Sugar Bowl

Well... what an ending to such an awesome football season for our Razorbacks!  We are still SO proud to be Hog fans & absolutely cannot wait until football season starts back up in the fall.  But until then, all I can do is sit & reminisce...

Our beloved Razorbacks made it all the way to the Sugar Bowl this year.  And, as soon as we knew that, we knew that we had to go cheer them on... in the "Big Easy", New Orleans!

Justin & I left home before lunch on Monday, eastbound toward Louisiana.  Our fantastic babysitter, Brittany, stayed here with the kids & I'm fairly confident in saying that they all had a blast while we were gone!  Justin & I drove the 8 hour drive to New Orleans & arrived there right when our bellies were telling us it was time to eat!  We parked near the Superdome, walked toward Bourban Street & started looking for our friends were meeting.

BUT... before we could find them, we ran into some old college friends -- some of Justin's fraternity brothers!  It was wonderful seeing them, especially since it had been since our college days (over 7 years now) since we had last seen them!

We met with with our friends, Brian & Jaye, and quickly headed to dinner at a cute little diner.  (We ended up sitting across the table from Judge Reinhold who, as we now know, is also a Razorback fan & lives in Arkansas now!)  After dinner, it was back toward Bourban for some hanging out & visiting with the Hendersons.

Brian & Justin went to school together in Berryville & I think Jaye (his wife) and I heard more stories about those boys than we had ever heard before!  Such great times!!

After Bourban, we headed to Harrah's Casino where we all seemed to split up a bit -- Justin played blackjack, Brian hit the quarter slots, Jaye hit the penny slots... and I sat beside her visiting and playing on my phone. 

At about 2am, I looked at my phone & realized how late it was & tried to call Justin.  Little did I know he was deep into a blackjack game & couldn't answer his phone.  I finally got a text from him about 30 minutes later... and then FINALLY by about 3am, we were all heading out the doors heading to our cars & making the short drive to our hotel.  Yep... we were all in bed right around 3:45am.  The latest night ANY of us has had in a really long time!

Such a late bedtime means it was time to sleep in on Tuesday morning!  We all rolled out of bed around 10:30 in the morning & finally left the hotel around noon.  It was GAME DAY & we were all super excited!!!

We headed back to downtown New Orleans with big plans to have lunch at Cafe DuMont; after seeing the line of well over 200 people to get into the place, we decided to look elsewhere for some grub.  

(This is a very old & historical church in downtown New Orleans -- I was totally captivated by how gorgeous it was!)

We finally settled on eating at a little restaurant on the Riverfront and our table was right at the front of the building where we could people watch & enjoy the beautiful day!

The Hendersons...

...and the Hams!

After filling our bellies, we headed back toward Bourban Street, which never sleeps.  My FAVORITE part of the whole trip was the amount of Razorback fans that trekked down to New Orleans to support our team!  Bourban would just erupt in calling the Hogs about every 10 minutes, morning noon & night!  It was AWESOME!!

Great story:

I have a second cousin, Dusty, (and her hubby, Tom) who lives in Amarillo; they are hardcore, die-hard Razorback fans.  They both attended school there & hardly ever miss home games in Fayetteville.  I had gotten Dusty's phone number to call her while in NOLA & meet up; they were also coming to the big game.  Well... Tuesday morning, I left the hotel without their phone numbers, so I told myself that it would be pure chance that we run into eachother in downtown New Orleans.

Lo & behold... Justin & I walked into Pat O'Briens (a pub right off of Bourban) & straight ahead of me was Tom, Dusty's husband!  I was shocked!  I gave him a big hug & then turned around to see Dusty!  It was such a great reunion... and it was so nice seeing the Lovells!

After Pat O'Briens, we decided it was time to head back to Cafe DuMont for some beignets & coffee.  (Our neighbor, Brannon had told me how delicious they were & how that was the one place we had to visit while in NOLA.)  Well, we stood in line about 15 minutes & finally got to dig our teeth into a little piece of heaven.  I ordered 1 order of beignets, unknowing of what they really were; the server handed me a paper sack.  Hmmmm....  I looked inside to see three big, delicious morsels totally covered in powdered sugar.  I quickly found a place to sit & dug in.  They were like giant pieces of funnel cake & were heavenly!  I quickly ate them up... and Justin had one as well!  (He also said his coffee was some of the best he's ever had!)

After stuffing our faces (again), we started walking around NOLA to explore a bit more.

Another walk down Bourban, and the sun was setting, which meant it was time for the game!  We followed the huge crowd of fans toward the Superdome, calling the Hogs & enjoying the night!  This picture was my lame attempt of capturing the Superdome in a picture.  There was a huge crowd that I was in the middle of; if I would have stopped, I would've gotten trampled... and gotten left behind by Justin.  So, I snapped pics while walking.  (ha)

After seeing how horrible the Superdome pic was, I opted for taking self-portraits!  :)

After running into a few more people we knew, we made our way into the Superdome & found our seats!  We were both totally excited about the game, the stadium & everything that went with it!  This stadium was AMAZING to say the least -- I honestly don't think there was a bad seat in the place!  This was the view from our seats...

Unfortunately, the game didn't turn out the way we wanted it to.  After thinking we had it won in the last 1 minute of the game, all of those hopes were taken away & we quickly realized that Ohio State would walk away with the win.

Regardless of the outcome, we are still SO PROUD to be Razorback fans & will continue being fans for the rest of our lives!  (And we have two little piggy fans that we're raising too!)

After the game, we made a quick stop by Harrah's (again), Bourban Street (again), and then to our car.  We were in bed by around 1:30-2:00am, and then up by 8:30 the next morning. On the road by 10am & back home to pick up our kiddos by 7:30pm.  

It was a quick trip, but it was such a great trip!  Justin & I just keep talking about how much fun we had & how we wish we could do it all over again!  

Here's to next year, Hogs...

WOOOOOOOOOOO PIG SOOIE!!!