Deep South Thanksgiving

Well, it has been a while since the last update, but I’m back on track, with lots of new adventures to share!

After a scary-fun Halloween, Ryan and I made the trek southward and met up with Jeff in his birthplace, Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Some people say that visiting the deep south is like visiting a foreign country, well I’m here to say, they’re right…just kidding! It was, as always, a blast! We were able to spend a week with Jeff’s paternal side of the family and indulge in some southern traditions.

We started off the week by visiting a local Mardi Gras costume museum. It has over 100 costumes on display that have been donated by different Crewes over the years. All of the costumes are elaborate, to say the least, and some of them look down-right painful. But I suppose being the King and Queen of Mardi Gras isn’t all fun and games.

We also had some time to hang out with Jeff’s cousins and get some fun pics on a chair worthy of our status ;)

Jeffs’ grandparents, AKA Maw maw and Paw Paw, live in the ‘heel of the boot’, of Louisiana. They are about 4 hours away from New Orleans, so we had to make the trip eastward to the Big Easy! Susan and Clay watched Ryan overnight while Jeff, Michelle, Tim, myself and our cousin Savannah stayed the day and night in the French Quarter.

We stayed in a great hotel, right off of Jackson Square called The Place D’ Armes. It was lovely inside and the location was ideal. We spent the day shopping at the French Market and walking through the quarter and finished the night with hot chocolate and beignets from Café Du Monde.

Little side note here -If you haven’t had the chance to spend some time in the French Quarter in NOLA I highly recommend making the trip! It is enchanting! The architecture dates back to the antebellum and victorian era. Most of the buildings are brick or stone and have balconies that overlook the street and are usually draped with foliage. In the morning, when most of the streets are clear and the partiers have retired, the quarter feels almost ethereal.

After our getaway to NOLA we went back to Lake Charles and enjoyed a “Pre-Thanksgiving shrimp fry”. To those of you who think that Deep south cooking involves an exorbitant amount of deep frying, you’d be right J. We had chicken, shrimp, fries, pickles and hush puppies, all fried, of course. We backed it up with some classic Cajun tunes, dancing and a bonfire.

Ryan loved all of the action and couldn’t get enough of the deep fried pickles with ranch.

Thanksgiving was a big affair with enough food (including a fried turkey :) to feed an army and the traditional hayride and Christmas carols.

Alas, as with all good things, it had to come to an end. We flew back to NC the day after Thanksgiving and closed on our new house a week later! It is so exciting to start putting things away and know that I won’t have to move them again in 6 months. We are really glad that we can start to put down roots and start getting adjusted to our new home!