Shore house on the road.

Not Paris. Not even close. Just a Vegasified facsimile.

Hoo boy, have I been absent. A vacation from internet (!!!) and life was actually much appreciated. But note to family et al: If both of our mothers wind up in the hospital and our dog is attacked while we are out of town, it's OK to call and give us the heads-up. Really. It's OK.

As a result of vacation and aforementioned "fun, good times," blogging was about as important to me as, say, wisdom tooth extraction and toilet bowel cleaning (though not necessarily in that order). But here I am again, be that as it may. (You lucky dogs.)

I'm hoping to visit/catch up with all of you over the weekend. I'm off to a town-wide yard sale this morning in Avon, NJ, and I hit a boom-boom of a "second chance" garage sale at Black Eyed Susan's yesterday (more on that soon, but what better than a private yard sale and a meet-up another fabulous local blogger wrapped into one nifty package?). It made me happy to be home, and back among "my people."

I thought I'd share some pictures from our holiday, if nothing else to prove I wasn't a total hermit during my time off from Shore House Chic.

The Napoleon House in New Orleans is one of my Best Places to Stop for a Cocktail (especially a Pimm's Cup) for sure:

And if I could spend every day at the New Orleans Jazz Fest (as in, 365 days a year), I just might. Especially when folks like Pete Seeger show up. I mean, he turned 90 this past week! Pete, this land is your land.


Colorful entertainment...

And my favorite band, The Avett Brothers (with a young fan). A more talented, passionate, polite (yes; I said polite!) group of musicians you'll be hard pressed to find.



Then it was off to Vegas, where our room (OK, our second room -- after we asked to be switched from the one that looked out onto a cinder block wall and HVAC units) overlooked a familiar skyline, mountains, and utter neon-fueled chaos.

I liked downtown, where everything was old school...

And it was hard to obey this sign...


...when we went here:

'Cause I kind of wanted to touch everything...

We also got to take our first (and hopefully not last!) helicopter ride, over the Hoover Dam...

Then on to the Grand Canyon, which...just left me speechless:

A flight back over the Vegas Strip at sunset:

And the happy couple returns from an unforgettable American road trip.