It's Getting Hot In Here...

Hi Family and Friends,

Well, summer has arrived. Officially it starts in 1 more day, but when you wake up in the morning hot, walk outside and break a sweat, and yearn for water... Summer is here! Justin and I have found a few ways to enjoy the hot, humid New Orleans summer. Snowballs are a must. There are numerous snowball joints here in New Orleans and everyone has a favorite. We have found ours, Plum Street Snowball. They were recently featured on the Food Channel and they are amazing. The ice is perfectly fine, they make all of the juices in house and are only 2 bucks to pop!! Don't get mad at Jamie, but she says they are better than Bud's!

Justin loves the King Cake Snowball

Another wonderful thing we have discovered is the produce dude, "Mr Okra". When we moved to our new place, we started hearing this strange sound. It was a man driving around the neighborhood calling out on a loudspeaker "I got tomatoes. I got bananas. I got plums. I got squash...etc." We can hear him enter into our neighborhood every week and finally after weeks of searching we were able to buy some produce. We were so excited, like we were waiting for Santa Clause! The squash and zucchini were great and made a fantastic dinner.

Mr. Okra!!

Recently we started watching the show Treme. We know we are late onto this bandwagon, but it finally made it to Netflix. It has been really neat to watch the show and see so much of the city that we already love. From one of our favorite po boy shops, to the local diner we like, to places we love to go listen to music, to musicians that we listen to... One of the focuses of the show that we haven't yet experienced is the Mardi Gras Indians. We tried to find them on Mardi Gras, but couldn't find them. Then St. Joseph came around and I had to work. It is one of our top priorities for next Mardi Gras. Ironically, one of Justin's summer jobs is doing some projects for the Guardians of the Flame, one of the Indian groups. He has met the widow of the Big Chief and the mother of the current Chief.

Photo by Michaelgirl Lamendola

The warming of the weather meant a few more things. The slowing down of festivals, which saddens us because we love the food at festivals, the music at festivals, the art at festivals.. we simply love festivals! Justin finished another semester at Tulane and another great building experience. Lastly the warming temperatures meant that the city (well parts of it) was filled with the sweet scent of jasmine. Every evening the scent hung heavy in the damp air. Maybe this city is starting to really grow on us.. ;)

Justin's participated in Tulane's Design/Build program and helped to build "affordable" modern housing

Crawfish bisque bowl.. yummy!

Best things about our old neighbors.. their house was lined with tall jasmine shrubs.

The other thing we are doing to avoid this NOLA summer heat is travel somewhere else: Texas (of course), Colorado, New Mexico and maybe a few weekend trips to the the Gulf Coast. Well, we are hoping to stay cool, stay dry, and further explore this beautiful city during this summer.

Love,
Team JJ


P.S. In case you are curious how Justin looks in a kilt, not a skirt!

Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday)

Happy Mardi Gras, Everyone!

After a day of rest, Team JJ jumped on their bicycles and biked 6 miles down to the Quarter. Of course, this is after we got dressed up for Mardi Gras. We went as "PB & J" with a few extra flares. Jamie was laughing as she heard Justin ask, "Can I wear a boa?" Jamie wore the rainbow colored boa while Justin wore the Mardi Gras colors (purple, yellow and green.) We saw a bit of Zulu and Rex parades while biking, but we were not focused on the parades today. We wanted to see the people and the costumes. The costumes were so extravagant and beautiful. People spent some serious time and money on their Mardi Gras costumes. Then there simply funny costumes. Even though our costume may have been the most PG rated in the entire Quarter, we had many requests to take our pictures. We snapped lots of pictures so everyone to see the incredible costumes. Team JJ joined a few marching parades and had some famous Lucky Dogs. And of course, we had lots of laughs and dancing AGAIN!

Enjoy...

Before heading out, but the hats don't fit under our bicycle helmets!

On the bikes...

The most beautiful costume (front view)


From the back... Wow!!

A pair of Fleur de Lis, the symbol for NOLA

Justin found Elvis. He is in the Quarter!

Jamie was so happy to find some Muppets!



A grandma we found. She screamed "Boobs for beads" and then started swinging them around!

Justin on Bourbon Street. The famous balconies are where the beads for boobs occur!

A walking parade in the Quarter.

Jamie caught a doubloon!

Wow...



So many fun costumes!



A parade right before we joined it.

Wow... again

How romantic!

Justin and the Smurfs

Even Hellboy showed up for the party.

Yummy Lucky Dog!


Looking down Bourbon St.

Even the kids make their own costumes.

We found Waldo. Can you find Jamie??

Team JJ as PB&J

Love,
Team JJ

Team JJ on Bourbon St

Mardi Gras Weekend

Whew!! Boy are we tired...

Friday night our guests came in. Well, maybe it was more like Saturday morning. Claire and the Florida girls (Ashley and Karina) arrived at 2am, followed by Candrew from Texas at 4:30 AM. But everyone was troopers up at 9am headed off for our first parades, Krewe of Tucks and Iris.

Krewe of Tucks was a great parade. We were LOADED with great throws with footballs, beads, cups, doubloons. Doubloons are beautiful silver coins that are made for each year for a Krewe. It was the Florida girls' first parade and boy did they work it. They would yell out to the Krewe members, "Mister it's my first parade throw me something good." We have so many Tucks Krewe necklaces. Check your mail soon! Funny, but sad. Ashley (one of the Floida girls) took a toilet to the head. Tucks is a Krewe known for their irreverence. They throw plungers and little plastic toilets that spray "toilet water" on you. One of them hit Ashley directly in the head causing a pretty deep little dash. But Ashley was a total trooper and kept on partying. Karina had a Mardi Gras mantra she shared with everyone... "You look AMAZING!" The Florida crew added so much fun and spontaneity to the party.

Toilet to the head.. But she still caught it! Look a Mardi Gras veteran!

You look Amazing!

Candice asking for something good for the Krewe!

The Boys with some boys.

These guys practice all year long!

The Girls looking good!

Later that night... we went to Bourbon Street. If we were smart, we would have leave it at that. But come on, it's still the Carnival season! We hopped on the St. Charles streetcar and headed to the Quarter. Jamie had sworn that she would not go down there during MG, but everyone talked her into it. We arrived on Bourbon and it was crowded. We made our way to Pat O'Briens for Hurricanes. Somehow we found our way inside for food. There we found a very rare Mardi Gras jewel... An 8 person table at Pat O's on Saturday before MG. (For those who know the bar, in the garden right were the bend is.) Seriously a great classic Bourbon St. place. Then it all got crazy. We will sum it up in phrases... Rainstorms not Hurricanes, cherry stem tying, Third nip, Worm on the floor, Dancing on chairs, Peeing in bushes, Getting caught peeing in bushes, Plastic not glass, Where is Jamie and Candice?, Old boobs, Giving highly coveted jewelry to bathroom attendant, Pink Shirt Full Monte, Earth Day Babies, Hot 30 year olds, Seriously crazy dancing, Getting Lost to Cafe du Monde, Powdered sugar fights, Did someone tip her good?, Nose diving into Bourbon St. garbage (ugh!), and an English Alligator getting us home.

Jamie ready for the Quarter!

That hat turned Candice into a jazz dancer!

Evidence of our powdered sugar fight!

Ashley laughing at the silly boys at Pat O's!

Loving some rainstorm cherries!

Team JJ having some fun!

A glance down Bourbon St.

The gang with an English Alligator!

That is all the details that you get, because what happens on Bourbon...
Stays on Bourbon.

The following day we recuperated with some much needed sleep. Then headed to a local bakery for a King Cake. Claire found the baby the day before and was excited to buy the next one. King Cake is a traditional Mardi Gras/carnival treat which has a little plastic baby or a bean hidden inside. Whoever finds the baby is responsible for bringing the next cake. Claire chose an amazing cream cheese King Cake. Good choice!!

Yummy!

Then we headed to Ochopalooza, a friend of Jamie's had a Mardi Gras party. His last name started with Ocho, so he played on the words. There was a local band playing, some food and drinks and lots of dancing. The weather was perfect, low 70's, sunny. Then we headed to the night time parades of Bacchus and Endymion. These are the super-krewes with huge, beautiful floats. Because they are night parades, they are stunningly lit up and their throws light up too. Another part of night time parades are the flamebeaux. These are black men who carry actual poles with flames. Once upon a time this was to help light the parade route before the floats were lit. They danced and had fun, which the crowd rewarded them by throwing coins. It is quite impressive to see dozens of these flamebeaux. Concerning our loot... Candice made it a goal to see how many beads she could get. As you can see from the picture, she did a pretty good job. Claire "our hippie" found a little boy named Kingsten that she gave all of her beads to. Justin and Andrew just hung around in back and had fun catching footballs. Jamie became selective during these parades only accepting special beads or Krewe items. (Seriously we have a big trash bag full of common beads. Which we intend to recycle!) Oh, and the Queen of the parade was Kelly Ripa and the King was Anderson Cooper. Crocodile there is a plastic cup coming our way that was thrown from Kelly Ripa's hand! During this parade everyone sorta found their groove. And of course there was lots of dancing and laughs.

A house party with some NOLA friends!


If you look on the upper left that is Kelly Ripa!

A flamebeaux!

They made a float to honor the best new NOLA resident..
Justin!

Jamie's personal favorite float... We love you Ol' Croc!

Look at Candice crazy amount of beads!

Getting some beads!

The last Mardi Gras parade of the gang... this year!

One last stop before heading home. You can't celebrate Mardi Gras without Popeye's. So a quick stop by our local store before heading home and crashing. Everyone headed home on Monday, while Team JJ rested up. Tomorrow is actual Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). We are heading to the Quarter to catch parades, see the costumes and live it up one last time. We will post on the day.

One of the surprising things we found during Mardi Gras is how PG it is. Minus Bourbon street, you could take a 5 year old child to all of the festivities. But this holds true for New Orleans year around! So the $64,ooo question... are you planning your trip for next year yet?

Love,
Team JJ

Come on down ya'll

We are ready to party!