These past few months have been quite a blur of events, including celebrating Christmas with my parents for the first time in eight years (yay!).  But in early December we were "Nawlins" bound, which is a fun little city even if you never left the French Quarter (though thankfully we did).

We visited all the standard places like Café Du Monde for their beignets and café au lait, and Bourbon street for its nightlife (as well as its less frenetic, more musically enjoyable counterpart Frenchmen street).  It was also oyster season so we ate chargrilled oysters to our hearts' content.

I also rode a fanboat for the first time, which was actually quite a fun way to explore the swamps.  The ear muffs were dorky but absolutely necessary against the deafening sound (I'm amazed that we didn't scare off every single bit of wildlife for miles around).  We even got to hold a little hatchling, as apparently life is quite challenging for baby alligators so they are sometimes raised to a certain size before being released into the wild.

There are also some truly beautiful plantations in Louisiana.  We got to visit the Laura Plantation (a Creole plantation) and caught a glimpse of the stately Oak Alley Plantation.

And then three days later it was back to Los Angeles, though not without a little hitchhiker in tow.