Year of the Wedding Continues...in Philadelphia

The year of the wedding continued with our latest tour of the country. Last weekend, we were in Philadelphia for a Ilan and Traci's wedding. Tilly used to work with Traci at Docs for Tots. They had a private wedding for family on Friday. On Saturday night, they held a party for all of their friends and family at Davios. The event was held on the Penthouse Level that has two private rooms and an outdoor terrace with a wonderful view of the city's skyline. Sunday morning, we had brunch at the Sofitel Hotel with some close friends before taking a quick tour of Philadelphia. Here's some pictures:

Brent outside Indepenence Hall.

Tilly posing with the Liberty Bell.

This one's for you Mom. Here's the picture to further the rumors I've been growing my hair out.

Next weekend's wedding destination: Hot Springs, Arkansas. Enjoy, Tilly. Maddie and I will have a weekend together at home in D.C.

Becca's Wedding in Dallas

Our recent tour of the south continued this weekend with the start of the the year of the wedding. Tilly has several friends getting married this year, so we will be in Arkansas twice this summer as well as a spring wedding in Pennsylvania. Last weekend's wedding was in Denton, Texas outside of Dallas. Tilly's freshman roommate, Becca Lee, got hitched.

We stayed with my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jon who were kind enough to play taxi for our early arrival on Saturday and even earlier departure on Monday. The wedding was on Saturday night, so we had all day Sunday to spend with family. My mother and grandmother, Mema, drove to Dallas on Saturday to see us. Here's a picture of us before we left for the wedding:

New Orleans: Final Post

What a weekend we had from food to music to the NBA All-Star Weekend. It was just the right weekend of a bit of everything. We tried to post as much as we could with pictures, videos, and stories to tell the tale of our weekend. If you are beginning with this blog be sure to go to the beginning and start. There are 13 posts with 12 pictures and ten short videos. The first post is "New Orleans: The Market Cafe". There are links on the left side.

I should also mention that all the pictures and video was taken from my Samsung BlackJack phone, so the quality is not as good as you'd get from a full video camera or digital camera. It does make it easier to get pics and video without having to carry around a lot of equipment. I never have not ever will endorse anything that could increase the need for a fanny pack. Yikes!

Below is the final video I took as we strolled down the trolley track right on the edge of the French Quarter. If you listen carefully at the beginning you'll hear a panhandler ask me for 50 cents just as I start to video.

New Orleans: Whiskey Bar

Tilly wants to tell the story about the Whiskey Bar, which is an exclusive club in the W Hotel we attended following the All-Star Game on Sunday night. Tune in later...

New Orleans: Ghost Tour

On our final night in New Orleans we took the famed Haunted History Tour. We took the Ghost Tour, which was a lot of fun. Tilly being a history buff and having a degree in history talked me into going and I am glad she did. It was enjoyable to walk throughout the French Quarter, but the history of the stories was the most interesting. The picture above is right outside of Jackson Square where the tour ends in Pirates Alley.

Here's a picture of Tilly in front of a haunted house.

There was no one behind me when this picture was taken, but... Okay, just kidding. The bar behind me is considered (not proven) to be the oldest bar in the country. It is not, but the bar tries unsuccessfully to claim it as the oldest. It is also supposedly haunted.

New Orleans: Food

How could we post about New Orleans and not discuss the food. Yes, I know there was a post on beignets, but there's much more than that. We got pralines, white chocolate covered marshmallows, and chocolate covered Ritz and peanut butter at a local candy shop two days. The pralines were my favorite thus the second trip.

On Saturday night, we dined at a German restaurant called Luke. Oddly enough it is home to the best burger in New Orleans. We stayed true to our southern roots with seafood. Tilly had the shrimp farci with blood orange hollandaise, crabmeat and shrimp and I had jagerschnitzel mit spätzlepaneéd veal cutlets with chanterelle and oyster mushrooms. The food was delicious.

On Sunday, we ate at The Alpine for lunch. I am always a sucker for crabcakes even though we live right outside of Maryland I simply couldn't resist fresh crabcakes. I had the Santa Fe crabcake platter roasted garlic potatoes and fresh vegetables and Tilly had the crawfish etouffe. We topped everything off with Nawlins wonderful bread pudding. Check out the healthy picture of our entrees.

We repeated much of The Alpine's menu Monday night at Oceana Grill, which is right off of Bourbon Street. The main change in menu was Tilly had the Crawfish Fettuccini, which was Louisiana crawfish tails tossed in a home-made Fettuccini Alfredo sauce. The Alfredo sauce had a slight tomato/red pepper taste to it that was very good.

Finally, we could not leave New Orleans without a stop of the famed Mother's Restaurant. The restaurant opened its doors in 1938. Check out this link for more history on the restaurant including his recovery following Hurricane Katrina. Its situated right next door to the W Hotel. When we arrived late morning on Saturday we noticed a line. Any time we were in our room, I'd look out our windown which was right above Mother's to check out the line. There was a line the entire weekend. By Monday, I figured for sure it would have disappeared. I was of course wrong. We waited in line for about an 45 minutes outside and another half hour inside before finally tasting the reason for the wait. The atmosphere and experience was worth the wait, but having a newspaper made it more bearable. I had the crawfish etoffe and a massive, homemade biscuit and Tilly had her best and largest shrimp po-boy of the weekend. I planned ahead and got a smaller bowl of etoffe and helped Tilly with the second half of her sandwich. Mother's thwarted my plan by bringing a second bowl of crawfish etoffe, but I resisted by trading it to Tilly for the other half of the po-boy.

As you can see we ate well. All future pictures in the next month will be from a distance.

New Orleans: Cafe du Monde

Within moments of landing in New Orleans, Tilly began talking about beignets. Nawlins is of course famous for these, but no where are they more revered than Cafe du Monde. As you could guess, getting me to go trying something fried and covered with powdered sugar was easy. Its just shocking that we didn't do it until Monday afternoon.

Below is a short history of Cafe du Monde from their website. Click the link above for more information:

The Original Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand was established in 1862 in the New Orleans French Market. The Cafe is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It closes only on Christmas Day and on the day an occasional Hurricane passes too close to New Orleans.

The Original Cafe Du Monde is a traditional coffee shop. Its menu consists of dark roasted Coffee and Chicory, Beignets, White and Chocolate Milk, and fresh squeezed Orange Juice. The coffee is served Black or Au Lait. Au Lait means that it is mixed half and half with hot milk. Beignets are square French -style doughnuts, lavishly covered with powdered sugar. In 1988 Iced Coffee was introduced to the cafe. Soft drinks also made their debut that year.

Right outside Cafe du Monde was a young lady performing. We saw her there every day. Here's a short video:

New Orleans: ADB

On Saturday night, we went to a local bar called ADB. We went with the a couple friends we were with at the All-Star Saturday Night and met a local friend. Unlike any other city, New Orleans is known for its brass bands. When we were told one of the best brass bands in Nawlins was playing, we were all set for a late evening of tunes. The video below is not the greatest quality as the room was dark. You can hear the music which was exciting and powerful.

New Orleans: Jackson Square Videos

With Jackson Square being our favorite site for art and music, its only reasonable we post a couple videos.

The first video is of an elderly man whose been painting in Jackson Square since World War II. He would work tirelessly putting the caps properly on each of his paints. I was taken by how he looked and carried himself as if a gentleman from 1945 had been dropped on the Square in 2008.

The second video is of the "Young Music Man" and his band. He had a pair of guys playing with him, but the crowd watching was larger than any outside musician's performance we saw in the French Quarter. As we were leaving his tuba player showed up wearing a sailor's hat. The "Young Music Man's" mother would bring the guys water during breaks.

New Orleans: Jackson Square

One of our favorite locations in the French Quarter was Jackson Square.

We visited it every day we were in New Orleans. On the website linked above it describes it as follows:

Jackson Square, located on the Mississippi River, in the heart of the French Quarter, has been the focal point of the city since the founding of New Orleans. It pays tribute to Andrew Jackson, the Baroness Pontalba, and has been home to an open-air artists colony for well over half a century. Surrounding Jackson Square are museums, shops and restaurants.

NBA All-Star 2008 - Dwight Howard Dunk #3

This is what I consider the best dunk of the competition. The skill level of using both hands and dunk it after bouncing it off the backboard, it was truly my favorite moment of the All-Star events.

NBA All-Star 2008 - Dwight Howard Dunk #1

While Superman will be the most remembered moment, this dunk was arguably the most difficult. Watch Dwight Howard's head as it is still behind the backboard as he begins the dunk the ball. This is my second favorite dunk of the night.

NBA All-Star Saturday Night: Dwight Howard Dunk #2

The Slam Dunk contest has become the stuff of legend. There's the famed Michael Jordan from the free throw line, Dominique Wilkins windmill dunk, lil Spud Webb soaring higher than any believed, Dee Brown's Pump Shoes, Kenny "Sky" Walker's performance, Vince Carter taking dunks to another level, and many more.

This year the competition was arguably the best its ever been. With dunking skill being so high, showmanship has become a huge part of the scoring. Dwight Howard defeated last year's defending champion Gerald Wallace.

The dunk above will be the most remembered as its simply called "Superman".

All-Star Saturday Night: Three-Point Competition

Since I was a child, NBA All-Star Saturday Night something I watched. I can recall watching the Chicago Bull's Craig Hodges set the record of 25 in the Three-Point Competition in 1986 (or 1985). I watched it upstairs with my cousin Ricky. On Saturday night, I watched the Toronto Raptors Jason Kapono tie Hodges record.

NBA All-Star Game 2008

The reason we went to New Orleans was for the NBA All-Star 2008 events. I've attended every major baseball event since 2005, so I compared these events to how Major League Baseball conducts its events. Of course, I was not working so it was enjoyable from a pure fan standpoint. The NBA All-Star experience rivals the MLB experience, but I have to admit the entertainment factor goes to the NBA. We were lucky to attend in such a great city with the New Orleans still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

The three best American cities for large events such as Super Bowls and All-Star Games is generally considered Miami, San Diego, and New Orleans. After visiting all three cities for different events, my nod would go to New Orleans for proximity of venues to hotels, French Quarter, local music, and character of the city.

The All-Star Game on Sunday night was the marquee event unless like me you consider the Three-Point Shootout and Slam Dunk Contest of greater entertainment. The Eastern Conference held onto win behind a late surge of three-pointers from Ray Allen and possibly one of the best dunk I've ever seen in a game in the final minutes from All-Star Game MVP Lebron James.

This is a picure Tilly took of the crowd and court following the All-Star Game and MVP presentation. She was looking for celebrities. The halftime performance was led by New Orleans native Harry Connick, Jr. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger sat courtside on Saturday and Sunday with his children and wife Maria Shriver. Tilly was unable to find them in the mob following the game. Guess we could call this picture "Where's Arnold?"

New Orleans: The Market Cafe

Tilly and I arrived in New Orleans on Saturday at 10 a.m. We checked into the W Hotel, dropped off our bags, and headed straight to the French Quarter. Our hotel was right next to Harrah's Casino and a block from the Quarter. We passed Jackson Square, Cafe du Monde, and had lunch outside at The Market Cafe. There was a band playing while we ate:

Doggie Hotel

It seems the blog has had a dog theme of late, so I'll continue the trend. Tilly and I are getting ready for our trip to New Orleans for the NBA All-Star weekend. Our regular dogsitters (friends) were unavailable, so we had to kennel Maddie. We searched for a good place, but in the end the price was right at PetSmart. The have a PetsHotel.

There is a lobby like a regular hotel with a front desk and everything. There are even treats similar to a DoubleTree only the sweets aren't warm. Maddie seemed pretty excited as she loves going to the pet store. She almost drags you in when she gets out of the car. It wasn't until a pink paper collar with her name on it was put around her neck that she realized this wasn't going to end well. As always, she was sweet and followed the lady to the back.

Its always sad leaving her behind. I know its just a dog, but she is will always be our pup. Next month she will be four years old. We've had her since nine months into our marriage (five years in June).

She will be at the PetsHotel until Tuesday morning when we return. I'll pick her up after I drop Tilly off at work and head home. We'll post a full report on Tuesday unless I can sneek some updates from my laptop in Nawlins.