SB XLVII - Part 1

Super Bowl XLVII was one to remember for lots of reasons - two brothers squared off as opposing head coaches for the first time ever, there was a 34 minute "black-out" during the game, and the Mardi Gras parades took a hiatus midway through for the NFL to invade NOLA.

From the minute you step off the plane, you know the Super Bowl is in town.  It amazes me how the city becomes transformed, but it's like that every year.  The league hotel was the Hilton just across the street from the Superdome.  In fact, the gym had a perfect view of the Superdome all lit up at night.

Where I spent the majority of my time in NOLA...

I touched down in NOLA the Friday of the week prior to the Super Bowl so when we weren't working (which was basically all day every day), we managed to see a bit of the town.  I'd been to NOLA a handful of times before for both work purposes and pleasure so I knew my way around and managed to hit all the hot spots...and even find a couple of new gems along the way!

The first night I was in town, I headed down to the Bourbon Street area with a few co-workers.  We ended up running into one of the parades along the way.  I thought this was really cool.  Definitely made me look forward to going back for Mardi Gras someday!!

Eventually, we made it to a spot called Irene's for a very late dinner.  Wow!!  What a restaurant!  Great service and absolutely delicious food.  We all loved it!  Everyone got the fish, and we devoured it.  The mashed sweet potatoes were perfect, too.

It was hopping, but we closed the place down at the end of the night.  Such a neat place!

Afterward, we headed over to Cafe du Monde for beignets before bedtime.  These suckers just might be my favorite thing about the city.  Even though they always seem to make a huge mess :)

Powdered Sugar Heaven!!

Later in the week, I ventured out to Mardi Gras World for the Media Party.  I had never been to this event before so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I should have expected pure awesomeness because that's what I discovered.  Not only was the venue great and spacious, but there were tons of booths with local foods and drinks.  Such an awesome way to try lots of great stuff!!

Dirty Jambalaya - definitely went back for seconds!!

 

Lobster Mac and Cheese - AMAZING!!

It was fun to look around at all the floats while tasting the delicious dishes.  They even had mini sweet potato pie cupcakes.  Yes, please!!

Another night, all NFL employees were invited to check out NFL House.  NFL House opened to the public well to do high paying customers the following night so we got to test it out.  It was a lot of fun, too.  Not near as spacious, but the local food served there was fabulous!!  I had more jambalaya, some spicy mac and cheese, and the best grits I've ever tasted!!

 

As you can see between the little bit of fun and whole lotta work, it was a busy week...and my guests hadn't even arrived yet!  More to come about the fun we had when they arrived later this week.  And, of course, the game itself!!  

Andrea :)