NOLA, Take 2 (and 3)

Up and at 'em, Expo Day 2. After a quick stop at the hotel's continental breakfast (which was actually quite tasty), we headed over to the expo. We decided the night before that the few block walk with our wheels, etc was way easier than trying to maneuver and find a place to park the rental car. We're there, we're set up, we're sort of rested, and we're ready for the day.

Expo Day 2 was even busier than Day 1. All those athlete's, which in this case was way more than half, that hadn't been to a course talk and packet pick up the day before were out in droves! It was going to be another long busy day.

Ashley talking product and workin' the booth.

We decided, in light of the long day at hand, to take a min-break during the day and found some delicious sushi across the street in the River Walk. Delicious. But the really highlight of the day??? My MACCA sighting! That's right Michael McCormick, there, in our booth. OMG!! I was like a star struck child!TERRIBLE picture of me, only post worthy because of MACCA. Please note, his hand is on MY shoulder! =D

And his sweet ride

So my celebrity sighting was near the end of the expo day, and before you knew it, Expo Day 2 was over. Our work day, however, was not. From the expo we headed over to bike check in to do a little market research and see how things were going there. We were at the transition area until almost 9, making it another 12hr work day.... By the time we made it back to the hotel we were both so exhausted in going out to find food was out of the question. To bed it was. We had high hopes of making over to Jackson Square for the finish line and spending the late morning/early afternoon there, but in our coma like sleep state we both managed to sleep undisturbed until noon!! Woah. Looks like the trials and travels of Thursdays 17+hr work day were more than we could handle.... :(

Once we were both up and functional we decided to head out for a run. Ashley had ambitious goals of 10m, I was looking more for 8'ish. What neither of realized before setting out is how hot and humid it actually was out! Here are 2 Midwestern gals use to running and training in the cold weather of a WI spring suddenly out and about in southern heat. Ick. I decided to cut my run way short and turned around at just past 2.5m. The lovely people at the Best Western of St Charles were nice enough not to notice me wandering in to their lobby all sweaty and using them for their water, which was my saving grace. All in all, I made it about 5.5m that day, while Ashley made it her full 10m!

Here's me in my post run coma laying on the pool deck outside. What you can't see is that my legs were in the pool. And this is where I stayed for the better part of an hour. :)

After running, relaxing and showering we were famished! We both recalled having run past a pub of sorts that looked mighty tasty and fun so that's where we headed. It was somewhere in the arts district and people were flocking there that Sunday for their craw fish boil. I was curious, but just couldn't convince myself to de-shell the lil guys to eat them. I don't the name of the restaurant, but that had great guacamole, delicious shrimp, and and awesome PINK pina colada-y drink. And that, my friends, pretty much sum on NOLA 09.

And that, my friends, pretty much sum on NOLA 09.