A Wedding in New Orleans

Victor's Family

We spent our fall break this year in the United States! We started in New Orleans for our nephew Victor's wedding to his lovely bride Veronica. New Orleans is a great city to visit and October is a wonderful time to be there with family. It isn't too crazy or intense but still lots of fun!

Our first day there Steve and I couldn't sleep (yay, jetlag) so we headed down to the river to see the sunrise. I ran a little and then we met at Cafe du Monde to get beignets. They were of course delicious. Warm fried dough, freshly made, is always a treat. We took some back to the kids too. We are nice like that.

While waiting for the rest of DelRossos to arrive, we took the kids and Steve's mom for a walk down Bourbon Street and past the St Louis Cathedral, the oldest, active Catholic Church in the United States. As you may know from some of my previous posts, the kids are not impressed by yet another church, but they dutifully ooh and aah for a minute or two for my benefit.

St Louis Cathedral

We then headed to the aquarium. We all enjoyed leisurely walking around and feeding the parakeets, even Grandma!

Rachel, AJ, Stefanie & Grandma

Rachel

Stefanie

Missy

AJ

Stefanie

Grandma

Rachel & Stefanie

Friday was wedding day but not until the evening. Steve's sister Rita arranged a Segway Tour for us. That was so much fun! I thought it was going to be hard to balance and to maneuver but it was really quite easy. The hardest part was that it was tough on the feet.  Since you're standing still and using your feet to steer they do start to hurt a little. However, not enough not to do it! We saw a lot of quirky architecture and all the main sites of the city and learned a little too. It was a perfect tour with teens! Afterwards we had lunch at Huck Finn's, yummy, yummy New Orleans food!

Mark, AJ, Rachel, Stefanie, Brian, Greg, Rick & Katie

Stefanie

AJ

Rachel & Missy

Armstrong Park

Rachel

Then it was time for the main event, Victor & Veronica's wedding. What a terrific evening.  The wedding was in a beautiful New Orleans church and the priest did a superb job equating marriage to a marathon, so perfect for the running couple! Steve, as Victor's Godfather was selected to do a reading and did an excellent job!

Rachel, Steve, Stefanie, Missy & AJ

Victor & Veronica!

Afterwards the reception was at a cool refurbished warehouse building. Lots of yummy food, good drinks and of course dancing.

Mike found the baby in the King's Cake

Steve, Veronica & Victor

Victor & Stefanie, AJ & Veronica

Following the reception the party moved to Pat O'Briens.  Steve and I happily joined the group after dropping the kids off at the hotel. After all we weren't in Germany, no bars for them! Since we were there, we of course had a Hurricane. It truly does pack a punch.

Saturday was an easy going day. We made our way to the French Market and explored that area and walked through the street, people watching and of course eating. We visited the World War II museum but realized we were going to run out of time before they closed so we watched the IMAX movie and did the submarine simulator saving the rest for Sunday, luckily you can go a second day for only an additional $5.

AJ, Brian, Stefanie & Rachel

Saturday evening Veronica's Aunt Terrie hosted a dinner in honor of the happy couple. It was another terrific evening, filled with fabulous food, music and fun. The had a Duck Dynasty theme happening, leading to some fun pictures with the kids and their cousins.

Rachel, AJ, Mark, Stefanie & Brian

Sunday was our last day in New Orleans and we spent part of the day finishing our visit to the World War II museum. This is an incredible museum with excellent in depth details of all aspects of WWII. I would highly recommend visiting it if you go. Definitely watch the IMAX movie but skip the submarine simulator!

Stefanie, Rachel, AJ & Brian