NOLA for Mat's 30th

Happy 30th Birthday Mat. We had such a great time with you and Bridget in New Orleans.

Shawn and I have been to New Orleans many time, we love the city for many reasons. I would have to say the main one is the food. We love to eat the New Orleans Creole style food. If you're in NOLA here are a couple of our favorites in the world famous French Quarter:

• Johnny's PoBoy (St. Louis St.) This place has out of this world poboy sandwiches. They also make a great Muffalatta. The seafood gumbo is also worth a try. My suggestion is to split a couple of things. With our group of 4 we split and oyster and shrimp poboy, a muffalatta and two bowls of gumbo. Wash it down with an Abita Amber and you're in heaven! They're only open til 3 p.m. so catch them for lunch.


• ACME Oyster House (Iberville) The NOLA sampler is a great way to get a taste of New Orleans. Oysters on the half shell are great too. I even got my mom to try them on one of our trips!! The prices here are great too!


• Orleans Grapvine (Orleans St.) is new to my list. We went there for something different on Mat's birthday. We decided to split a bunch of apps and an entree. Every thing was amazing and the staff was very knowledgeable.


• Cafe Du Monde (Canal St.) this really isn't a restaurant, but they serve Benet's (SP?) (a french style donut) that are totally amazing and this is coming from a girl who really doesn't like donuts. They also have some of the best coffee. You can get it warm, iced or frozen.

We had so much fun watching Mat ride the bull at some country bar on Bourbon St. It sure was a great way to kick off the 30th Birthday weekend!

If you haven't been to New Orleans, you need to plan a trip. You can always call me, and I'll head down there to spend the weekend with you. NOLA is finally getting back to pre-Katrina shape. We've been down three times since the hurricane, and it gets more "back to normal" every time we go down!