Weekend in St. Francisville

This weekend, Beau and I packed up and headed off to St. Francisville, LA to meet up with his family (parents: Rose and Bob, brother and his girlfriend: Bobby and Madison, and his sister, Laurel (Jenkins Family Journey) and her family: husband, Phillips and daughter, Isabel) for a little weekend getaway. We went into this weekend expecting to have a lot of fun, laughs, and all around good times. We were not disappointed. We stayed at The Bluffs, a gorgeous lodge/resort in St. Francisville way, WAY off the main highway. In fact, I was SURE we were lost driving out there the first time. Once we arrived, I was shocked at how beautiful the lodge, club house, pool area, golf course, and the rest of the property was! Don't worry - we have more than enough picture to share!

As soon as we arrived Friday afternoon, we all met up at this amazing little restaurant in downtown St. Francisville called The Magnolia Cafe. Let's just say that this restaurant kick-started a DELICIOUS weekend in terms of food. Both the food and the service were wonderful, and I am truly surprised we were able to physically walk out after all the eating we did. Afterwards, we called it quits for the night as we all had a super early morning. Bob, Bobby and Phillips were up at the crack of dawn to enjoy 18 holes of golf, and Beau and I were up at 6:20 for our marathon training...6 miles! We both loved it though because the scenery was so beautiful - it's as if we forgot we were running. Okay, we're not that good. We were exhausted afterwards, but too bad! We had a busy day of antiquing ahead of us!

While the "men" were playing golf, Beau and I (along with Rose, Laurel, Madison, and Isabel) went shop to shop perusing the different antique stores for which St. Francisville is famous. This took up our whole morning, but we had a great time doing it! We all walked out with a few little trinkets, and by lunch time we were STARVING. After stopping to grab some pizza, the 6 of us headed back to the rooms in order for Isabel to nap, and the others to change into swim suits and go down to the pool! If you saw how red we all are, you'd know that we were there for QUITE a while - and obviously with no sun screen. Oh well, we needed some sun after all this rain in Baton Rouge! Anyway, that evening, we all ate at a restaurant called The OxBow. Everything was to die for but one thing in particular leaves us craving more: turtle soup!! Words cannot explain. So afterwards, we (again) barely made it out the restaurant, but somehow we managed. After arriving home, some of us stayed up and played Apples to Apples, sipped on wine, apple juice, and diet Sprite until we were so tired we all nearly passed out.

Sunday morning (and the last day of our trip) we all mosey out of bed, got packed and dressed, and drove away from our fantastic vacation destination en route to a coffee shop in downtown St. Francisville for some (much needed) pre-mass coffee. After mass (which was beautiful), we headed off to our last restaurant of the weekend. Since it was on the way out, we all met up at a waterfront restaurant in New Roads, LA and enjoyed poboys, fried seafood platters, and much, much more!

All in all, it was an AMAZING weekend. Family vacations so much fun for us because we're both blessed to come from such wonderful families. We love them ALL!!