Friday thru Sunday - New Orleans, LA

We spent the weekend in New Orleans, LA.

Friday afternoon, we headed to Johnny's Po' Boys. Po' Boys are well known in New Orleans. They are similar to hoagies - just with different fillings. John got a hot sausage po'boy while I got a shrimp po' boy, both with mayo, lettuce and tomato. We were glad to have experienced New Orleans cuisine, but weren't too impressed with the meal itself. A Koch's hoagie from West Philly would beat that any day of the week :)

After that, we drove about 45 minutes to visit several plantation homes. The first one was the "San Francisco Plantation." We found that every plantation charges to see the grounds and the house - so in traditional Indian fashion, I distracted the tour guides while John snuck in pictures of the grounds and slave quarters .. ha ha ha :) It was amazing to see how just a few feet from this huge mansion, the slaves lived in such small quarters.

We decided to take a tour of the last home we saw - our favorite, the "Oak Alley Plantation." The front of the property is surrounded by 28 trees (14 on each side) which have been around for 300 years. The trees were there 100 years before the house itself. We were told the history of the house, and stories about the first and last owners. The last owners actually lived there until the 1970's. 600 acres of the original estate are leased for sugar cane, and 450 acres still are virgin woodlands. 75 acres of residential area surrounds The Oak Alley Foundation property. The foundation owns and operates the Oak Valley Plantation and the surrounding 25 acres. It was a really amazing place, and the pictures don't really do it justice.

Saturday morning, we headed to "The Old Coffee Pot" - a place one of my clients who was originally from New Orleans had suggested for breakfast. The place was cute and cozy, and the food was excellent. It was definitely a good choice. A description of our food is included with the pictures.

After that, we took the streetcars for a tour of the city, going throughout the city to the park, to riding beside the river. We then took a quick ferry ride across the Mississippi, before heading back to the hotel. It was an extremely hot and humid day to be out - probably around 90 degrees, but felt like well over 100. We were going to go out at night to see Bourbon street nightlife, but I think the heat from our day trip got to me, so unfortunately, we ended up staying in. We'll have to make another trip to New Orleans at some point to make up for it :)

Sunday morning, headed to Cafe Du Monde - a well-known New Orleans establishment. It was built by the same people who had built the Oak Alley Plantation. It's a great place to sit and people watch. It gives you a glimpse of what New Orleans used to be like. The only food item on the menu are "beignets" - a type of French doughnut, similar to our "funnel cake." It was crowded, and all the customers had powdered sugar on their face. Our recommendation - definitely don't wear black to this place unless you want it covered in white powdered sugar :)

Next: 6 hour drive to Houston, Texas

Here are our pics from New Orleans:

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Our drive to New Orleans, LA

The pictures below are from our next drive to New Orleans, LA. There may be a good amount of the car ride, sky pics, and pics of bodies of water in our pics...which are beautiful when driving by it, but we don't know if you'll get the same effect from pictures :)

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Tuesday & Wednesday - Atlanta, GA

Tuesday morning, we went to pick up the car we'll be driving to California.

For those who don't know the story, we found a woman thru Craigslist who had moved from Atlanta to San Francisco. She has a young daughter and didn't want to make the drive with her, so she was looking for someone who would like to take a cross country trip with her car to help bring it to her. So we got in touch with her, and now we'll be using her car to take our journey. All we pay for is gas.... God has a funny way of making everything work out for the best for everyone..

So we picked up the car from her mom's house in Atlanta. We like to call the car...Knight Rider's cousin :)

Wednesday - we spent the whole day relaxing, playing cards, and hanging out with my cousin's kids. We were exhausted from being busy from day to night for the past week, and it was nice just to chill for a day :)

Next: 7 hour drive to New Orleans, Lousiana

Monday - Atlanta, GA

Monday evening, dropped mom and stepfather back off at aiport and then went to have dinner at the home of my cousin's friend. They served us puffs and mango lassi, and then fried rice with baked chicken, along with homemade pysum. (we were very well fed on this trip :)

They have a two year old daughter who is a genius. If you spin the globe and name a country, she can point where it is for you. She also knows the names of politicians. Once when they were at the hospital, the doctor introduced himself as John, and she responded with "McCain?" You say "barrack" and she'll say "obama"... you say "hilary" and she'll say "clinton." Adorable..

Played another late game of 28 before heading home :)

Here are our pics from Atlanta:

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Sunday - Chattanooga, TN

Sunday morning, took a 2 hour drive out to Chattanooga, Tennessee to have breakfast with the Isaacs - Roby, Heather, Owen, and the soon-to-be Olive. They had some family visiting, so their daughter is in our pics as well. I'm sure they are honored to be one of the first pics in our blog :)

Next: 2 hour drive back to Atlanta, Georgia


Here is the album:

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Friday & Saturday - Atlanta, GA

Arrived in Atlanta late Friday night. We were staying there for almost a week to visit my dad's side of the family. There are probably about 10 different households to visit there. We stayed the entire time with my cousin, Manoj, his wife, Amey, and their kids, Meenu, Anup, and Ashley. - who we loved staying with. They are absolutely awesome - and provided the best hotel and Indian restaurant we have ever stayed at :) They never once gave us the same food - went from biriyani, to palappum to capa and fish to puri and masala to iddiappum and the list goes on and on an on....

Saturday morning, got up to pick up my mom and stepfather from the airport. They had flown in for the weekend to hang out with all of us in Atlanta. We went to visit a few family members that day, so that we could save sunday to play cards :)


Next: Our 2 hour drive to Chattanooga, Tennessee

Charlotte, NC

The first stop on our journey was Charlotte, NC to visit my uncle, aunt, and their 2 kids, Janice and Jenson. We ended up leaving Philly later than expected, and arrived in NC around 11 pm. My relatives were nice enough to wait up for us, and we did get to spend some time together before leaving Friday evening. We forgot to take pictures while we were there, but it was really nice to catch up with them, even if only for one day.


Next: 4 hour drive to Atlanta, Georgia

Our "Burnt Orange" Departure

It starts with a little irony. The day before, Seema and Jeena were joking about how - from now on - all gifts for us and everything we have must be burnt orange. (it was just part of our wedding theme colors, but for some reason, it has followed us). And then Seema and Suraj were also telling us how great the Chevy Aveo was when they rented it in California.

So we go to pick up our rental car for the beginning of our trip, and of course it is..... a burnt orange Chevy Aveo. It was taken as a sign - it was meant to be.


Next: 10 hour drive to Charlotte, North Carolina

Our Plans

This blog is to keep all our family and friends posted on our plans over the next year for our "One Year Honeymoon." We started our journey from Philadelphia on Thursday, May 29th, are driving across the southern U.S. and are anticipating an arrival in California around June 19th. We will be staying in San Francisco until August, and then will be settling around the Los Angeles area after that. We are planning on staying on the West Coast for no more than a year before returning back to settling down in Philadelphia once again.

Although we miss everyone, we are looking forward to the adventure and the experience over the next year. We hope to take you along on our journey through this blog..... :) Enjoy!!