Doing San Fransisco as real TOURISTS!

Our first real day in San Fransisco. What to do, what to do?

Guided Tourist Bus - that's what to do!
We bought a tour for down town San Fransisco, and got the Golden Gate tour for free! By mistake - but hey it was a gift send from above! That's how I'd like to see it. Mom called it something else, but let's just say her negative choice of word won't find a place in this blog. It's a precious gift when someone 'screw up' your booking to the better! And she come to realize this too! ;)

This will just be a short picture up date, there's not to much to say. The city is cool with all the hills, the bridges are huge and the street life is busy. It's just like on TV with all the cable cars driving around. The guides on the bus were really good and they bombed us with cool facts.
For lunch my mom confused me more then ever! She choose Mc Donalds instead of Rainforest Cafe! My own Mother! Still can't believe it. Sure, it's easy and fast, but we had just learned that there's over 3000 restaurants and 89 Starbucks in San Fransisco. I never for thought she'd pick Mc Donalds after that statement- and that I would be the grumpy 'parent' walking in to Mc Donalds after her.. So strange.
It was a long day, which luckily ended better with more sight seeing, shopping and Chinese food.

San Fransisco City Hall
The dome of the city hall is the 5th largest in the world. 

Not by far the steepest hill in San Fransisco, but still a typical view.

Mom :)

Us with Alcatraz in the background 

Strawberry lemonade at Pier 39 - Yummy!

The Sea lions at Pier 39, quiet a show

Ready for the Golden Gate tour!

Palace of fine Arts Theatre

Mom and I by the Golden Gate Bridge

Another hill, but with focus on the cable car system.
This web is seen all over the place. Pretty cool how it's in use.

Mom! California here we come!

Thank you so much to you Corey, and your family, for taking me in and making me feel so much like home! I really enjoyed my stay - and the FOOD! It was great! I hope to see you all soon, or let me rephrase; I will see you all soon. If it's here, in Sweden or unknown destination, I will see you soon! :)

After a really nice morning, we had a somewhat stressful noon. It was such a relief to arrive at Jackson International, on time with a bag that wasn't over weight! Pheeew! Now the next 'problem'. I hate good byes, last time I cried like a baby when we said good bye. I usually don't do the crying good-bye thing. I'm pretty good at that. But our first adventure together (Hawaii) was pretty amazing! We did and discovered so many cool things so it's insane. Of course it sucks when a trip like that have to come to an end. But you can't get away from it. It was time to go, this time too. With plenty of thank you's, smiles and great big hugs, Corey made sure to cheer it all up so I would board with a smile on my face, also remembering I would have someone I love to meet me up on the other side; My MOM would be in San Fransisco waiting for me! :)

Welcome to America Mom!
I got her some really cool golf stuff for her birthday :)

My last full day w my BP friend :(

My last full day with Corey. Sucks! I hate last days. So not cool that I already have to get going. We spend the day being lazy! Sweeeeet! Played board games, cooked dinner, both Southern and Swedish, and then we went to the movies to see Secretariat. Great movie! After the movie we went to see his sister and brother in law, which was really nice. Then home for another movie night, and while Corey later fell asleep and his parents woke up for work, I was stuck packing my horrible bags. Never will I ever pack like this again. If I do end up moving abroad again, I will ship all my belongings - it IS worth every penny! Bah!

Side note about dinner;

Southern dish

Red beans and smoked sausage with rice. 

As a no beans and hardly a sausage eater, I was surprised over a tasty flavorful sausage meal!

Swedish "Fish balls"

Haha, always a blast to watch foreigners eat canned Swedish food! It survived the test, but Corey said he liked the 'Makrill' better. But these Southern people want to add spices to everything! I love it, but really, who put spices on Makrill and Fiskbullar??? 

;)

I guess it's the small things that does it?

Nottoway Plantation

Today we went to Nottoway Plantation. It was gorgeous!

Nottoway is one of the few plantations that survived the Civil War and it is the largest remaining plantation home in the South. It's a sugar plantation and the home was completed in 1859. We got to know everything - and more - about it during the guided tour. I liked it; you got a lot of history, the guide was good and the group was small (we were only six people).

(Again, we used Corey's camera and I don't have the pictures yet).

After this little adventure we headed back to Aunt Virginia's and then we decided to drive back from Louisiana to Mississippi in the rain, to save make use of it, and save tomorrow's daylight for something else then driving.
It was good to see Corey's house again, Cathy was up waiting for us (she's the sweetest!) and then we had time to cuddle with Rufy and watch a movie. To drive home tonight was definitely a good choice.

New Orleans at Halloween

I had my first southern breakfast and it was good - we we're already off to a good start!

We drove on the Mississippi River Bridge and on the mile after mile after mile long bridge, going over the swamps. Loved it! It's really beautiful. Though only one gator was spotted, it was cool.

Our first stop was the Cafe du Monde, which is a French Market Coffee Stand in the French Quarter of New Orleans. We ordered in Beignet's, French donuts with powdered sugar. Oh heaven! So much better then real donuts, which I'm not a fan of at all by the way. The Café in itself is an experience, starting of with table chasing. I enjoyed it and recommend it to anyone who visits New Orleans.

New Orleans itself is a cool city. I would never live here. It's a place you enjoy going to, but also enjoy leaving knowing you always can come back. It's kind of dirty? And it can smell bad (just like any big city). But all the local art make it Magic! There are numerous art galleries and the streets are filled with artists and performers. This City definitely got personality! We spend some time in the French quarters, Corey gave me a guided tour pointing out everything that I had to know. Something I found interesting was all the voodoo stuff, I'd never guessed that voodoo would be a big thing here? Apparently voodoo came to New Orleans straight from Africa and have been there since the city's early years, now there's a small museum for it and there's voodooo shops all over the place.

It wasn't only the day of Halloween, it was also the day of the Saints and Steelers game, which meant we had to hit up the stadium to tailgate! It was the craziest tailgating I've seen or been too. People everywhere, dressed in clothes of their teams, drinking all over. Block after block was just filled with partying happy people. We meet some Mexicans and Corey sold my identity for beer. It all worked out fine after socializing and snapping some pics we had free beer until the game started. We joined the crowd and headed over to the  Superdome. It was humongous! After taking my picture, Corey finds a ticket on the ground. It was so freaking good!!! It was a $240 club member ticket on row 5. As a gentleman, he refused using it and offered me to go. Two stubborn people offering the other person the ticket - none of us would go. Instead we watched the kick off on the big screen outside the dome on the square and sold the ticket. The money gained from the ticket gave the brilliant idea to gamble. Harrah's Casino Next! I was starving and not in the biggest mood for gambling, but Corey had luck and won on our lucky money! Yay! Good Job!

Everywhere I walked people were screaming "WHO DAT?!" Even more so when the Saints won! Ahh PERFECT! Halloween night and the local team won! It would be a big A party at Bourbon and Canal Street!
It was crowded, the streets were closed with people drinking, dancing, singing and screaming everywhere! Beads in all different colors were raining down covering the streets. The best and craziest sights were down in the gay areas. I felt like a kid at the Zoo, just staring my eyes out!
We both caught beads too! Without flashing I should add. The tradition is to flash your boobs and people on the streets will hand you bead neck lasses or the people on the balconies will throw them down to you to catch. It's a pretty big and crazy tradition - and so much fun!

More food and fun in Louisiana!

Today was the day for Grandma's 90-th birthday celebration. We went to Crawfish Town to meet up with tons of relatives for lunch. Yumiyum - more southern food for me! So excited! Corey and I decided to share a big platter with different foods, so that my taste buddies could experience as much as possible. 

This was our Lunch Menu

Appetizer 

Salad with Cesar dressing

Seafood Gumbo with crawfish, crab and shrimp

Entree

Fried frog legs, Crawfish boulettes, stuffed shrim, stiffed crab,

Seafood jambalaya, fried catfish and fried oysters

Dessert

Breadpudding with rum sauce

Salad and Sea food Gumbo

The gigantic Platter!

Yummie!

Time to eat some frog leg!
Couldn't stop laughing at first, how sad is
it that I saw all these Disney frogs jumping around as I took my first bites..?!

Oh Man! It was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S! The gumbo was amazing! Frog legs was the most shocking thing on the platter. It taste almost like chicken. I ate my share of the leg, but I have to confess that I saw several Disney frogs jump around in my head...! The only thing I would skip next time is the oysters. Those muddy little things can stay where they come from. Yuuuck! 

Like I mentioned above, I got a chance to meet many of Corey's relatives. This was fun! You should probably not mention favorites in a family on a blog, but I can't help but loving that I finally got to meet Savannah and Abigail! Corey, as the proudest uncle there is on God's green earth, have spoken so well about these two little angels. It was awesome to finally meet them, and see that they were as wonderful (if not even more) in reality!

My favorite of Corey and Abigail! Precious!
(Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Savannah).

After dinner it was Campus time! College and Campus is two big words in America, and they are way more important then elsewhere I have been. We went to LSU (Louisiana State University), where most of the Hansen's down here went to school. The Campus was really nice. Not at all what I had imagined from my time at NOVA and Sojourner. The buildings were big and old, spread out over a large area. They had parks and fountains and I loved what I saw when I later on walked inside one of the buildings. AND GUESS WHAT else they have?!! Their school mascot walking around fully ALIVE. They got a FREAKING TIGER! The tiger's name's Mike and he is completely beautiful! Such a gorgeous animal! I can't believe they have a permit to keep a full grown tiger on Campus. Yep yep, LSU got itself a new fan (even if Mike wouldn't have been there). 

LSU also have old dorms and buildings that hardly are used. Of course in the spirit of Halloween we entered one of these (since it's still open) in hope to find a way in to the stadium. Dumdumdumdumdum.......! It was creepy! They place was trashed down, many of the doors were open and many rooms had broken windows. We passed several restrooms with dying blinking lights, why on earth the power still would be on up there? It was pretty awesome to walk through, knowing that we probablly shouldnt be there and not knowing if something was in there. 

After a few stairs up and down we found an unlocked door.. And tadaaa! - we walked straight in to the stadium. There it was; LSU's very own Death Valley! Those football fields are pretty breath taking when you stand on the bottom staring up and around. We chilled here for a little bit, just to learn on our way out, that we couldn't get back through the door. The old movie trick! Bam! A little nervous about finding a way out we make our way to a fence. One - Two - Three, Sara decide to climb it right there and then, under the biggest light. Four - Five - Six, and so did Corey. We landed with grace on our -together - four feet. Again, just to realize something else plain stupid; We did all this in front of two cops who stood in front of - guess? - LSU's police station! We always have such a good timing with everything...! But also good luck, no one saw us. Now we just had to tip toe back to the parking lot, hoping we didn't get a parking ticket for not having a permit sticker on our car ....

We snapped some cool pictures on Campus and in the stadium that I will update with later.

After our Halloween excitement it was time for something lit up with laughs and Food. Baton Rouge Fair NEXT! It was a nice field filled with fun things to do. We took it easy, walked around and just enjoyed being where we were. We ordered what I believed was my first real Corn dog, and a big stuffed shrimp and crawfish taco. Tasty!

Something that completely took me by surprise, was when we on our way home got Daiquiris to go! In Louisiana they have drive through's where you can order mixed drinks in a to go cup! They hand these alcohol mixed beverages to you while you're driving your car! How double moral is that?! Anyways, I won't argue against it now. That yummie Daiquiri shouted my name out loud, all the way from the Fair, there's no way I would let it down! ;)

My first Taste of The South - A Success!

Friday!
Not that it at all matters what day it is when you travel, but Friday it is. I have to count the days to remember what day it actually is. Haha funny how days blurs together.. The only thing i usually keep kind of straight is the dates - so the understanding of time is complete twisted for me when I travel!

We got kind of a late start but reached Baton Rouge in a somewhat decent time = Dinnertime!
Corey was so excited about this. Finally he could show me his Crawfish Etouffee. We all cooked together, Corey the head chef, Cathy (Corey's mom) the garlic bread  and salad specialist and me the newb. It was the easiest meal ever made, and lord wasn't it also the tastiest?! (Mom you're cooking will always be #1!) When we sat down to dig in to this heavenly mixture of onion, bell peppers, tomato, crawfish, seasoning and other additions - Ohhh it was so good! - one sound just kept slipping out from me; "Mmmmmm...!" It was that slow natural real "Mmmmm", that only comes when it's really really good (You can hear if someone fakes an "Mmmmm"). I can't describe how much I liked this meal, so I should probably just leave it here.

Cathy and Corey

Stir, stir and stir. It's the key to the Best Etouffee!

After dinner and a bunch of stories from Corey's childhood (all very funny) it was time to do some art. I pre-died Corey's Mohawk (it's supposed to get died in another color tmw) and he made highlights on me. For being first timers we did a pretty good job ;)