Across Country Trip: Day 13

Day 13

I woke up early and left when Jackie and Al headed off to work. I drove for 8 hours to New Orleans Louisiana. It was my first time to Louisiana. New Orleans was crazy!! Its a lot bigger than I imagined. There are poorer areas that have had a lot of weather damage and other areas that are very nice and expensive. After hearing all kinds of horror stories about New Orleans I decided to stay in the tourist area which is anything less than expensive. I stayed in the French District which is where most of the tourist places are. It was a week day, but it was the same day the Saints were playing in town so there were sports fans everywhere and all kinds of places had specials for the football game. I went out for dinner and had some great seafood gumbo and a few drinks. It was early and I was excited to be in such a famous city so I headed out for some drinks. I found a pub (I'm a pub-er) and sat down to watch the game and have a beer.

Entering Louisiana

Pretty park in New Orleans

Destruction still exists

Homes

More city streets

I walked into this pizza/pub place and watched the football game. I chit chatted with the cute tall bald bartender until this chick came in. She was so high! Really high! She was in need of help... she ate some pizza and had some water and seemed a little better after a while. She called me "A Ray of Sunshine" and "Sparkly" (I think she might have been hitting on me) before she asked to kiss me. LOL.. I let her kiss my cheek before she left and hoped that she would be alright. The bartender was pretty cute and friendly and we seemed to be hitting it off, however I wasn't into a one night stand kind of thing so when he told me he got off work at midnight I decided that was my exit cue and headed back to the hotel by myself and had a good nights sleep. However I must admit that night really helped my ego!

Across Country Trip: Day 12

Day 12

After having an exciting few days and Jackie not feeling too well; we decided it would be wise to have a relaxing day. We spent most of the days cooking good food, eating and watching movies at Jackies apartment. We made cheese biscuits and Vegetable soup and watched The Three Ninjas and other good movies. It was a nice and relaxing day. I even did laundry and packed the car back up so I could leave early the next morning.

Made it to DC

Im so behind in my travel blog because I didnt have internet access the past two weeks... but I will slowly catch myself up between job searching! I made it to DC and all is heading in the right direction! Until next blog....

Across Country Trip: Day 11

Day 11

The day started late like always. We decided to grab some bubble tea with tapioca in them, but the place that Jackie thought carried them said they didn't have them. So we headed to smoothie king. The smoothie was really good, but it was the vegan cookies that won my heart! I had a lemon poppy seed one and Jackie had the peanut butter one made by the Alternative Baking Company. I recommend them to anyone... vegan or non.

Then we headed to the Alamo. I was excited to see something so historical. However, I was disappointed that there were so many tourists. I did get the chance to see a movie about the Alamo, the museum and a story teller. Then we walked around down town San Antonio and took a quick peek at the River Walk. Then we came back just in time to rest for a minute before we took off to the movie theater with Al.

At the Alamo

Jackie and I at the Riverwalk

Clouds from the movie theater that looked cool

We saw Nick and Nora's Infinite Play List. I really liked it! It was funny and cute! I suggest you see it if you love Romance Comedies.

After the movie we got all dolled up and Jackie and I went to The Tower of Americas for dinner. Its the tallest building in San Antonio that rotates so you can get a 360 degree view. It was incredible!!! We shared Lobster Egg rolls, Crab and Shrimp Fondue (INCREDIBLE!!!), Pear and Saga Salad and Lobster Bisque. It was all incredible!!!!!!! The price was not as bad as I was expecting. All that food plus drinks came to $70. Not bad for one of the nicest places in the city. Jackie and I chatted, took in the view and stuffed our bellies. Then we decided to go walking down the River Walk. The River Walk is really cool and a great place to people watch. Jackie isn't a big drinker or clubber, but there were a lot of cool clubs and bars for people to sit out side at! I loved it!

Getting ready for dinner

Crab and Shrimp Cheese Fondu

Lobster Spring Rolls

Lobster Bisque

Where we had dinner at

Tower of Americas

All in all it was a great day! Dinner was fantastic and the walk was lovely.

Across Country Trip: Day 10

Day 10

After going to bed at 4am, Jackie and I slept in until almost midnight. We decided to get going and figure out what to do as we go. The plan was to go for crepes, but decided to have Thai food instead. I had Thai Chicken Fried Rice, Fried Egg rolls and Soup. It was sooo good!!!! Then we decided to head to the Zoo. The Zoo was cute and it was fun to walk around and get even more quality time with my friend Jackie (AKA My Wifey ). We saw all kinds of Animals from snakes to flamingos to bears to lemurs to feline animals. We spent most of our time with the reptiles.

At the Thai place chowing down on some fried egg rolls

Fluffy butted and regular flamingos

Monkeys!!

Leopard... pretty kitty

I'm trying to be a fish

After that we did some shopping at target and then got freshened up and headed out to "First Fridays" in down town San Antonio. It was really cool!! Tons of people had booths on the street, many art galleries were opened to the public, there were bands, and restaurants were full of people!!! We stopped at "Blue Star" and ate some delicious nachos and each had a "Golden beer" and then went walking all around town. We saw so many cool art pieces and some unique characters. For a big city, "First Fridays" had a hometown feel and I loved that about it. We stopped into a cool glass blown art gallery and I found some beautiful butterflies that go on the wall and had to have them. The big piece I wanted was $166-no way I could afford that, but then we saw a three piece set that I actually liked better for $22 and I had to have them! Jackie tried on a red, black and gold hat that was hot, so I made her buy it and I think it was a great buy! Its hard to find hats that fit a person just right and this hat fit her just right!

Posing for the Camera

Yummy Nachos!

Me and Jackie ... yay for college friends

Jax's new hot hat.... check out that hottie!

We headed home around 11:30 and hung around before heading to bed! It was a great day in Texas!

Across Country Trip: Day 9

Day 9

I woke up to the Maid Knocking on my door, she said “Sorry I saw the do not disturb sign, but the log says no one is in here. Sorry to disturb you.” I was so irritated… I think that because I had such a bad experience with the hotel already that was the icing on the cake.

Padre Island

I had to check out at noon, but didn’t have to be back in San Antonio until after 5pm. So I decided to grab some lunch before I decided what to do for the day. I found a Pizza place on the GPS system and decided to check it out. Pizza Padre’s was a cute pizza place right off the main road. The bread and herbed oil were fantastic!! The tea was nicely brewed. The place was busy for lunch… all signs of a good place to eat. The menu said that they had the best Cheeseburger Pizza in the Corpus area, so I tried it. It was fantastic!!! A little less Onoions and I would say it was done to perfection! If you are ever on Padre Island near Corpus Christi, I recommend you stop by Padre’s Pizza!

Next, I headed to the Texas State Aquarium. It was on the pricy side ($14.95 + parking), but it was cool because I got to touch the Sting Rays. There were about 10 Sting Rays in the touching pool and there weren’t many people on the weekday, so sat there and played with them for quite a while. They are so soft and cool feeling. Then I saw the staff head to the turtle tank, so I followed them and found it was feeding time. They had 5 large turtles in the tank and fed them all… it was cool to watch and hear them tell us about the turtles. Apparently they try to get these turtles back in the wild, but some of them have a fin missing or something along that lines so they will never be able to go back into the wild. They also told us about how turtles eat just about anything and that’s why throwing plastic into the ocean is dangerous, because the turtles think they are jelly fish and try to eat them causing all kinds of problems with their digestive systems and what not. I also saw an alligator, otter, eagle and other cool fishy things such as jelly fish, piranha, and spiders. It was a fun way to waste the afternoon.

The Sting Rays I got to touch

The turtles were so beautiful

And Suprisingly Friendly

Feeding the turtles Squid with fish and vitamins in the inside

Sea Otter

Aligator

Bird (I dont like birds)

I then drove the 2 hours back to San Antonio catching a little bit of traffic, nothing too bad and for 5:30 it was expected that I would run into a little down town. Jackie and Alan decided they wanted to hang with some peeps at a local place that does games, pizza, some cookie thing Jackie was drooling over…. But after walking 2 blocks to get there we found out it was closed. James, Alan’s friend, decided to take us to an English Pub instead. I always love going to pubs!! I’m a puber. It was a nice place with a lot of character and a good customer flow. They had a good selection of beer and I had some decent Calamari before stuffing myself with Irish Beef Stew, Mashed Potatoes and Mixed Veggies. The debate between the VPs were going on so we asked if we could get some subtitles and from then on Politics ruled our table. We should have been Harvard Grad Students seeking political futures with the conversations that were going on…. It was good times.

Beef Stew, Potatoes and Mixed Veggies

We came back to Jackie and Alan’s Apartment to play some games, but the men were distracted by computers so we all just basically hung around. Jackie and I laid in bed chatting the night away until Alan’s alarm went off at 4am and we realized it was time for bed.

I love Jackie!

Across Country Trip: Day 8

Day 8

Jackie called in sick and so we spent the morning together. We went to Cracker Barrel (my new favorite restaurant; see Day 3) for breakfast/lunch. I had the Chicken Dumplings, potato casserole, broccoli casserole and fried Okura. Jackie had bacon, eggs, potato casserole and grits. We traded bacon for Okura (because she is basically vegetarian) and had a great meal! The Chicken Dumplings were not as good as I thought they would be, I wouldn’t order them again, but everything else was GREAT! I love their corn bread!

After breakfast I took off for Corpus Christi. It took only about 2 hours and I headed straight for the USS Lexington (Josh recommended I check it out). The USS Lexington is an old aircraft carrier that was put out of commission years ago and turned into a museum on the sea. There was more to see than I expected. You could go on the flight deck and get close up and personal with many different kinds of old fighter planes, you could see the Captain and Admiral’s quarters, the dentist, doctors, engine, guns….. and even catch a 45 minute video on combat fighter plane training called “Red Flag” (or something like that). It was really a cool thing to see.

The USS Lexington in Corpus Christi Texas

The USS Lexington is an Aircraft Carrier

We could walk on the deck where there were all kinds of old planes lined up

This was one of the planes I got up close and personal with

All American Pride (I feel like a photographer)

We could actually get up on the guns and touch them and what not

This was cool to see up close, but not too sure what it is

The Japanese section was super interesting to me personally

Navy seal

This was in the girls bathroom on the ship and I loved it!! I so want one!

The Gulf of Mexico is beautiful. Really it looks just like any other body of water, but with less waves.

The Gulf of Mexico

I met up with my step-brother (once removed?), Josh, around 5pm and we went to a place called Doc’s and had some great fresh fish. I had a parmesan crusted white fish with rice and veggies and it was very satisfying. Then he took me around town and down to the Gulf where we pulled over and put our feet in sinking in and pulling out our feet. After Josh was bitten by a 100 mosquitoes we headed back to his apartment. Then we walked down the street to a cool Café/Internet/Gelato place that a lot of the college kids hand out at and I had some great Gelato. Then I said “good bye” and headed to my hotel that Josh helped me pick out.

Sunset from our outdoor restaraunt

These pictures were in the ice cream shop that Josh and I went to... I WANT THEM!

Best Western has been the slummiest place I have stayed. It was $79.99 a night with stains on the carpet, a tiny spider in the bath tub, and a musky smell. I don’t recommend any one stay at a Best Western.