From New Orleans to Austin

Yesterday we left New Orleans for Texas.  We spent our last night there walking around the city and eating numerous beignets.  It was a little sad.  We loved New Orleans so much, but we are excited to see new things!

Bourbon Street

YUM

Eric outside Preservation Hall

Our first stop was the Abita brewery, where they give free tours and free beer!  They started off the tour with beer, and finished with beer, so they really couldn't go wrong.  It was interesting to see how all the beer is made.  Their beers were okay, nothing amazing.  But, I'm not knocking free beer! My favorite was their "Purple Haze." It was nice and fruity. 

A couple of hours later, we hit the Tabasco factory.  As many of you know, I like it hot!  I put either Tabasco or Frank's Red Hot on nearly everything.  Recently, Eric has even become a hot sauce convert--maybe it's all this hot weather. The tour was pretty simple, basically just a movie about the history of the company and a huge Tabasco store.  Again, it was free, so I certainly can't complain.  Plus, there were lots of free samples :)

We love Tabasco!

After Tabasco (yum!) we made out way to the coast.  We drove along the coast for a couple of hours until we hit Texas.  I have never seen so many shells on a beach!  Most of the shells were unbroken, too, which is rare in NJ. The beaches were beautiful but, again, the number of oil rigs kind of ruined it.  In places, the enormous rigs were even placed on marsh land.  There was also trash all over the beach.  We weren't sure if the trash was a remnant of a hurricane, or if the people there just don't care about the beach.  It was weird. 

Today, we got to Austin and hung out by the pool for  a while, because what else can you do when it's 98 degrees out?  Tonight, we're going out to (hopefully) check out some music.  I'll let you know how Austin is!