A quick update for everyone... It seems that the 3rd annual boil will NOT be taking place at the Powder Mill house. Now before you get too disappointed, this is great news because we will be moving into an even better location this March.  Terry and I saw a house we loved last Wednesday and we put an offer in on Valentine's Day. Our offer has been accepted so now we just have to wait for closing on the 11th. We are very excited and would love to share the pictures that Terry took during the inspection on Monday. It is a great house with plenty of room, beautiful trees, and a hot tub. It is located at 1810 Beechnut Cove just across 620 from our present digs. I guess we will officially be Cedar Parkians by the time we are ready to cook crustaceans. More info and pictures soon.  ~~~V

After all the great food we had in Louisiana, Terry and I are definitely geared up for the annual crawfish boil. T-shirts will be available soon, but for now mark your calendars for Saturday, April 26th. If you'd like to see photos from past boils, try the following links: Crawfish Boil 2006 Crawfish Boil 2007

We had a fabulous week in Louisiana, but I think Terry and I were both ready to head home. We stopped at Calandro's Market to stock up on Community Coffee, more Abita beer, and Steen's Cane Vinegar—all of which can be difficult if not impossible to get in Austin. On our way out of town, we joined Big T, Kelly, Beth, and Boyd at the Pastime Restaurant and Lounge for Bloody Mary's, assorted cocktails, and some really good pizza! (I recommend The Big Ragout if you find yourself there.) The place is filled with LSU memorabilia and Boyd showed us his football team photo from his days playing for the Tigers. After making our way through Houston (yuck), we stopped in Cypress overnight to visit with dad and Elizabeth and get our dog fix until we could see The Fur the next day. I think we bored them to tears with all the pictures from the trip, but we also played a couple rounds of Mexican Train before crashing out.

After we checked out of our hotel, we made a beeline for the Audubon Zoo before they decided to close it again. It was a cold rainy day, but we spent a couple of hours walking the grounds. The Audubon Zoo is beautiful with gorgeous old oaks everywhere, but I have to admit that some of the enclosures for the animals could've used some serious upgrading. This struck me as a bit odd considering they are taking in plenty of money ($12.50 for an adult ticket) and are open fairly limited hours (10-4 daily, closed on major holidays). By comparison, the San Antonio Zoo, which I consider to be a fabulous, well-run facility is only $9, open 365 days a year, and is open from 9-6 rain or shine and not according to the whims of lazy employees. Again, Terry would say that I expect too much from Louisiana, but come on...take a little pride especially if you are trying to encourage tourism post-Katrina. Sigh! Okay, my rant is over. After leaving the zoo, we drove down I-10 to Baton Rouge in nasty, cold, rainy weather. You'd think it was winter or something. ;P We met Big T and Kelly at the Sheraton Convention Center where they were preparing for the Krewe of Artemis Mardi Gras parade. Krewe of Artemis is an all-female krewe in Baton Rouge and they had at least 19 floats—all Broadway-themed—lines up under I-10 waiting for the rain to let up. It was cool to see the inside of the floats and I was amazed at how many beads they loaded up to throw. Sadly, the rain nd, more importantly, the lightning didn't let up so the parade had to be canceled. I felt badly for Kelly and all the women that had worked so hard all year to prepare for the event. We did get neat bags with special mardi gras beads in them though and we spent the rest of the evening partying in the hotel suite. Kelly and Beth know how to host a party: lots of decorations and ridiculous amounts of food and drink! Cramer showed up and we walked over to the Belle of Baton Rouge Casino for a little while. Terry did fairly well at the craps table, but I think all I won was an increased chance of lung cancer. The riverboat casinos all seem to be insanely smoky. Makes me miss smoke-free Austin.

We woke up after a good night's sleep at the Hotel St. Marie and headed out into the cold drizzly day after a little continental breakfast. Jackson Square was virtually empty because of the weather, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We also walked around in the Presbytere and then along the Mississippi on the Riverwalk. We visited the Aquarium of the Americas first. Lots of great areas to explore, but unfortunately overrun with kids on field trips...very LOUD kids on field trips. We did our best to avoid them though and enjoyed the animals, particularly the jellyfish and the otters. There is an IMAX theater next-door to the aquarium so we opted to get tickets to see a movie along with our aquarium and zoo package. We saw a film called Hurricane on the Bayou, which started out to be a documentary about the plight of the wetlands but evolved into a story about the environmental and emotional impact on the people of the region following Hurricane Katrina. This was owed to the fact that the hurricane struck while the filmmakers were still in the process of filming the original footage for the project. It was an interesting film although the message was a bit disjointed with the two parallel topics. Our plan after the movie was to visit the Audubon Zoo, which is about 8 miles away from the aquarium and the movie theater. Fortunately I had Terry, the guru of public transportation, with me so we walked up Canal Street and caught the city bus. (We could've taken the now fully operational St. Charles streetcar through the Garden District, but opted for the bus since it would take us directly to the zoo with less walking in the freakin' cold.) The bus rattled as though it would completely fall apart at any moment, but we did get to see some unique areas of New Orleans on our way. We arrived at the zoo around 2:00 and I was anxious to get in since they close at 4:00. As we walked up the drive, I joked with Terry about Wallyworld and what if the zoo were closed. Bad omen! We walked up to the gates as they were closing them. The girl at the ticket counter informed me that "not many people had come in today" so they were closing early. Seriously?!? I was totally annoyed, especially when Miss Helpful informed me that I could come back another day and that my already-purchased tickets were good for one year. That would be just dandy if I didn't live nine freakin' hours away! I tried to debate this with them and was not offered a refund or even an apology. (Terry feels that I set my expectations a bit high for the hospitality of folks in Louisiana.) Terry was at least realistic and focused enough to realize that we were NOT going to be going into the zoo that day and that our highest priority should be getting back to the bus before we had the wait a half-hour in the cold for the next one. He ran ahead to get the driver to hold the bus while I drug my pouty, dejected self back down the driveway. Once on the bus, Terry promised that we could go to the zoo on the way out of town in the morning, which partially cheered me up. The rest of my "attitude adjustment took place in the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone, which had been suggested to us by Big T as one of his favorite places to go for a cocktail in New Orleans. The bar features a working carousel with a circus/piano bar type feel. The bar revolves every fifteen minutes and we stayed for several rotations soaking up the ambience and the history. (Numerous authors, including William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and Truman Capote, were frequent visitors to the hotel, established in 1886, and it has often appeared as a setting in American fiction, prompting the Friends of Libraries USA to designate the Monteleone a literary landmark.) As we were leaving the Monteleone, there was a walking parade (Krewe of Shangri-La) coming down the street and heading into the hotel so we stopped to watch before heading off in search of oysters. The bartender at the Carousel had suggested Felix's Oyster Bar, but there wasn't a seat available so we went across the street to the Acme Oyster Bar where we were greeted warmly with a couple cocktails and a seat at the oyster bar. We has a dozen each, since Terry categorically refused to share his with me. Nice fun atmosphere, good service, and dirt cheap. Our tab was something like $11. Fortified by our bivalve snack we went for a drink at the Old Absinthe House at the corner of Bourbon and Bienville. Built in 1807, this historic building has red brick walls and a gorgeous copper and wood bar. They specialize in classic New Orleans cocktails like sazerac, hurricanes and the Absinthe House Frappe, an anise-flavored liquor made with herbsaint, an absinthe substitute that was legal because it does not contain wormwood. Absinthe, although at one time widely regarded as having psychoactive properties and outlawed in many countries in the 1900s, has been found to be no more dangerous than other alcoholic beverages. Several brands meeting certain guidelines are now commercially available in the US, and I tried some at the Old Absinthe House because, well, it seemed like a fitting place to do so. It was extremely licorice-y and made my mouth numb. I also had a nice warm fuzzy feeling, but I can't say for sure whether that was exclusively the absinthe or the numerous other concoctions I had throughout the day. We prowled around a few more bars in the Quarter including Touche and Pat O'Brien's. It was super cold at Pat O's but there was no seating in the piano bar so we found a table with a heater in the courtyard. We had an awesome waiter and met a nice couple from England who had just come off a cruise ship and had to stay in New Orleans overnight because there flight had been canceled. Poor babies still had on sandals and cruisewear. Brrrr. We were exhausted from our long day, so instead of going out to dinner, we picked up a pizza at Vieux Carre Pizza and went back to the hotel for pizza in our jammies. I don't know if it was the absinth, the oysters, or the pizza, but I drank about 15 glasses of water during the course of the night. I know, what a party animal I am...staying up late doing shots of H2O. Laissez Les Bon Temp Rouler!

In order to see some new territory and because of Grier's new-found love of Abita beer, we decided to take Hwy. 12 instead of I-10 and drive to New Orleans via the town of Abita Springs, which is located on the north side of Lake Ponchartrain. The Abita Brewing Company was established as a microbrewery in 1986 and brews with water from the artesian wells in Abita Springs. The brewery was closed to visitors the day we were there, but we did have lunch at the Abita Brew Pub, which they added in 1994. We sampled several of the brews and had an awesome lunch. I highly recommend the Gyros and Greek salad if you go. The owner's wife is Greek and definitely knows what she's doing. Grier had a shrimp and oyster po'boy and he'll have to run down all the brews later. At the advice of our bartender, we stopped at the UCM Museum (pronounced "you see 'em") on the way out of Abita Springs. The UCM, also known as the "Abita Mystery House," is a tourist attraction of sorts that features an eclectic collection of antiques (particularly electronics and arcade games) and dozens of examples of proprietor John Preble's folk art, which ranges from the whimsical to the macabre. I thought it was kind of a fun kitschy little place, but I don't think Grier dug it all that much because I finally found him sitting in the car when I was ready to head out. Abita Springs was pretty cool on the whole; it reminded us both of an artist community similar to Wimberly. After our "cultural experience," we drove across the causeway and into New Orleans, which, to be perfectly honest, didn't look as jacked up as we expected. Sure I know there are areas that are still in recover/rebuild mode, but the city seemed to be thriving and gearing up for Mardi Gras. We did a little shopping at the French Market and stopped by Cafe du Monde for the requisite coffee and beignets until it was time to check in at our hotel. I actually had hot chocolate instead of coffee and Grier said the coffee actually kind of, well, sucked. It was kind of cold that day, so it was nice to be inside enjoying a warm beverage anyway. I also loved that there was powdered sugar all over the place. We checked into the Hotel St. Marie and rested before it was time to head out for dinner. I absolutely loved our hotel. It was a block off of Bourbon Street and surprisingly inexpensive. We had a nice big room with a view of the courtyard, and they have continental breakfast for us each morning since the cafe/bar was being renovated. There is also a little grocery store right across Dauphine—The Toulouse House Grocery—which is great for picking up beverages and such for the room. We bundled up and headed back out for dinner at Nola, but stopped for a drink since we were running a little bit early. We found a little bar called Touche attached to the Omni Hotel. Awesome bartender and cozy atmosphere with lots of dark brick and gas lanterns along the walls. We liked it so much we went back after dinner for a night cap. On to Nola... AMAZING! AMAZING! AMAZING! We opted for the more casual of Emeril Lagasse's three New Orleans restaurants on the advice of our foodie friends. The food, the service, the entire experience was wonderful. The website bills it as "a funky, informal restaurant whose menu features the fresh adaptations of New Orleans Creole and Acadian Cajun for which Lagasse is renowned." It was a great place to have a gourmet meal without it feeling stuffy or snobby. We started with Roasted Garlic-Reggiano Parmesan Bisque with Basil Pesto (me) and the Seafood Gumbo (Grier). Grier acknowledged that the gumbo was "a little bit better than" his, which amused our server to no end. My entree was the Shrimp & Grits and Terry had the Garlic Crusted Texas Redfish Cooked in the Wood Burning Oven with Brabant Potatoes, Wild Mushrooms, Bacon and Sauce Beurre Rouge . Both entrees were insanely good. If we go back I'd like to try the Hickory-Roasted Duck with Whiskey-Caramel Glaze, Buttermilk Cornbread Pudding, Haricot Verts-Fire Roasted Corn Salad, Natural Jus and Candied Pecans. I don't think you can go wrong with anything on the menu though. I wish I could remember the name of the wine we had. It was perfect too. As was the Banana Pudding Layer Cake with a Graham Cracker Crust, Homemade Vanilla Wafers and a Warm Fudge Drizzle, which traveled back to the hotel with us to be eaten in our jammies—as all desserts should be!

We woke up at Mama Linda's on Day 3 and prepared to explore Baton Rouge after a restful night's sleep. Our first stop, after getting some coffee into Grier of course, was lunch with Big T at the Chimes, which is a great little restaurant and bar adjacent to the LSU Campus on, you guessed it, Chimes Street. The have an awesome beer selection and fabulous po'boys. Grier apparently spent quite a bit of time here in college. After lunch we drove around the LSU campus a bit, which was made more difficult since they've closed down vehicle access there almost as much as at UT. We did manage to drive by Tiger Stadium to pay homage to the 2007 National Championship LSU Tigers. GEAUX TIGERS!!! After leaving campus, we headed downtown to an area called Riverfront Baton Rouge. It seems that the downtown area is along the Mississippi instead of being in the center of town like you might expect. There are plenty of lovely old buildings and huge oak trees all over the area. We stopped in the Old State Capital to look around and were invited to attend the swearing in of a new sheriff. Can you say random? The building was absolutely gorgeous and apparently the New State Capital is, well, let's say less so. That's why everyone visits the old one, I guess. We decided that we'd prefer a cocktail to hanging out with the sheriff so we headed over to Tsunami Sushi bar, which is located on the roof of the Shaw Arts Center. Things were still pretty quiet so early in the day, but they had an awsome bartender and the place had an amazing view. When happy hour rolled around we met Cramerica for drinks at Kona Grill in Perkin's Rowe, which is Baton Rouge's version of The Domain. I am not absolutely sure how many sake bombs is too many, but I definitely tested my limits. I find it's good to challenge oneself. ;) After our long day we met Mama Linda for dinner at De'Angelo's, which was a nice break from the gumbo-fest.