Callin' Baton Rouge

Almost two months ago, we got to add another girl to the family!!!!  Blaine, Hunter's middle brother, married the beautiful Lindsey, and they moved to Baton Rouge.  Well, probably since they got engaged, we've been planning a trip to go visit them.  We had so many things that we wanted to go do together that Lindsey even typed up an itinerary! (she's so cute and organized)

So Friday when Hunter got off of work, we hopped in to Izzy (my little '05 Accord--loaded down with everything we'd need, including my six pillows and box fan) and headed across the Sabine.  We got there a little too late to do anything that night, which ended up being great.  We made nachos at the house, got to visit and joke around, and wrap the night up watching The Lincoln Lawyer (great movie by the way!).  Oh and how can I forget?!  During the movie we had phenomenal strawberry shortcake--chopped fresh strawberries, bisquick bisuits, and homemade whipped cream!  Yummo...

Saturday, we all slept a little later than we had anticipated, but it all worked out.  This was our day full of plans.  First we hopped in the car and headed east toward Abita Springs.  This little bitty town is the home of the brewery for Abita beer.  They have a free tour and tasting every hour and we made it just in time for the last one.  It was neat to see the process and how much the company has grown.  Of course, the boys enjoyed getting to taste the flavors they hadn't had before--along with a couple of their staple favorites.  Lindsey and I enjoyed their fresh brewed root beer!

Blaine and Hunter at the tap filling up their cups.  You could choose whichever flavor you wanted.

Me and Lindsey enjoying our root beer!

Blaine and Hunter in front of the Louisiana made from Abita bottle caps.

Once our tour was over, the sky decided it was time to let the bottom fall out.  So we waded back the car and headed back to Baton Rouge in the storm.  There, we dropped the boys off at Jim's firearms (a gun store that is way too large for me to have let Hunter loose in...I realized that after we left), and Lindsey and I headed to Plato's Closet and a few other places.  When the time came, we picked them up--after three phone calls, they were not coming outside, so Lindsey went and fussed at them in the very quiet gun store :)--and head to Boutin's for some good food and cajun dancing!

Luckily our wait wasn't too long, although there were only 12 tables in the whole place that weren't reserved for the night!  Plus, we got to read the history of the Cajuns and look at some historical photo books while we waited.  We had a decent dinner--the food wasn't quite as authentic as we were expecting--complete with boudin balls (spelled the correct way--Texans like to put an "a" in boudin...), crawfish wantons, stuffed shrimp, grilled catfish, and crawfish etouffee.  Not too shabby if you ask me.  Then after dinner, Hunter and I got to practice our little dance moves we learned with some of the old pros.  I hope when we're old, we can be one of those little (or big!) old couples who just floats across the dance floor.  They don't even seem like they have to think--they're the same little unit just working their way around so beautifully...we want to be like that one day.  Another perk of Boutin's is the dock and pond on the back of the restaurant.  You know those feeding stations for fish they have at hatcheries?  Well this little pond looked like one of those except for turtles!  I have never seen so many turtles in one place in my life--and on top of that, they were some active little boogers!

All of those little brown specks are turtles.  And the picture doesn't even begin to do justice for how many there were.  It was pretty neat to watch!

We wrapped up that night with a little frozen yogurt at Splendido.  It's one of those little places where you get to fix everything yourself and they charge by weight (of course they give you really big bowls to encourage lots of yogurt intake...).  It was really tasty!  But then again, how do you go wrong with yogurt topped with cookie dough and sprinkles?!

Sunday morning rolled around and we were treated to a home cooked breakfast of scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits, and bacon--all cooked by BLAINE!!  I was so impressed  :)  Then we got dressed and scurried off to a really wonderful church service.  The air conditioner wasn't working so we were all a little bit uncomfortable--but in a weird way, I was glad.  After having just read Irresistible Revolution and Crazy Love, I'm reminded that our service is not about comfort.  

On the way home, we stopped by Red Jacket--the firearms shop featured on the TV show Sons of Guns--for a quick photo op.  We figured that we wouldn't be able to go in, but they even have a security guard out front verifying you have an appointment or shooing you from the property!  He was kind enough to let us get our photo fix though (Hunter was as giddy as a school child!).

The store complete with Will's truck/Jeep-looking contraption.

After our couple of pictures, we fled the scene and headed home to pack up and visit a little more.  We decided we'd catch the movie we had intended to go see on Friday night that afternoon.  So we went and visited an old family friend and then headed to Perkins Rowe to see Horrible Bosses.  I could have done without the massive amount of profanity, but the show was actually really funny.  And that ended our weekend with our lovely Blaine and Lindsey.  It's so neat to be able to go stay and visit with one of his brothers--and it is a great feeling to see them doing so well!

As we trudged along back to Texas, we decided we needed one last little Louisiana fix and stopped at Coyote Blues in Lafayette for dinner.  For those of you who have never eaten at one, it's kind of like a Cajun Mexican restaurant...goo-ood.  I got the crawfish and shrimp burrito and Hunter got shrimp diablo quesadillas--so tasty!  Although, I can't tell you that we enjoyed the food more than being in Lafayette and hearing the beautiful Cajun accents!  

And thus ended our journey.  We miss living in Louisiana more than anyone can imagine--it'll always be where we feel most at home.  Great weekend in the presence of great company! 

It's kind of weird to think about, but the next time we'll be able to go visit Blaine and Lindsey, they'll officially be Uncle B and Aunt Lindsey and we'll have a little lady named Arabella with us :)