Beignets for Everyone!

Well hello Philly!

I've just returned from a highly enjoyable week of vacation in the south. I loved it, (obviously) but I'm glad to be back, despite the chilly air and the snow that's about to be added to what we've already got.

We set off at 4:30am on New Year's Day, after an hour of rest, post-NYE activities. Sleep deprivation seems to have little effect when you're headed towards vacation. We traveled by plane, automobile, foot, street car, space shuttle, and iguanodon. Accounts of a few choice tid bits, memories, and encounters can be found below :)

First destination: New Orleans!

New Orleans. Is. Wonderful. The south is known for hospitality, but I quickly learned that the people of New Orleans transcend that. Save a very few unpleasant characters, the people we spoke with throughout our trip were truly genuine, friendly, and good-spirited right off the bat. Up north you tend to get a look-over and a bit of judgment before someone helps you out. Why waste our energy on that?! I say just be friendly and awesome until you see fit to act differently.
We spent 4 days in New Orleans and split the time between a friend's family's 'camp' (a sweet trailer in the middle of no where) on the Bayou and with a friend in Uptown (beautiful!). Both places won my heart within hours.

When we were flying to New Orleans, Colleen (best travel buddy of all time) thumbed through one of the magazines on the plane and came across an article on the 'Skunk Ape'. It essentially detailed one man's work on tracking a large - huge, actually - ape-like creature that had been sighted numerous times throughout forest/swamp areas in Louisiana or Florida or somewhere like that. It could easily be a tall tale but the article was written well enough that I'm glad I didn't read it until we were leaving the Bayou. Colleen wouldn't go outside the trailer without someone with her for fear of the skunk-ape crashing towards her out of the brush in search of something to eat or someone to just toss around in the air. It may sound silly, but it was pretty dang quiet out there, so any unfamiliar noise tended to be fairly startling.

Uptown was an entirely different world, but one that I loved nonetheless. The neighborhood we stayed in had both live oaks and palms lining the streets, multi-colored houses ranging from teeny tiny to mansion-sized within the same block, rumbling street cars, and asphalt in terrible condition. We decided to walk as much of the city as possible to 1. reduce the guilt from overeating (we couldn't help it) and 2. maximize sight-seeing. We walked Bourbon Street, Jackson Square, LSU, Cafe Du Monde, the French Market, the Mississippi, and a delightful array of hole-in-the-wall places with food that I'd eat for three meals a day if I could.
We also took some time to drive through the areas where Colleen helped to restore houses that were damaged during Katrina. We were happy to see many neighborhoods coming back to life, but it was sad and at times disconcerting to see one completely restored home flanked by two which remained abandoned, showing water marks and spray-painted X's saying they'd been searched... over 5 years ago. A Six Flags park also remained deserted, an eerie sight at best.

Anyway, too much to say. Recap NoLa! I confirmed my desire to live in a shotgun style house for at least 2 years and I've re-confirmed my love of Jambalaya. New Orleans gifted us with absolutely delicious food, Abita beer, and an increased appreciation for street musicians and the Bayou.


Second Destination: Orlando! And more specifically... Disney World!
I'm rarely fan of tourists or highly touristy areas but once I was able to separate Disney World from the obscene amount of spending and the ridiculous number of dumb snobby tourists, it turned out to be a pretty awesome place. I can't say I have a favorite park, since our time was limited, but I appreciated how the parks and rides are laid out, how there are exhibits to view as you're waiting in line, and how you could easily spend days in each park alone if you had and took the time to see and ride everything. Magic Kingdom is actually kind of magical, I LOVED all things dinosaur in Animal Kingdom, Epcot has some pretty forward-thinking rides, and Hollywood Studios had a lot more history and education packed into it than I ever expected.

Saturday morning brought our original reason for heading to Orlando. The Walt Disney World half Marathon! Many friends have asked if Disney just ropes off the race course as we run through the park. Noooooooooooo, who wants to see Disney world in the daylight?!? The first corral was set off - with fireworks - at 5:35am. Our corral set off - again with fireworks - at 5:53am. I certainly understand the need for the majority of the race-related stuff to be out of the way by the time the parks open, but I've never run a race in which any portion was in the dark. The race course was lit for the most part, but it got tricky at times, and given the narrow course we were on, it was tough to go around slower runners. Race-course entertainment was fun :) Every mile was marked with a big, colorful, encouraging sign, and at least every half-mile held entertainment ranging from Disney characters, pieces and cast members from park attractions/productions, Brass bands, cheerleaders, and plenty of photo-ops. My favorites were one of the ships used in filming Pirates of the Caribbean, and a green army man (like the little plastic figures... only man-sized) shouting at us to grit our teeth and knock out that hill heading up towards mile 11.

We finished the race in Epcot, tired and sore, but muuuuch more pleased with our run this time compared to the ING Half Marathon earlier this year. Troopers that we are, we decided to forgo showers to make the most of our last day in the parks, so we changed into clean clothes in the parking lot and headed towards Animal Kingdom.

Leaving Orlando was sad but welcome, since saving money is really damn difficult on vacation. If I head back to New Orleans I'll be moving there, and that will require a job, so there's less worry about feeding myself. If I ever head back to Disney, I'll try to give each park a day of it's own, and I'll bring about 86 granola bars to hold me over so that I only have to buy one meal a day. Final reflections? Nah, I'm just happy to be back! I missed y'all! :)