New Orleans, Ocean Springs & One Sick Boy

What a whirlwind weekend. Some weekends just tend to speed by more than others.
We made our pilgrimage to New Orleans, but reduced our stay to just 2 days + one night, rather than spend the entire weekend there as originally planned.
Matthew came along to attend the VH concert despite the fact that he was sick. Poor guy. We delayed our start to let him get maximum rest pre-travel and to allows us to decide if he could even make it. He decided he could, so we packed the car replete with sick gear, just in case, and hit the road.
We were lucky enough to be staying in our friends' second home right in the heart of the French Quarter, so we had lots of creature comforts, which was especially good for Matthew. I was hoping to have lots of pictures to regale you with, but my camera broke while there. I have the darndest luck sometimes, I swear.

Some highlights of the time spent in New Orleans-
Delicious chargrilled oysters at Drago's
Yummy fish tacos at Taqueria Corona
Fun funky finds at the Freret Market
Dirt cheap prices at Junk In the Trunk on Magazine
Out of this world gelato at La Divina

Here are some silly little treasures that I picked up:

A plastic cow creamer. 25 cents. Moo!


Floral and scarecrow centerpiece. 10 cents.


A full pack of Cape Cod vintage paper coasters. 25 cents.


1974 Smash magazine. I like their slogan: "The magazine that comes with two free staples." Ba-da-bum. This reminded me of my favorite 70s mag, Dynamite. 10 cents.


The Van Halen concert was the main event. It was one of the loudest concerts I have ever been to. Matthew, bless his heart, slept, yes slept, through all but about thirty minutes of it. I was amazed at what great shape David Lee Roth is in. Actually he doesn't look much different than he did thirty years ago, outside of waxing his chest and lopping off his long locks. Oh, and he did have his buttocks covered. I guess at 53 he's decided to finally hang up his "chaps with nothing underneath" look. I have to say, I think we're all better for it.
The concert was really great. A little too much distortion at times, drowning out vocals, but still great. I also couldn't help but notice that there were about 10 guys to every girl there. So if you're single and looking to meet a middle aged man who likes 80's hard rockin' hair band music and loves to play air guitar, then this is your place. I cannot however guarantee that said man will have a job, his teeth or not be under house arrest. There were a lot of guys there that looked like they walked on over from the Dirtball and Burnout Convention kind of like this.....

Since we left New Orleans early we had a little time to stop by wonderful Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs, MS. The Andersons have thankfully been able to re-open their showroom post-Katrina. We picked up a couple of small pieces as most of the larger molded pieces we wanted weren't available. Shopping at Shearwater is very "take what you can get" style shopping. Definitely hit or miss. Whatever they fire and happens to be there that day is what you can choose from. There are no certain quantities or always in stock items. I was very happy to hear they are starting again to accept custom orders, and not just for brides!! I may finally get my giant cicada I've been coveting for years. If you don't already know about the Anderson family and Shearwater Pottery learn more here


We also were able to briefly stop by one of my favorite gulf coast thrift shops, America's Thrift Store, again in Ocean Springs. I got some cute things there, these 2 being my favorites:

The ballerinas are for Amelia. She dances daily to The Nutcracker and wears ballerina outfits more often then not.



The gilded bird is for me. It will hang in my little office/studio space. I love it!

Then just before hitting the road to head back home we took a quick side journey which just a hop, skip and a short bridge away to the Biloxi coast to sneak a peek at the new Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art, designed by renowned architect, Frank Gehry, which is currently going up. It's not every day we small town folks get a Frank Gehry building in our neck of the woods. It's really quite exciting! And as the wife of an architect, I am obliged to be extra excited for my husband's sake. :-)
I am borrowing this photo of the pods taken by Robert Brooks-


So all in all, we made it through and had a good weekend. We were still able to sneak in some fun, despite the odds. I am happy to say that Matthew has been nursed back to good health and is back at school today with lots to talk about.

Hope your weekend was lots of fun!