New Orleans

My boyfriend, Carl, and I recently took a trip to New Orleans for a friend's wedding.
It was my first time in New Orleans and my first visit to "the South."

We stayed in an grand, old mansion (a B&B) located between Uptown and the Garden District.  It was an amazing location, about half way from anything we wanted to do while we were in the city.

We tried walking down Bourbon Street just to see what all the fuss is about, but really only made it a block or two before I was sufficiently hollered at by a drunk dude to make even Carl uncomfortable and we avoided it after that.  It seemed like a frat boy's home away from home.  Not our scene.

Overall New Orleans was great.  We ate SO MUCH delicious food, everyone we met was incredibly nice and welcoming, the weather was great, and the homes and architecture beautiful.  I hardly took any photos at all, I was so busy just being there.  Which I suppose is just fine.  Good, even.  I have heard people say that often you can get too wrapped up in taking pictures to actually be present and enjoy the moment you're in.  

The aforementioned wedding was amazing: 1930s themed, live brass band, outdoors at an historic plantation in Edgard, Louisiana.  I will also say that the wedding was straight up magical.  Everyone dressed with the theme and the music fit in perfectly.  I was also so busy dancing to this awesome live music that I didn't even take a single picture.  
Carl did take a couple shots of me in my dress before we headed out to the plantation though.

Laissez les bons temps roulez, y'all.

ps- I did use my new suitcase, which is awesome by the way, and I did a pretty ok job of packing too.

On packing and suitcases

I am a terrible packer.

As a child when we would go 'up North' (as we say 'round these parts) to my family's cabin I would often pack the following: a bag of clothing, naturally, but also a bag of books (not necessarily to read on that trip, but more likely in case they needed consulting), another for important things (empty Altoids tins, small and strange toys I never played with or generally looked at), and yet another for adventuring (pocket knife, monocular, three notepads of various sizes, colored pencils, regular pencils, multicolored pens, etc). As you can imagine, the moment we arrived at the cabin, all but the clothes were immediately cast aside, never to be seen again--until arriving home and unpacking (and let's be honest--I am even worse at unpacking than I am at packing, but that's a topic for another day).

The first time I went abroad was in high school. I packed way too many clothes into a borrowed suitcase on the way there, and bought so many new clothes while in France that I could barely fit them all in for the way back. I remember thinking that navigating my heavy suitcase through the streets of Paris on the way home was strenuous and awkward.

Years later, I did a slightly better job of packing when traveling to Italy, but afterward seem to have thrown the whole notion of "packing light" out the window for subsequent stays abroad.

Balancing two medium-sized suitcases packed both to the weight limit, while wearing a purse and a backpack so heavy I feel I'm going to tip backward like a turtle and die, stranded and struggling on the tracks of the RER-B while Parisian onlookers do not look on because, ugh, another tourist, is something I'd like never to envision again, let alone live out (right up to the bit about falling over).

So.  Out of both necessity (previously mentioned suitcases were destroyed during that trip home and were thrown immediately into the garbage) and a sort of resolution (MUST PACK LIGHT) I have bought a new suitcase.

This beauty is hard-sided, light-weight and carry-on sized.  It has four beautiful rolly wheels and a cheery (but no too conspicuous) blue color.  Hopefully this baby will keep me an honest, one suitcase kind of woman.

Probably I should name it.

Suggestions?