The Big Easy

SEC football fans are a different breed.  Some say that they live for football during the fall, but in the South we pretty much live for football year round.  All Universities have fans that run the gamut from proper, classy gentlemen and ladies to the more....shall we say...fringe elements.  Alabama is no exception but one thing that we all are are optimistic.

We have been discussing whether we would take the kids to New Orleans for the Championship game basically since the last bowl game.  There was always a qualifier in the discussion but the fact that we were strong contenders to get to New Orleans was a given.  That, of course, wasn't always the case.  My parents won two national championships while they were in college.  But my college career?  Well, let's just say it wasn't pretty and leave it at that.  We were besieged by s-t-u-p-i-d coaches and boosters who tried their hardest to run our program into the ground.

And then Coach Saban came.  And the tides turned and the future started looking bright.  While the majority of the country, and definitely the SEC, dislike him I'm not sure that any can deny the difference that he has made in our program.  And from a household of Alabama fans, I will say that we believe that he is a great man on and off the field!

The pride that he returned to Alabama football is the reason that we had multiple conversations before the season even started as to whether or not the kids will accompany us to New Orleans.  My answer from the start was a resounding 'NO!'  Which meant that when every single domino fell giving us a chance to redeem our November loss, Jason and I were looking at a trip without the kids to New Orleans.  It turned out that a trip at this time couldn't have be better but it was very hard to leave James and Charlotte.

Our family before we left

We got to New Orleans around 2 on Sunday afternoon.  It was hard to not go until Sunday because we felt like everyone went down Friday after work or earlier but we couldn't get away for any longer so we took what we could.  Almost as soon as we got to the hotel we turned around and went shopping.  It was really our only chance to explore so we spent the afternoon wandering from store to store.

First time in Pat O's and first Hurricane.  The last two times I was in New Orleans I was 20 and then I was  pregnant so it was definitely a different experience to be able to drink.  But just for the record, that hurricane? HORRIBLE!  Tasted like cough syrup and didn't get better the longer I drank it!

We happened upon a book signing with Coach Stallings and some other Alabama players.  We chatted for a little while.  Ha!  In addition to Coach Stallings, I also saw John Lithgow walking through the French Quarter!

That night we went to Commander's Palace for a wonderful meal.  It was absolutely one of the best meals that I've ever had in my life.  And it was topped off by my favorite dessert: Strawberry shortcake!  It was a great night with great company and a wonderful way to celebrate our return to the National Championship game!

Since we have two kids we definitely needed to catch up on sleep so we didn't go out that night.  On Monday morning Jason got up and went out with Charlie to look at antique watches but I got a chance to sleep in so I took it! I finally got out of bed at 10:30 and barely got ready in time to make lunch at Emeril's!

It was a great lunch and made even more fun by Emeril himself walking in to the restaurant!  He came in wearing a New Orleans t-shirt and carrying his chef's jacket still in it's dry cleaners bag.  He went straight to his office (which we could see the door of) and stayed in there until someone set off the fire alarm.  He immediately went back to the kitchen.  Let's hope no one got fired for that!

After lunch we went back to the hotel and facetime'd with Charlotte and James and got ready to go to the game!  I was excited to put on my red Jimmy Choo's that Jason bought me when we went to New York.  No better football game for them than the National Championship game!

We headed out at 4 pm to the stadium and once we got there we headed in to the Pantheon Cafe for dinner.  It was fun to get to see some people that I rarely get to see so we enjoyed chatting before heading to our seats.

There was a candy bar filled with red and white candy.  It was adorable!

We were all tense when the game started but as it continued we got to enjoy it more and more.  After so much contention that we didn't deserve to be in the game, the national media crowning LSU as the champion over and over in the lead up to the game, and almost every ESPN analyst wearing purple to the game, there wasn't a better way to win than by shutting them out!  What a great way to win a National Championship!

After we got back to our hotel we decided to live large and go to Cafe du Monde.  It was 12:30 as we were leaving the hotel and we were so proud of ourselves for staying up so late and heading out again!

What a great trip!  We can only hope that we're headed to Miami next year!