Callin' Baton Rouge

Even though we had just spent the weekend in South Louisiana visiting my family, on a whim we decided to do it again the following one too (June 1st).  LSU was named as a host site for the first round of NCAA Baseball Championships, and Alex's alma mater, UNC-Wilmington, was selected as one of the four teams to play in the Baton Rouge regional.  Alex scrambled to snag two tickets (under covering, chair-backs, AWESOME seats!) for all UNCW games, and we peeled out of town early Friday afternoon for what shaped up to be another long weekend in the south.

As luck would have it, my brother held on to his Baton Rouge apartment for a few extra days, so Alex and I borrowed a second air mattress (ours is twin-sized) and camped out on the floor of the apartment for the weekend.  Austin had tickets to all the games through his LSU student ticketing program, which meant he spent the entire weekend at the park and we had quite a bit more wiggle room in our schedule.  Throw in monsoon-like rains, and we were primed for several nights of after-midnight baseball.  It was crazy/exciting/awesome.

Friday night, we ended up killing time with beer, food, and a visit from my friend Dawn at Walk-On's  (rated #1 Sports Bar in America - check it out!) near the stadium.  Our game didn't start until 9:15 p.m., and we were in it for the long haul!

Saturday, we met my birthday twin, Kim (college friend turned internship roommate who now lives in Boise, ID), and her husband and 18 month old daughter for lunch at Mellow Mushroom.  I hadn't seen the Peters Family since our wedding 2.5 years ago, and Alex had never really gotten to know them outside of the very first time he met them (in New Orleans exactly 1 year to the day before we were married).  I also enjoyed meeting little Eliana for the first time.

With rain on the horizon, Alex and I killed more time by walking around the Mall of Louisiana and resisting the urge to shop too hard.  We did come across these adorable Louisiana-themed tees at a little boutique.

This one is my favorite - I used to use the word "envie" in a sentence almost daily. :)

Anyway, baseball.  UNCW played very well.  They beat Tulane 10-1 at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, then lost to LSU 0-2 at 2:15 a.m. the following morning.  Sunday, we were primed for third day of midnight baseball but the NCAA pulled the game an hour before it started and after 10,000 LSU fans had sat through 2 hours of the second UNCW/Tulane game (which UNCW won 8-2).  On Monday, LSU pulled out another 2-0 win against UNCW, which ended our long weekend in the "Red Stick."

No, I didn't color my hair recently...not quite sure where the "goth" look comes from.

I had to be back in Baton Rouge for work on Tuesday/Wednesday, so we decided to drive the hour and a half to my parents' for a night instead of spending 3.5 hours in the car going back to Monroe, and returning again the following day. My daddy and Nanna had just finished peeling 100 pounds of fresh shrimp, so we were able to indulge in a special treat of FRESH fried shrimp for dinner that evening.  It was a lovely treat to be back in Cajun Country, even if for a short time.

...And if you haven't totally fallen in love with Louisiana by now, I might be worried about you.  ;)

-Lauren