Goodbye New Orleans

So, even I am sick of the New Orleans posts, so I assure you this is it. But I can't leave the story unfinished, for posterity sake.

Our last day in New Orleans was really only a morning. We had time to eat two more meals and get in a couple tourist sites.

I hate to admit we failed miserably at breakfast. I think our stomachs were just plain mad at this point and nothing sounded good. We wandered the French Quarter until we finally gave in and just grabbed coffee and oatmeal at PJ's Cafe, which is a local chain (oxymoron I know). I hate eating at chains in a new city, but our wallets and our appetites needed a break.

Then we headed to the open market. It was a miniature flea market, with crap you can haggle over. I haggled for a brown leather cross body purse, that I have been eyeing. It started at $35, I obtained it for $20. I should of pushed for $15, but I was hot and it was crowded.

 We then noticed a line forming at Central Grocery. Which just happens to make the original muffuletta. A ridiculous sandwhich. Like awful for you. A traditional muffuletta consists of one muffuletta loaf, split horizontally. The loaf is then covered with a marinated olive salad, then layers of capicola, salami, pepperoni, emmentaler, ham and provolone. It. Was. Awesome. 

Matt and I split a half of one (1/4 each for you math whizzes out there). And we were so full we could barely walk. I have no idea who could eat a whole one. The little Italian restaurant by our house makes them and I am tempted to get another to compare, but I can hardly justify eating like that ever again, especially not in my own living room.

We ate our sandwich in Jackson Square and caught a little more of the flipper show from the day before. We also got a glimpse of this guy. Can you spy a stilt walker?

Ane found a nice man to snap the only picture of the two of us in NOLA.

Our final adventure was back in City Park. I loved it so much on our tour, I really wanted to pass through one more time before we hit the road. We toyed with the idea of going to the Art museum, but realized we only hand an hour and didn't want to run through the exhibits. Next time.

In the park, my main goal was finding the elusive black swan our guide had mentioned. I did find him, but in my attempt to get close enough to get a picture, his cousin the white swan almost took me out.

So that was our trip. I think we packed a lot into 2 days. We want to thank my mom for the amazing Christmas present, and the childcare. Where should we go next? DC? New York? Toronto?

The SA-ZAR-SA-RAC

For our final evening in the Big Easy we wanted to eat as much as possible. So as soon as we got off our tour bus, we went to Stanley's. If you live in Memphis you may have eaten at Stella's (which may be closed now?). This is the same owner?chef? restauranteur? whatever you would call it... We didn't want a full dinner, so that we could eat again (first world problems, I know) so we split an entree of po'boy sampler. There was an oyster, Korean BBQ, and club. And that is the order of tastiness. They also had the local beer, Abita, in the strawberry variety. MMMM.

From there we headed to Cafe Du Monde for tasty, famous beignets. They were very, very tasty!

Then we hit up the hotel to freshen up and prepare for second supper. Our dinner reservations weren't until 9pm, so we would be slightly hungry again, so we decided to grab a drink while waiting. A friend had told us the famous New Orleans Sazerac, the oldest cocktail in America, was created at the Roosevelt Hotel, only three blocks away! So we hit the lobby bar.

A nice bartender quickly concocted the Sazerac, which I let Matt order for us because I still can not actually pronounce what I drank.

I was a little peeved though, because the bartender handed us our drinks and quickly fled. He was very obviously not interested in telling the historic story, for the 800th time. Luckily another bartender came by that obliged me, we tipped him. Even though it really wasn't much of a story. Just that dr.'s used to prescribe one of the ingredients for digestion trouble and then someone mixed it with whiskey. The end. 

We finished our drinks and headed to Palace Cafe on Canal St. On the walk I saw this church and just loved it.

So at Palace Cafe, you can add crab meat to any order. ANY ORDER. Just letting you know. Since it was our fourth meal of the day (Court of two sisters, Stanley's, Cafe Du Monde, Palace Cafe) and even scarier, our eighth meal in under 30 hours, we decided to split an appetizer of crawfish and goat cheese. Don't worry though, we had our own entree's, we're not crazy. I had some kind of wonderful ravioli crab thing for my entree and Matt had a pork dish. And then we split the most amazing Creme Brulee' ever for dessert. Sorry no pictures, totally forgot. Apparently after a sazerac your brain doesn't process as quickly....so weird?

After an amazing day fully immersed in the New Orleans culture, we finally walked back to our hotel (luckily right next door) and crashed.

Final day= City Grocery and City Park

And that's where Nicholas Cage lived.....

When Matt and I travel, we like to pick up little tidbits about cities that you wouldn't know unless you had been there. Tour guides, whether downloaded, podcasted or in person are helpful to accomplish this task. In New Orleans we found a bus tour. It was a two hour (or was supposed to be a 2 hour) tour that would show us the French Quarter, a traditional cemetery, City Park, the Garden district Magazine street, the Warehouse district, and some of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina ( can you see why it really turned into 3 1/2). Along the way the guide was to impart witty repartee and historical facts that impressed us. Worth $49? Sure!

So we arrived at the designated spot at 2:30 as instructed and waited. While waiting we scoped out the people we would be trapped, stuck, riding along with on our tour. They were normal enough (duh duh duhhhhh)

Also while we were waiting we chatted with a lighting coordinator from the movie "Now You See Me" which was being filmed in New Orleans that week. We saw several crews working on our trip around town. Apparently New Orleans offers a 30% tax rate on the film industry as opposed to a 10% in Low Angeles, so it makes more sense and money to shoot there. The incentive must be working because our guide said more movies were filmed in NOLA than LA this year.

Anyway back to the bus. We climbed aboard just in time, because as we got situated, the rain moved in. 

First we toured the French Quarter, and while passing Jackson Square we got to see a little of an acrobatic routine. I didn't catch the guy in action, but the one in the green bandanna had just flipped over (lengthwise) that line of people!

From there we saw homes that were 300 years old and learned the differences/reasons for Creole and Cajun culture. But the best part was the lady behind us that would NOT stop talking. She was a hot mess. She was having the best time. She could care less about the difference between a balcony and a gallery or how slave owners bought townhouses for the mistresses. But when our guide said "And there's Brad and Angelina's house" OOOOWEEEE, she got so excited. In fact that is the only time the people on our buses ooooed and awwwed, when they past a movie set or saw a "famous" person's home.

I mean you are looking at a monastery that survived a fire because it magically started raining the minute it was at their doorstep, but you only get our your camera when we pass Nicholas Cage's house, that is being foreclosed?!?!?!

Then we passed Louis Armstrong park, where Jazz music was literally invented....crickets....but the guide mentioned Lion King was coming to the theatre there and  Lord, "Oh! Lion King, that is an amazing show...oh we need to get tickets.....is it here this week?" 

It didn't hinder my enjoyment in any way, Matt and I just joined in to make it fun for us. Every time the guide pointed out something historically cool, as in Degas' house we would whisper "I wonder if Brad Pitt's been there?" Or when we saw the Creole mansions we would say "I think that's where Double Jeopardy was filmed!" Hehehe.

Here are a few cool things we really enjoyed on the tour.

The Cemetery. The big tombs are family owned and hold all the members of your family. There is a long explanation of how they can do that, you can google it. But that is the reason you see several names outside one tomb. The wall around the cemetery had tombs for the poorer citizens of NOLA, they could be used again and again as well, the only difference is they push the previous "owners" remains to the back when they need to put a fresh friend in, instead of stacking them on top of each other.

This sign was under the wall section, just thought I'd let y'all know....

Next we went to City Park. I didn't even know this place existed! It was gorgeous. In fact we went back on our own the next day because the 10 min stop was no where near enough. It had amazing Oak trees with the infamous spanish moss and resurrection ferns everywhere. Plus lakes, swans, statue gardens and an Art museum. The pictures do not do it justice at all....

This was about 15-20 ft tall and called "Karma" so cool!

 Can you tell those are violins!

 This was called, "No Escape" and was dedicated to Katrina Victims.

 Oak trees.

After all that beauty, we headed to the 9th ward and saw so much blight and destruction. It was very hard to look at and imagine what these people endured in 2005. 

There is some rebuilding going on, including a musicians village funded by Wynton Marsalis, to bring back local musicians. And the famous "Brad Pitt" homes which are "green." Meaning their utilities bill is about $18 a month! Here are some shots of the good and bad. The pictures are rough because a. we were moving b. it was raining and c. it's a phone camera. Sorry, yo.

House that is mostly washed away.

House in Musician's Village. They were told to pick bright colors, but they all selected their own.

More musician's village..

A memorial that displays the water levels the floods reached throughout NOLA. (blue columns)

Green (Pitt) homes, super funky looking...some in a good way...some eh?

And then....Archie and Olivia Manning's (Peyton and Eli's parents) house! OHHHHHHHH!  ( In the Garden District, not the lower 9th)

There was obviously so so so much more. Those were just the things I got shots of and remember.

I highly recommend going on city tour in a new town. In Charleston, SC I did a carriage tour that was fascinating....in Chicago a river/architecture tour...NOLA it was a bus. But as hokey as it sounds, you really learn so much. Especially when you only have a few days to take in a whole city, it's the best way to get a lot in.

 Tomorrow.....how to eat 8 meals in a day AND drink at the Roosevelt!

New Orleans Part Deux

Monday morning we had reservations for a Jazz brunch at The Court of Two Sisters. It was a buffet, or should I say buffets... There was so much food I seriously wish I could have been more hungry (I almost wished I hadn't eaten that white chocolate bread pudding the night before, but then I remembered how tasty it was...). Seriously, so so good. Anything you could wish to try in New Orleans was on this buffet AND it was so yummy.

My favorites were the eggs benedict, grits, homemade biscuits and the coconut cake (stop judging me). The fresh mimosas were a nice touch too!

After we had eaten ourselves silly, we headed over to the World War II museum on Magazine St. The 11 block walk, in the perfect weather, was just what I needed after such a great meal. 

On the way I saw this very modern skyscraper that seemed to be swallowing the old fashioned building below it, and just had to get a picture. I have no idea what either building is, it just looked crazy to me.

The museum was fantastic. It was highly recommended on all travel sites, the concierge and trip advisor. But, to be honest, we were wary. Matt and I didn't want to get into something too heavy on "vacation." But we both love history, and museums, and learning ( I know I hate us too) so we went for it.

So good! It really focused on D-day, in particular, and I learned so much. Like I said, I love history, and WWII is just too big to ever understand fully, so it was great to focus on the pivotal battle and really take it all in. The exhibits were very interactive and so easy to learn from. In other words, you weren't just reading information blurbs by a statue. It really connected the dots on how each country got involved and how/why we entered the war.

The horrors of war can be so easily ignored by my generation, but even so the museum didn't really make you feel guilty or overly sad. It actually made me feel very proud of our country and again so thankful of the service men and women. 

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the actual museum. But in the lobby there were several modes of war transportation to explore. Even a 60+yr old plane (2nd pic) that someone actually flew to New Orleans last year and then donated to the museum. I found that fascinating.

After the museum we hoofed back to the French Quarter to catch our city tour bus! 

Tune in tomorrow to hear more on our New Orleans adventures and how white people are obsessed with Nicholas Cage...

The Big Easy Part 1

So Matt and I headed out Sunday morning to explore and discover New Orleans, LA.

Both of us are big planners so it was really funny that by about Grenada, MS we realized neither of us had researched at all, and we had no clue what we were going to do for 3 days besides eat.

That is how crazy the past 3 or so weeks has been. We had a beautiful, historical city before us and no idea where to start. So if that's how these next few posts are...sorry.

We rolled into NOLA at about 4:30 Sunday evening, checked into our hotel, changed, and set out for dinner. We had skipped lunch in preparation. We really like to eat, it's the highlight of most of our travels. We literally walked out of hotel and followed the crowd, in about 2 blocks we found Bourbon St.

Um, it's um, Bourbon St. We lasted about 6 blocks and cut over to find real food and landed at Cafe Maspero.

We were sent there (and most of the places we ate) by one of Matt's coworkers who is from New Orleans. Since it was only first supper we just got poboys, me a roast beef, Matt a fried oyster. The roast beef was amazing, so different than anything we do in Memphis. But the oyster won hands down. Crazy good.

Street jug band

From their we explored more of the French Quarter. Mainly getting our bearings and making an actual plan for the following day, we can only be spontaneous for so long. Here are a few shots of things we found.

Cafe Du Monde

Creepy portrait of little girls

Mississippi River walk

Loved this

And finally we ended up at a palm reader. There were a ton of street performers, tarot card readers, magicians and musicians throughout the French Quarter. And having my fortune read has always been a temptation of mine. So after walking past them all night I finally decided we had to try something ridiculous in New Orleans, and it wasn't going to be anything else the people were offering so....here we go.

As soon as the lady looked at my palm she shook her head and said huffed " I have no idea where to start" That was perfect for so many reasons, mainly because that is what Matt has said for years, because my hands are so crazy wrinkled. So the fact that it was the first thing out of her mouth was priceless.

In the end she talked a lot about change, she said I had so many stars on my hand because I kept changing paths and I was too stubborn to stay still for long. She also predicted twins....so there's that.

It was fun, but in the end it proved it was such a sham. Everything she said was super vague and you could make it apply to anything you wanted (except the twin thing...)


We ended headed back to the hotel and got ready for bed when we realized we never had second supper! We promptly ordered a shrimp BLT and white chocolate bread pudding from room service.

We split it, so that made it allright for us.

Day one done. 

Headed to New Orleans

Glorious Spring break is almost here!! This year Matt and I are headed to the infamous New Orleans.

I have been before, but just barely. I went to Mardi Gras when I was a freshman in college and college kids are not known for their touristing skills. So I didn't see much. My friend went to Loyola at the time so we mostly slept all day and stayed up all night studying, yeah studying. College is hard.

Matt has never been at all. 

So we are both very excited to visit this historical city and eat ourselves silly. We have already received some recommendations, but I want to hear more. So let's have it, have you been? What did you like? Where did you go?