A surprise for our 5 year anniversary

David surprised me with a 7 night cruise out of New Orleans for our 5 year anniversary.  And it really was a surprise.  In fact, he talked to my mom on the sly and arranged for her to watch the kids and everything.  I found out about it just a couple of days before we left for our big trip.

Our trip began in New Orleans.  Coincidentally, we left on our very first cruise together almost 10 years ago out of New Orleans.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn in the French Quarter.  With one night of hotel accomadations, Holiday Inn allowed us to park our car in their covered garage for the duration of our cruise at no additional charge.  What an awesome feature!  It would have been $18 a day at the cruise port.

 First things first, we checked out our room.  And we were quite pleased with it.  Big comfy bed.

And a great view.

Then we headed out into the French Quarter for some dinner. 

 And what a delicious meal we had!  We were served these divine redskin potatoes instead of bread.  

 After dinner, we went exploring.

 And we were charmed by the street entertainers.

 We stopped in for a bit at Howl at the Moon. 

Which brought back nostalgic memories of our bachelor/bachelorette party.  We love to sing along with the dueling pianos. 

 After that, we mosied on down to Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee.  Decaf, of course.

 Although I think they just serve everyone regular coffee.  Because we were hyped afterwards.

Although, I suppose it could have been a sugar rush.

Regardless, we really enjoyed our evening in New Orleans.  But as lovely as our time in the city was, I most enjoyed my time with my sweetheart David.