Not just any other Dewd

Many of you know that I am a Mountain Dew junkie, drink it quite regularly, if not daily. I have been recieving the Dewsletter for quite some time and also have done surveys and things over the years. Surprisingly I got a notice that I would recieve a test sample of the three new flavors that they were testing. Well one day a large box came in the mail and inside were three mysterious cans of unlabelled Dew goodness. All we knew was the number, nothing about flavor. It was cool trying each of the three. And I even shared with Greg and Kevin. My favorite was the red one #509, it was a tropical berry flavor.

The Walking Tours

Before we went we printed several walking tours from Frommers Guide. We did Algier's Point the first day since we wanted to ride the ferry across the Mississippi, it was a really nice area and one of the older parts of town, it was a theme that almost half of the houses had either burned or flooded several times. We also did a couple around the French Quarter, it is a great way to get out and appreciate all the different architectural influences that can be found in the city. We really liked the different balconies and ironwork and the courtyards found in a lot of the buildings. We walked through the U.S. Mint and the Farmer's Market to find some souvenirs, successfully. And ended on Pirate's Alley which ironically is located right next to the Cathedral.

New Orleans Food

We ended up eating like kings down there. We had a couple places picked out from Restaurant.com to save some money, the Oceana Grill and Alpine Restaruant. We also checked out Fat Hen Grill which had a Womelette, a waffle with an omelette baked on top and into, which turned out to be a fabulously great breakfast. We also had dinner out at Commander's Palace, very good place and the service was high class and definitely five stars.

Dinner at Commander's, the best was getting seafood almost every meal.

This meal has been conquered.

A trip to New Orleans would not be complete without a trip or two to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets, aka French doughnuts.

We lucked into this place, a local favorite, we couldn't decide what we wanted for brunch and Becky remembered that Mother's had been recomended. It was awesome, the PoBoys are some the best, especially with some Debris on them. But to top off the meal we ordered a serving of bread pudding and it was some of the best ever. Definitely recomend checking this place out for some Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner.

The rain never stopped

After walking around a day and the rain not stopping the second day we came to accept that it wasn't leaving anytime soon, so onward we went not to be slowed down.

We walked up to the Superdome and the whole time I asked myself if I could've done this after Hurricane Katrina...my thoughts are I would have walked to Houston if I had stuck around, anyways it was interesting to try and place everything into what I remembered seeing on the news and then actually being there. We didn't see the ninth ward where they are still building but downtown and the French Quarter are very much looking like they should, only with a few empty buildings from businesses that couldn't come back and the economic downturn of recent.

We decided to go cheap and check out the college game instead of the NFL Saints game. Coincidentally Tulane was playing BYU that weekend so we were always surrounded by a bunch of Mormons, weird considering it was the Big Easy and even on Bourbon Street it was a version of drunk, drunk, Mormon.

Since we went with college we got great seats, the front row, however they really could have used some more body heat in here. We were soaked from the walk and they had the AC cranked for the Sunday crowd so it was about 60 degrees in there. Yes we cheered for both teams, which quickly turned into a route by the Cougars.

New Orleans

For our big trip this year we had to choose where to fly to use our Southwest flights that we had earned so we spun the globe and landed on New Orleans, yes it was almost that scientific. We both thought that it would be a fun place to go see and someplace that we wouldnt have to spend too much money, thank you free flights and priceline for a great deal at the JW Marriot

We checked out the Audubon Aquarium to stay out of the rain, of course that was paradoxical as we then entered an indoors rain forest that was dry while outside was drizzling.

I'm hiding from all of the scary fish and birds.

Photographic evidence that she at least got close, this was a lot more successful than the Stingray pool.

I wanted to touch the scorpion but instead I touched some stinky slimy bug.

Summer of Concerts

We got our rock on several times this Summer during several concerts. The first was Aerosmith/ZZ Top which we won tickets on KOMP. The next week Mike went to CrueFest to watch Godsmack and Motley Crue. Then the finale of the summer was Nickelback's Tour. One of the greatest things to do at a concert of course is to people watch and we are pros at that so it was a great time, even when Aerosmith took a whole hour to come out after ZZ Top.

My favorites were 1. Godsmack 2. Papa Roach 3. Drowning Pool 4. Nickelback 5. Aerosmith

More Sedona

The trail ahead.

Sedona is an interesting little vacation town, if you can picture the red rocks of Moab and the people of Park City you can easily figure out what Sedona is all about.

This church was really cool to go and see, it is built right out on the rocks and made pretty much out of concrete and glass jutting from the rocks. It was a cool spot to stop on the way out of town.

Sedona Trip

In July we had a fun trip to Sedona with some friends, thanks Angela and BJ, we stayed the weekend in a nice condo, went swimming a bunch, especially since it was about 105 degrees. One desert to another isn't too bad I guess. Besides relaxing, eating, shopping we did some four-wheeling in Angela's Toyota Avalon, not the best for off-road use, hiking, actual four-wheeling and some sight seeing. We didn't get into the whole paranormal activity or sweat lodges that the area is known for so we will have to go back sometime.

Becky and Angela on top of Devil's Bridge


From the bottom, staring at the sun


BJ, Angela, Becky, Mike (I'm in awe of driving the four-wheelers a maximum 20 MPH, so fast)

Since we were the most "advanced" riders we took up the rear of the tour, our tour guide read my mind and said I couldn't fall back and then speed to catch up, she kept a pretty good eye on us, fortunately there were a few blind corners to have some fun. Our excuse was that we were just keeping out of the dust. Notice how by this time I had mastered the "smile" to avoid eating too many bugs and dust. We became trail veterans in a short time at the back of the pack. We had a good time and were shown some cool backcountry by our tour guide, Arizona ATV Adventures.