My friend, Madison, sent me this awesome picture of the sunset at Olympic Park in Aurora, Colorado! Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me 🙂
Category Travel
N’awlins … for the third time.
So I went to New Orleans for the third time in a year and a half last weekend, and I loved every second of it (as usual). I don’t know what it is about NOLA, but it definitely has my heart. It may have to do with all the beignets, live music, Garden District homes, swamp creatures, spooky history, Bourbon Street, and overall just fun culture and people!
The one thing about this trip that was different from the others … I FINALLY got to do a swamp tour! The last two times I went, only a couple of us wanted to go and we couldn’t ever get everyone on board. Luckily this time I went with my two good friends, Megan and Jocelyn, and they were totally on board with the swamp tour.
Unfortunately we did not get to see many alligators due to the off-season, but we did see some interesting sites. We saw a baby alligator, which was neat, but the most hilarious and exciting part was seeing a random goat. As the guide steered us into the swamp village, where people can only get to their homes by boat, we saw one dock that had a goat on it. We moved in closer and saw the house actually had land. The goat was so confused and it was the cutest moment of the swamp tour to say the least. The scene got even more hilarious when a chicken and a peacock showed up. It is a pretty interesting choice of pets for a family living on a swamp.
While this blog is dedicated to mostly weather occurrences, I have decided to add more travel to it. I think it is important to share experiences and inspire others to travel and see the world. Only two significant weather events happened while we were in New Orleans: 1) a random downpour right before our ghost tour (we had to buy ponchos) and 2) a beautiful sunset, which you can see it below along with some other great photos from the trip!
Houses you can only get to by boat. We saw a lot of these on the Honey Island Swamp Tour in Slidell.
A lovely sunset over the Mississippi!
All of the houses in the Garden District were ready for Mardi Gras!
I love the architecture!
We found a goat on the swamp tour.
One of the many mansions on the swamp in Slidell.
Lafayette Cemetery
This was right after we ate a lot of spicy macaroni and cheese at Cochon!
I love the Honey Island swamp tour scenery!
Baby alligator!
I love this view of Jackson Square and the St. Louis Cathedral!
We were lucky to witness a beautiful sunset over the Mississippi.
The Columns Hotel is located in the Garden District.
This is Sandra Bullock’s house.
We were so excited about the swamp tour!
I love NOLA and I can’t wait to go back! 🙂
Winter finally hits Upstate New York
We didn’t end up having a “White Christmas” — instead it was 67 degrees — but I did get to see some snow and ice before I left town. Of course, now that I’m no longer there, the snow has hit hard and is staying (just my luck).
It had snowed a couple times before Christmas, but nothing stuck. So now that the snow is finally hanging around, I would say winter has finally arrived up north.
My friends, Laci and Dan, live on Lake Delta in Rome (as I stated in my Fall foliage on Lake Delta post). I had the opportunity to take some pictures after the storm hit Monday night into Tuesday morning, Dec. 28-29. Unfortunately the WordPress website isn’t allowing me to upload all the files at this time, so I picked a few photos from Christmas Eve and the storm and posted them below. The Christmas Eve photos were taken from my cousin’s house.There is nothing like fall and winter in Upstate!
It was a full moon and 60 degrees on Christmas Eve.
Ryan and I enjoying the warm weather and full moon on Christmas Eve.
Foggy Lake Delta after the ice storm hit.
Looking down the icy staircase leading to Lake Delta’s brisk, cold waters.
My next adventure is to New Orleans (for the third time in the past year and a half)! The “Big Easy” is one of my favorite cities I’ve been to. I can’t wait to go back and experience all the fun. I hope to get some great weather photos while I’m there!
A Lightning Show from a Plane
There were strong thunderstorms in the Midwest last weekend. A couple of friends and I were in Galena, Illinois for our friend’s wedding. That Saturday, the day of the wedding, was a beautiful day for an outside wedding ceremony. Becca and John (the bride and groom) definitely had someone looking out for them on that glorious day!
The weather quickly turned quite the opposite right after the reception, luckily. Galena was hit with a very windy and loud thunderstorm. The rain was pounding the building and it was impossible to sleep, but it only lasted about an hour.
The weather was gloomy on Sunday. Two of my friends, Gillian and Sandy, drove from Galena to Chicago to catch our flights home. While the day in Illinois was drizzly and dark, nothing became severe until we all got to the airport.
Sandy had a layover in Kansas City. Her flight kept getting delayed because of the weather. She finally left Kansas City about three hours after her flight was scheduled. Despite delaying the trip home due to weather, it appeared that the stormy systems weren’t ready to die off.
The thunderstorms continued as Sandy’s flight left Kansas City and was making its way to Boston. Sandy said the lightning was crazy and she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She took the video I posted below of the storm, but she said it really doesn’t show how intense it really was. She was kind of nervous flying with the storm so close, but she said it made for great entertainment on her flight home!
Nessa's Nook 