we saw was this group of about 10 boys running down the beach in speedos and thong bathing suits chanting "USA! USA!" Although we never figured out what exactly they were doing, it was a hilarious way to start off my first beach day of the trip. It was a lot of fun--we just laid around and swam in the ocean all day long.
Now Aaron is back at work so I got up and ran and now I thinbk I shall go hop the fence to his community swimming pool and work on my tan a little more :)

Spring Break Florida has finally arrived! Yahoooooo!



♥ Yours Truly