On the Road

Between work and the holiday weekend, I have spent most of the past two weeks traveling. Instead of my usual cooking posts, I decided to share some fun stories and pictures of my travels.

New Orleans, LA


For the past few years my family has reunited in New Orleans to celebrate and catch up. We are spread out over the country, so it really is a special time for us. This year our family made a fun road trip out of getting there, as I had enough time off work that we could.

We stopped for lunch at the Louisiana guest rest stop when we first crossed into Louisiana. We had picked up some fresh veggies, hummus, cheese, deli meats, and crackers. YUMMY! This rest stop is so pretty. My boys enjoyed stuffing their tummies and walking around to stretch their legs. We will definitely be stopping again. Later on the road, we also enjoyed some boudin from a local gas station. We made the mistake of only ordering one, and when we went back for more they had already sold out. As Jonah was the lucky one, he graciously shared a taste with each of us.

I shocked myself by not taking as many food pictures as I had meant to when we were actually in New Orleans. But I have to mention a new restaurant we tried (new to us, not to New Orleans). The Palace Cafe on Canal Street. If you have not tried it, I highly suggest it. You cannot go wrong with your order. We made sure of this by each ordering different items for each course and playing musical plates. My favorite dishes of the night were: crab cheesecake (it is savory, not at all sweet, and out of this world!), turtle soup, duck gumbo, and the pecan pie. We ordered quite a bit more, but these are the dishes that are going to keep me coming back.



Luling, TX

I am very blessed to still have all four of my grandparents. Even better is when I get to see all of them in the same week. We decided for the holiday weekend we were going to see my grandparents we didn't get to see in New Orleans. On our way, my grandfather asked us to pick up some BBQ in Luling. My grandparents live in a very small town where there is a post office and a just recently added convenience store, the closest restaurants are 15-20 minute drive away.

He told us, when we got into Luling there would be a BBQ place on the left and the right, and boy was he right. We chose the one on the left because it looked pretty busy. We ended up going to both, as the first didn't have chicken or coleslaw. The line was incredible, it wove throughout the building and into their second building when we arrived. By the time we left with our food, it was outside, almost to the corner. Needless to say, it was well worth the wait, and we will definitely be going back!



Bartlesville, OK


I ended up in Bartlesville for work. If you know anything about Bartlesville, you can guess who I work for pretty quick! I didn't really have any expectations, not because I had heard anything negative, just because I'm used to not eating as well when I travel and I was traveling for work. I was so pleasantly surprised!

My first meal was at Two Sisters, located downtown. Their roasted veggie sandwich was amazing! I don't know what the veggies were marinated in, but they were delicious. However, I do not suggest the fruit cup. As an alternative, their asparagus looked amazing!  Also, their Mac and Cheese comes highly recommended.

The second meal I shared with my coworker at our hotel. We enjoyed it so much we had the same thing for lunch the next day! We shared a veggie burger and for our sides a half blue lu salad and hummus and veggies. Everything was really fresh and we felt really good after eating.

I returned to Bartlesville by myself for another week.  This is one of the coolest little towns I've seen.  Their downtown is very well maintained and beautiful!  They are home to Frank Lloyd Wright's realized sky scraper!  They also have a pecan grove in the middle of the town.  I was also surprised to find such a high concentration of museums and art galaries.  There is also a community theatre and a recording studio that I discovered during my run.

This has been such a fun couple weeks of travel and exploring, but I'm finally starting to feel homesick.  I am looking forward to getting back into my routines.  I've also been inspired for some fun new posts, so stay tuned!  I will definately have a couple good ones coming up!