A Kevinly Honeymoon

In case you missed earlier posts, Trevor and I were married right around the time we moved across the country from California to Massachusetts and started new jobs.  It was stressful, chaotic, and overwhelming...not exactly an ideal time to take a week off to go on a honeymoon.  How would I ever relax with all this going on?

By lack of actually planning a honeymoon, we decided that we would push it off until later.  Then we had three more weddings, then a couple of friends came for a visit, then I had a bridal shower, then we went on a "mini honeymoon", then I had a bachelorette party, then it was Thanksgiving, which ended with a baby shower, then I was in Denmark for two weeks (where of course they lost my luggage on the way home), and then we were in New Jersey for Christmas and New Years which culminated in my sister's wedding annnnnnnnd ok, now we can relax and go on a honeymoon!  And now it is January in Boston.  So we could really use a break from the winter.

We considered a few different honeymoon destination options.  We thought Alaska or Iceland would be cool, but would probably be a little too cool in January.  We were on a Patagonia, Chili kick for awhile until we realized it would take us three whole days to get there and back.  We both have done quite a bit of international travel and figured that we might not want to change too many time zones if we were just going for a week.  So we started looking for US cities we have never visited.  We settled on New Orleans, however, after looking at the weather averages for January (in the low 60s), we thought (or rather I demanded) that we also get some place a little warmer.

W browsed the last minute deals and settled on a Carnival cruise that left from New Orleans and traveled down to Mexico.  It was super cheap.  Yes, this is the same company which had the infamous "Poop Cruise" not too long ago.  That is why tickets are super cheap.  And no, we were not on the Royal Caribbean boat that had to stop the trip early because 700+ passengers came down with projectile vomiting and diarrhea.  Our cruise was relatively uneventful.

We flew down to New Orleans in the first class cabin... 

And we enjoyed some appropriate goblets of first class cocktails:

Mr. & Mrs. T, an appropriate coincidence.

When we arrived in New Orleans, I was immediately validated in my demands for a warmer climate.  It was 32 degrees and pouring rain.  No flights were leaving from the airport due to the winter weather, so we were feeling pretty lucky that we were able to land.

We settled into our cute little boutique hotel, the Hotel Royal, threw our belongings down, and hit the town.

This picture was taken the day after we arrived (when the rain stopped).  I am not a liar.

Royal Street

Muffuletta at the Napoleon House

Now you may remember one of the third wheels, Kevin?  You know, the one who was there for the proposal?  Well he had gone to undergrad in New Orleans and gave us some pointers on where to go for a good time.  We headed over toward the Frenchman street to enjoy some live music.  We stopped at a pretty empty bar that had a live band playing.  There were about 10 other people in the crowd.  We decided to get a beer and relax.  During the course of our beer, the first band ended and left the bar.  The few people left in the crowd all happened to be participants of the second band.   So now it is me, Trevor, 3 bartenders (2 of whom are smoking in the bathroom), and this six piece cover band.  The lead singer looked like a mix of Kevin (from The Office) and Baby Herman:

No one else was in the venue, besides me and Trevor.  We decided to have another beer so we did not have to walk out on the band.  But after a few more songs we were nearing the end of our second beer and no one else has entered.  The band was decent enough for a cover band, but they were playing hits like Prince's Kiss and Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville.  Since we came to New Orleans for the New Orleans music, we figured this is not the time or place to pity a poor cover band.  So we chugged the rest of our drinks and while they were mid-song we headed for the exit.  Unfortunately by the time we reached the door the song had ended and the lead singer closes with an enthusiastically pathetic:  "And the crowd goes home!!  Oh...my...gawd....."

On the way to the next bar, we joked about the poor lead singer loosing his crowd and how he looks like Kevin from the office and isn't it funny that this honeymoon was "Kevin-recommended."  In the next bar, The Maison, there was a live band with a huge horn section, a guy tap dancing on a box in the percussion section, a stand up bass, and some vaudeville dancers.  Now this is the New Orleans music we were looking for!

We also thought the trombone player looked like our good friend, Ben Treder

The bar was standing room only at this point and I nudged my way up to the counter to get a drink.  I accidentally bumped into the nice young man sitting next to me and he kindly offered me his seat.  I politely took his seat as I waited for the bartender and in the awkward silence started asking our new stranger friend some small talk questions...What ya drinking? Where you from?  What's your name?  Where's your friends?

IPA.  San Francisco, went to UCSC. KEVIN.  He's all alone.

A solo Kevin in search of a couple wheels..

Kevin was visiting New Orleans with his friend who had to work.   He was all alone for a few hours.  We took him under our wings as our temporary third wheel and had a lovely time hanging out with our new friend Kevin.

He eventually left us for his friend Joe but he had warmed us up to mingling with strangers and our next set of medical school friends (who were also from UCSB) and at the third bar we went to (The Three Muses) we meet another couple yet again from California.

We eventually headed home because, hey, we had a boat to catch!!

After cruising New Orleans the next morning we embarked on our first cruise experience.  We made it to our room and threw down our things and took a break.  We reminisced about the night before and how funny and appropriate it was that we were hanging out with this guy named "Kevin" for the majority of the night.  Then we decided to head out for a walk around the boat, but not before we noticed our room service attendant's notice on the door:

weird

Other scenes from the trip:

Bar at the Napoleon house

St. Louis Catehdral

The 9-0-5 Royal where Meg and I stayed during our road trip back in 2004

Art walk

Lunch with live music

The "All That Jazz" sandwich

Outside the Napoleon House

cruising the strip

The Louis Armstrong Park

that's right!

Too bad he can't carry a piano

Our ship

Us