The Ragas Clan: Let the Good Times Roll!

From Thursday to Sunday we were in New Orleans for our friend Ryan's 30th Birthday. It was a great time but I really thought I would get more sleep not chasing Luke around...I was wrong!

The first night it was just Todd and I. We stayed on Bourbon Street and this was the view as we walked to dinner.

At Gumbo House for dinner. We actually ate in the courtyard and the weather was so nice!

On the way back from dinner we walked around the French Quarter. Right in front of St. Louis Cathedral all of the horses line up to give carriage rides. Well, apparently one could smell fear on Todd because it reached out and bit him on the arm. Here is the wound about 10 minutes later. You can see he required no stitches or shots...

A side street on the way to Cafe Du Monde! Yummy, yummy frozen cafe au laites and beignets!! That is the breakfast of champions.

On Friday afternoon we switched hotels to join the rest of the group. Funny to see Todd walking down Bourbon St. wheeling our luggage. Notice the giant puddle he is about to walk through. Surprisingly, we weren't the only people bringing luggage down the street. A few even had strollers full of liquor while the kids were walking.

MOTHERS! MOTHERS! Tommy and Julie at MOTHERS! I think the guys would have eaten every meal there. Delicious soft shell crab and Ferdi Specials...but Todd is going to get the Jambalaya next time, unless they let him go to the kitchen and make up his own sandwich which would include fried oysters, soft shell crab, ham...I told you we talked a lot about MOTHERS!!!

Ryan and Brandy at Mothers.

Julie making a friend at the Hand Grenade Bar.

Spirit finger contests. Ryan won both...I think the judges just knew it was his birthday.

I think Brandy called these the Melrose Place pictures. It took Todd and I a few minutes to find Ryan in the picture. Hint:he is wearing a black shirt but is not the guy with the hat in the background.

At Aunt Tiki's. We noticed Todd had his mouth open in nearly ALL of the pictures we took.

We ended up at Bourbon St. Blues Company and they had a great band called Oceans 13. I am willing to bet Brandy and Todd are singing one of Bon Jovi's hits in this picture.

Saturday at Pat O'Briens on the patio.

The table next to us had an interesting guy who kept insisting that some of us try on his masks. Here is Brandy's cat impression.

We stayed at the Hilton on Saint Charles and the restaurant was called none other than...

I had read online that our hotel had a rooftop deck. So we searched for it, found it after some time and enjoyed ourselves overlooking the city. Shortly after getting everyone coordinated enough to meet up, we were asked to leave because it is for special occasions only. Oh well, fun while it lasted.