Coast to Coast

I had such a crazy/fun week. It started two Fridays ago in California at Tim's house. Tim drove up with his sister Melanie and me to spend a couple days with his family before he had to go back to school. We were able to spend all day Saturday with Tim's whole family minus his little brother Aaron who is in Samoa for a mission. Tim's brother and sister-in-law were there with their energy-filled, four boys. We swam and had a bbq at his house and it was a beautiful day. Sunday, Tim flew home and left me to fend for myself. It was the first time I had stayed at his parent's house without him, I was kind of nervous about it but I ended up having a really good time.

Monday marked the beginning of the (third?) annual girls trip that Tim's Grandma Gunn puts on every year. This year it was held at the Hales' beautiful beach house in San Juan Capistrano. The trip was from Monday-Thursday morning, but I had to take off early Wednesday morning to go to New Orleans for work. The house was AMAZING and it had its own private beach. I forgot to take a picture of the house but here's the view from the porch.

It was such a relaxing few days at the beach. I laid out and read my book for 3-4 hours both days. I also went on a bike ride with Autumn (which I am mysteriously still sore from), took a good walk by the beach, ate yummy yummy food provided by the mommies and aunts, and did a morning Zumba workout (led by Autumn). It was my first time trying zumba and it was pretty fun!

The Amazing Grandma Gunn

I was sad I had to leave early. I had such a nice time and was definitely needing some sun!

I got in to New Orleans around 4 on Wednesday. I was there for the NAA Education Conference and Expo. My company had a booth at the trade show that I had to help with. Pretty much ever since I started working there (about 2 months ago) I have been preparing for this trade show. Before I left for California I tried to make sure I confirmed all of the previous reservations I had made for New Orleans, but I had forgotten one. I had planned an activity for all of the sales and marketing people to go on Wednesday night. We were going to go airboating in the bayou and the van was going to pick us up at the hotel at 5. Right when I got off the plane I remembered and called the airboat place to confirm our reservation. Just my luck ,they had no record of our reservation even though our accountant had given them our credit card number. With the help of Tim feeding me phone numbers of other places that did airboat tours, I was able to scramble and find another place that would take 16 people out at night. Crisis averted. The tour was awesome and our captain/tour guide was crazy! I have some video footage of the whole thing at work, I will try to post some later if I can. Here are some pictures for now!

Our hard-to-understand Captain--he's been on Wife Swap. Check it out: http://www.movieweb.com/tv/TEgN1jgjpeYmjj/VInPSoosytmmro

Sales and marketing teams enjoying the swamp

The trade show started on Thursday. It was cool to see everything I had been helping with fall into place. There were hundreds of other booths, anyone who had anything to do with apartment rentals was there.

Our beautiful booth I helped design:)

Our super cool uniforms

Every year they have a keynote speaker and this year it was George W. Bush. Camera's weren't allowed, so sorry, no pictures. But I just have to say that I love George. Ever since he came to Albuquerque 5 1/2 years ago when I helped lead "4 more years" cheers with my friends Melissa and Strobbe. He gave a great speech and was very funny!

Thursday night we went to the Gala (party) at Mardi Gras world. It's the place they keep all of the floats for the Mardi Gras parade and it's right on the Mississippi, so the location was great. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was playing and we hired professional lindy-hop dancers to wear our uniforms (see above) and dance at the party. I HAVE to remember to post a video of this because they were awesome! The party got out late and we were all hungry because they only served finger foods and alcohol at the party, so we went out to eat. The night ended with a bunch of us driving around, looking for dinner in a huge 12 passenger van with one of our drunk clients (and his father) who kept wanting to pick up his friends off of corners, making it 16 people in the van. Needless to say, I didn't get home til very late.

Friday was the last day of the trade show. I spent half of it on the floor and the other half with the photographer I had hired to take pictures of our clients for our website. I spent about 5 hours with the photographer and there was a lot of down time, so I got to know him pretty well. His name was Brad Edelman and he played 9 years for the New Orleans Saints. He was a really nice guy and gave me a couple recommendations for restaurants and told me if I needed help finding anything I could give him a call. I ended up going out that night with the girls I work with and we tried to go to one of the restaurants Brad told me about but it was full for the night, and just about every good restaurant was full because it was Friday. I ended up giving Brad a call who ended up just living about a block from where we were. We went over and met him and he practically gave us a walking tour all through the French Quarter and Jackson Square before he found us a restaurant that had seating and was to our liking. Kind of bizarre, but fun! We ate at a place called Muriels and the food was fantastic, French/Creole. I had a yummy goat cheese crepes with craw fish appetizer and pecan crusted puppy drum for my main course--best fish I have EVER tasted! After, we walked a little on Bourbon St. That place is crazy, didn't want to spend too much time there.

My Yummy Appetizer

Blurry picture of Bourbon St.

I was sad to leave, but by that time it had been 7 days since I had seen Tim, and I was ready to go home. I definitely recommend going to New Orleans if you get the chance! I would love to go back.