Nola

Well, I went home for the holidays (yes, all of them) and have been so busy with family, friends, and a bit of work that I simply haven't had time to write. That is ridiculous, because I have done quite a few lovely things.

One of which was traveling to New Orleans for a little modeling shoot (no, I was not the intended model, although I did get one or two pictures taken).

My little sister is quite the little model, though, so we jetted off to the Big Easy for lots of food, fun, and a lot of awkward modeling in the streets.

We got to New Orleans and met up with out driver (okay, so he was also the photographer). We dropped our bags at the most adorable hotel and headed straight out onto the streets. Surprise! We're going to take photos right here. With Kae crawling through the streets, and me holding onto random pipes, we got lots of odd stares and felt a bit uncomfortable. You gotta do what you gotta do, though. A tourist even came up to me and "wanted a photo with a model" . . . that got a few laughs after he sauntered off.

After a long, exhausting day, we were fortunate enough to get reservations at Chef Emeril's restaurant. A lovely place called Emeril's Delmonico. Kae and I had some of the best food we've ever had.

We started with Boudin Balls, basically deep fried sausage, and fought over the awkward third serving. I then had Turtle Soup, while Kae went with a less daring Wedge Salad. For the main, I got swordfish (absolutely mouth watering) and Kae got chicken. We stuffed ourselves with the never-ending cornbread and nearly died with happiness at the berry cobbler we had for dessert. All in all, it was pretty fabulous.

The next morning we rolled out of our delicious beds much earlier than we wanted to, headed to a nearby cafe for breakfast and got back to work. For Kae, work involved dancing in a fountain right in Jackson Square, crossing a police line, and nearly falling off a pier. For me it involved trying to look pouty.

To our surprise, we got the afternoon off and, after a quick nap, we explored the city a bit - watching Kae's face as we walked down Bourbon Street was the best part. The music was incredible, jazz on every corner. We were pretty wiped from the past two days, so we tucked in early, ordered a pizza and watched a TV show set in Nola. Just what we needed.

The next morning we got to sleep in a bit before we trotted over to another hotel for swimsuit shots. One our way we ran into the filming of NCIS: New Orleans, no big deal. We grabbed some coffee from a tiny little place and met up with the photographer. Kae nailed the swimsuit shots. I stayed comfortably in my jeans.

Afterwards, we managed to get a private tour of the steamboat and took tons of photos. I felt extremely powerful sitting in the captain's chair and then we got front row seats for the Steam Calliope show (my ears are still not functioning correctly).

For the rest of the afternoon, Kae and I walked around shops and munched on beignets from Café du Monde.

With no forethought, we decided to go on a ghost tour of the quarter, and convinced the other two models to go with us. We had a blast laughing at with our drunk tour guide, cringing at scary stories, and learning all about New Orleans' incredible history. Afterwards, of course, we went back for more beignets.

After an incredible breakfast the next morning, we begrudgingly headed to the airport. It was a quick, exhausting, beautiful, trip full of new experiences. Kae is going to be a model, and I have a picture or two that isn't half bad. Not only did I get to go back to one of my favorite cities, I got to go with my lovely little sister.