I like to travel, obviously! Really who doesn’t? Somehow I keep returning to one beautiful and mysterious city, where the ghost stories are many and the food is to die for: New Orleans.

It all started three years ago, when I planned a girls weekend with my studio partner, niece and a good friend. We took turns driving in four hour sections and found our way to NOLA by morning. I instantly fell in love with the city and knew it would be some place I would return to regularly.

We spent our long weekend walking the french quarter, stuffing our faces with creole food and sipping on some pretty fantastic adult beverages! Leaving was bittersweet, but it was ok because I would find my way back.

When I was planning my own wedding last year I knew I wanted a real honeymoon. We already have kids and I just wanted to be able to take that week after saying I do and be with him, just him. Patrick had never been to New Orleans before and it was an ok distance to drive, so thats where we went.

Of course I found out shortly before we got married that I was already pregnant and would be about eight weeks along give or take during the honeymoon, but that was ok. I am a bit older now, drinking isn’t really how I have fun anymore, just relaxing and good company is more my style now.

Our last night in the city we spent it at a great little bar and restaurant Chartres House where we sat on the balcony, eating some amazing food (which luckily my little Miss Olivia let me eat without “morning sickness”) and listening to a street performing playing some Jazz. We walked along the edge of the water after and just took in the peace, it really was a perfect honeymoon with the perfect man and the perfect city.

My most recent journey to NOLA came much quicker then I expected when my studio partner Shelby, who helped me start this infatuation decided to get married there and asked me to photograph it. This past March Patrick and I flew to New Orleans (while super pregnant) to watch and document one of my most precious friends tie the knot with her favorite guy in my favorite city.

I loved being back and just like always I hated to leave. Someday I will return, it may not be as soon as I wish, but a part of me will always belong in New Orleans.