Adventure!

I started dating the husbeast in late October of 2000. We had known each other for a year, and after a very interesting party, we were a couple. So as of a few weeks ago we have been together for 11 years (married 7). This is a long time to be together. It is 1/3 of my life. In the last 11 years we have done a lot of things together. We have traveled some but not much.

One thing we have always wanted to do was go to New Orleans. You see the husbeast is from New Orleans and it has been a long time since he got to go home. He has been telling me stories about it since we started dating. Honestly the man has a passion for the city, and from what I understand, that is how all natives of the Big Easy are.

We have always talked about going, but things never worked out. Vacations are expensive and time off is precious. I once tried to plan a trip at Christmas to New Orleans. It was going to be a surprise. We were going to drive because gas was still more reasonable then and we would have had to drive to a city with an airport anyways if we wanted to fly. I was having some friends help me secretly plan it. I even started at the end of the summer so I would have plenty of time to save the money for it. I made the decision and set plans into motion and one week later Katrina hit.

Since then we have sort of put off the idea of a New Orleans vacation. For years now we have had our calendars full of weddings and family events that used all our PTO and vacation time. We have also been pretty broke.

Then this past summer Southwest was having a sale on tickets and I checked it out on a whim. To my surprise for the two of us to fly round trip from Dallas was going to be $200 with taxes and everything. That is cheap! I couldn't resist. We were going to have to go during the week, but we both had enough PTO to swing that. So we booked the plane tickets then and there. We were waiting to book hotel rooms until closer to the trip, mostly because we didn't have the money at that exact moment.

About three weeks later is when his work started to make noises like they were going to fire him, and he understandably freaked out. It was looking like this trip was cursed. First hurricanes, now unemployment. We decided to hold off on booking the hotel a little longer to see what happened. When the first 'fire' date came and went we decided we had to make the decision. After looking at finances we decided it was still feasible for us to go. I found a crazy sale on some travel sight and got us a really nice hotel right off Bourbon street for a song.

Since the flight hotel and rental car have been paid for already, him losing his job doesn't effect our plans at all. I had already put aside our spending money and budget, so we are all set to go. I think we have seen hell and high water in the 11 years it has taken to bring this trip to fruition, but we have done it.

Tomorrow at noon we take flight. We will be there four glorious days and three nights. The time has come to set off on adventure!!!